Posts:
4
Registered:
Feb 17, 2008
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 17, 2008 7:53 AM
in response to: Robert Stern
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I'm glad to have found this topic, I'm having the exact same problem with USB transfer speeds suddenly dropping to an extreme low. This is very frustrating especially when I'm working in Final Cut, all of my video starts to stutter horribly.
I've found that simply unplugging and restarting the external USB drive helps but only temporarily. It doesn't take long until it's back in the low speed USB Bus again.
Mac Mini Intel Core Duo
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
5
From:
London
Registered:
Dec 2, 2007
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 20, 2008 4:30 AM
in response to: zukan
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It really does seem the last update (feb) sorted it.
Has anyone still got the issue?
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
Mac mini 2Ghz
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Posts:
3
From:
Frankfurt, Germany
Registered:
Feb 24, 2008
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 23, 2008 10:35 PM
in response to: billytkid
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I have it since the 10.5.2 update. WD Mybook drive, USB card reader, Canon 350D, all unbelievably slow on the USB port. A reboot and PRAM reset fixes it temporarily.
Macbook
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
6
From:
Leominster, MA
Registered:
Feb 26, 2008
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 26, 2008 1:43 PM
in response to: Robert Stern
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Great to see other people with this issue.
I am also using a Seagate FreeAgent Pro 320 GB external drive, and I am getting the slow USB problem as well.
One big note: I am not just getting slow speeds on that drive alone, but on everything USB including my iPhone.
A PRAM reset helps for a little while, and then it goes back to very slow speeds, tested using AJA KONA with speeds as low as 0.4 MB/s.
It is a pain in the neck to have to keep rebooting to have the issue fixed for just a little while, if at all.
Any help would be great! I will keep looking here and post any help I find.
Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, G4 Powerbook
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
3
From:
Assen, Netherlands
Registered:
Dec 25, 2007
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 27, 2008 4:32 AM
in response to: Robert Stern
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From what I've heard, some external drives use some power saving mode that doesn't play nice with USB. Or rather, since the USB bus thinks it has lost the drive, it'll remount it in "slow-mode". This came up in some slashdot topic about the Seagate drives combined with Linux, but I suppose MacOS X could be prone to the same problem.
I've had a USB drive once, and that was slow as molasses, too. I prefer firewire drives for that very reason.
G4 mini (1.25GHz)
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
29
Registered:
Mar 28, 2006
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 28, 2008 10:18 AM
in response to: Robert Stern
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*Note that this pertains specifically to Seagate FreeAgent drives, but the problem may be similar on other manufacturers' drives. Check with your manufacturer to see if there is any way to disable power management or "sleep" on your external drive.
After struggling with this for quite some time on my FreeAgent 500GB USB drive, I've found that the fix for this is to set the drive's sleep timer to "never." When the drive puts itself to sleep, it consistently wakes back up attached to the Mac's low-speed USB 1.1 bus (not the high-speed 2.0 bus, where it should attach).
Unfortunately, and IMO altogether ridiculously, the Mac version of their FreeAgent Drive Manager software doesn't allow you to change that setting.
The only way to permanently fix this issue is to hook the drive up to a Windows PC (or drop into XP bootcamp, if it's installed on your Mac), download and install the Seagate FreeAgent Desktop software for XP, and use its Drive Manager utility to set the power management sleep timer to "never."
Note that the drive will be recognized in XP, but it'll come up as "UNKNOWN" if you've Mac-formatted the drive. This doesn't matter. The power management part of the utility is just changing settings for the enclosure, not for the actual drive itself.
Hope this info helps.
MacBook Pro 2.16GHz, Intel iMac 17"
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
6
From:
Leominster, MA
Registered:
Feb 26, 2008
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 28, 2008 10:21 AM
in response to: Suhr
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Hey Suhr,
Thanks a lot for this input. I will try it after my drive is finished a 24 MB Time Machine backup - which will probably be in about a half hour :/
Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, G4 Powerbook
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
29
Registered:
Mar 28, 2006
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 28, 2008 10:24 AM
in response to: Chris Lackey
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No problem. Let me know if you have any luck.
MacBook Pro 2.16GHz, Intel iMac 17"
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
6
From:
Leominster, MA
Registered:
Feb 26, 2008
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Feb 28, 2008 10:48 AM
in response to: Suhr
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OK, used boot camp to get the software, installed no problem, did a PRAM reset, and now things are running smoothly.
Hopefully this time it will stick!
Thanks again Suhr.
Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, G4 Powerbook
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
4
Registered:
Feb 17, 2008
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
Mar 22, 2008 5:53 AM
in response to: Suhr
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Suhr thank you for posting this, I used bootcamp to configure the drive to never sleep. It seemed to work for a very long time, however this morning when I turned on the computer I noticed that the drive had been set to use the slow USB port again... I'm not sure what could've caused this, I will look deeper into the matter and post my findings.
Is this fix still working for you?
Mac Mini Intel Core Duo
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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Posts:
4
From:
Atlanta, GA
Registered:
May 18, 2008
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Re: External USB drives slow
Posted:
May 18, 2008 9:16 PM
in response to: Chris Lackey
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Just ran in to this myself this weekend...yuck. No USB device worked correctly on the high speed USB bus...iPhone, printer, hard drives, video camera, NOTHING; the other USB bus ("slow" one?) worked fine. I tried a bunch of stuff, repartitioning, changing USB ports, swapping hubs, etc.; none if it worked.
What finally DID work was following the directions in this article....
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303446
basically, unplug it from power and all peripherals for about half a minute....
Intel iMac 24" 2.16GHz
Mac OS X (10.5.2)
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