MacBook Pro USB port problem...

I have noticed this as well. I have the new 17" hi-res MBP and have noticed that I can only connect my Lacie 160GB Mobile drive to the right side USB Port as it is the only one with enough power.

Does this not seem strange? I paid $3,600.00 for this baby and I would have thought these things should not be happening. My $1,000 Toshiba did not have this problem.

I am not picking on Apple, but, come on guys, you charge a premium for your machines, they should be thoroughly tested.

Add one more to the list.

I tried plugging my USB 2.0 external drive in the left-hand port and it just makes under-voltage clicking sounds. Plug it in the right port, it's A-okay.

Grrrrr.

To be fair, the USB 2.0 spec ( http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/usb20071607.zip) states that the ports are supposed to provide a nominal 4.75-5.25V at up to 500mA current, with an initial draw of only 100mA by any USB device. So, Apple is adhering to the spec. The fact that some (cheaper) notebooks provide more power on a USB2.0 port is not the fault of Apple, but rather a deviation of that manufacturer to exceed the USB2.0 spec.

No USB device is supposed to draw more than 500mA MAX (under any condition, including a current surge on power-up). So, in effect, the manufacturers of these external "bus-powered" drives are creating false hopes by marketing something that does not, in fact, work within the USB2.0 spec (and then labeling the package as "USB2.0 compliant") -- thus the reason for most of them providing the dual-ended USB cables that take two ports to power the drive (up to 1000mA). The fact that most of these 2.5" drives themselves use up to 650mA (per the manufacturer's websites) means that they logically should not work in a USB2.0 environment! And, then the external drive manufacturers blame the notebook makers for having "under-powered ports".

Now, if there is a flaw in the Apple implementation of USB on the MacBook Pro, that's one thing; but, I'd lay a lot of the blame on the external drive makers. I'd love to get some actual measurements from people's systems using a voltmeter/ammeter, to see if Apple is fitting within the spec (as stated under System Profiler).

The issue of my iPod not always mounting lies squarely in Apple's camp -- either the USB2.0 connection on the iPod is faulty (by requiring too much current/voltage) or the USB2.0 connection on the MBP's left-hand side is faulty (by not supplying the stated current/voltage).

I just noticed this same issue on my brand new MBP, much to my dismay. If you ever read instruction manuals on USB devices that can be bus-powered, they are always specifying that you should connect the device to a powered USB port. It seems to me like either the right is "powered" and the left is not or there is a logic board problem going on here. As far as I'm concerned right now, the left USB port is useless. I will see what Apple has to say tomorrow or Monday.

Since on an imac, the ports in the back are powered, and the ones on the keyboard are not, wouldn't it stand to reason that a similar situation exists with the laptops? Right is powered, left is not? Just thinking.

That said, to test I just tried my little non powered usb travel drive on left and right side. with battery power and then with power adapter. It worked both sides, both ways.

I took it to my imac and it would not work off the keyboard usb, but works with all usb slots in the back.

So much for that theory.
sj

I just had a conversation with the Apple complimentary phone service, and the guy said that there should be no difference between the left and right ports. So, if you're seeing this issue, go to your local Apple Authorized Service Center/Apple Retail Store soon with the problem. He asked me to have them check it out.

It sounds to me like several persons are experiencing this problem. I had the same problem with my MacBook, though they most certainly do not share the same logic board.

The corresponding system.log messages include the following:


Sep 15 17:16:11 hostname kernel[0]: USBF: 311.829 AppleUSBEHCI[0x407a800]::Found a transaction past the completion deadline on bus 250, timing out!
Sep 15 17:16:22 hostname kernel[0]: USBF: 322.830 AppleUSBEHCI[0x407a800]::Found a transaction past the completion deadline on bus 250, timing out!
Sep 15 17:16:34 hostname kernel[0]: USBF: 334.831 AppleUSBEHCI[0x407a800]::Found a transaction past the completion deadline on bus 250, timing out!
Sep 15 17:16:45 hostname kernel[0]: USBF: 345.832 AppleUSBEHCI[0x407a800]::Found a transaction past the completion deadline on bus 250, timing out!

when just keeping the bus powered device connected. Also I saw this:


Sep 14 23:39:07 hostname kernel[0]: USBF: 10820.638 [0x408c800] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 2 of hub @ location: 0xfa000000)
Sep 14 23:39:07 hostname kernel[0]: USBF: 10820.638 [0x408c800] The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.

which I suspect is a related error.

It's weird that it is the right which seems to work best. I have an MBox sound interface and the manafacturers state that it will only work properly on the left port and that this due to the internal design of the MBP. It is by the way a bus powered device.

I think it has been taken as fact for a while that the ports are different. I can only speak for both the original MBP and the 2.33.

Is it possible that this port issue could cause terrible noise on audio recordings? I have a podcast that I have been running for several years will my trusty PowerBook G4. I got a new MacBook and suddenly I am having intermitent serious and debilitating noice on recordings through the mixer. I have poked around and found that some microphone manufactures are reporting USB problems with MacBook pros. I have not tried the right port. Maybe that will be a work around. Something seems to be amiss.

I don't think it is possible. But what do you mean by 'terrible noise'?

It is severe static interference which makes the recording unusable.

For what it is worth, I grabbed a reservation at the local Apple store and bellied up to the Genius Bar last night.

To recap my issue, much like the thread originator, I serendipitously discovered that my USB 2.0 pocket drive (enclosure from OWC, drive from Apple) which had been working fine in the right-hand USB port did not work in the left-hand USB port. This is on a 2 month old MBP.

At the Apple store, we tried my pocket drive on about 8 MBP's in the store, and they all did the same thing. This is where things get interesting.

Apple's response is, "The USB 2.0 standard only specifies a range of voltages. It's possible that the left port provides less power than the right port, even though both are within the standard's range, your drive requires power at the high-end of the specification, and therefore won't work in the left port." (this was echoed by a posting above)

My response is, "Why aren't both ports the same?" I am not going to hop on an Apple-bashing bandwagon, but I do have very high expectations for my Apple hardware, and this frankly floors me. One of the reasons I finally retired my trustworthy Titanium G4 Powerbook was to finally gain USB 2.0 flexibility -- and now with only 2 ports available, I expected to having both fully functional.

This reminds me of an old management proverb: People want consistency. If you're consistently late or consistently early, people can deal with that -- but if you're unpredictable, no one will tolerate it. The fact that the two ports behave differently is what I believe most people are taking exception to in this case.

As I also experienced periodic USB flash-drive flakiness with the left-hand port yesterday while monitoring the system.log file, I had the guy at Apple open a service case for me. I think it's pointless to part ways with my MBP for a logic board swap-out, since all other machines in the store are behaving the same way. Hopefully at some point in the near future there will be a logic board or update to resolve this issue, and I will invoke my warranty/applecare at that time.

Bummer.

Well that's quite interesting, thanks for the update. I happen to have a logic board coming right now, and I do not expect it to alleviate the situation at all. Makes me wonder whether or not it's worth the "cost" (not financial) for the surgery.

I've since tested 4 different MacBook Pros of all different gens (Core Duo, Core 2s, most recent update, etc.), and they all showed the exact same issue with this drive.

Turns out I think I came to the same conclusion as you did. I looked up the specs of the drive on WD's site, and interestingly, it took some doing to find that they require a minimum of 650 mA current to power the drive. The USB spec for each port should be minimum 500 mA, though I'm not sure what the max is. It still does not explain why the left port would not power the drive when the right port does, which was your question precisely.

Finally, the left side I/O board is controlling power to the LCD, the left USB port, the power circuit, and ExpressCard slot. I assume that the right board is controlling everything else, though I don't know where the keyboard and trackpad (both USB devices) are being powered. This is important because I wonder if some devices (like the LCD) are sufficiently drawing too much current from the USB port. This would be a design flaw, I guess.

The reason I'm interested in this is two fold. Having multiple devices connected simultaneously is obviously something that I should be able to do. Even two USB hard drives, one in each side. Additionally, I really don't want to replace my logic board if it's not going to fix the problem. I highly suspect that the new board will exhibit the exact same problems.

It's interesting to find this thread. I've been having issues with my USB ports since day one and to be honest mac support have been useless.

I brought my top of the range MBP just over two weeks ago after my windows laptop died. At this time I had two 2.5" hard drive Caddies on plugging them in I got nothing. I tried all three ports (2 on left 1 on right (as you look at the screen) ) using the usb data and the usb power cables didn't get anything either. So I took the MBP into the local store and asked for some help. They repeated the steps I took and then suggested I buy a new caddy. As I needed the data I figured ok I'll buy a new caddy so I went out and brought a new one. It works. Wicked. No idea why my original two don't work but at least I can get to my data now.

I've had a quick look round for USB solutions and saw some info on the developer tool "USB Prober" but to be honest I'm not sure on how to interpret the data it gives.

So its a couple of weeks later and I finally managed to find the time to go out and take some photos. I get home and plug my USB Card reader in. Nothing. Try all 3 ports again and nothing works. So I walk out to the shops and buy another USB card reader get it home and nothing doesn't work. *** is going on! So I go online and book myself a genius and head into central London for my 2040 appointment.

I get to the store and I'm told to take a seat and someone will be with me shortly. Well my genius turns up, doesn't introduce himself and says "Lets see if we can get this sorted in 10mins'... (Not a good start in my opinion. I don't care what time it is or when you're meant to be going home you're their to provide genius support.) So I explain the issue and present him with my 3 caddies (1 works) and my 2 non-working card readers. After plugging in one of the drives and one of the card readers he says "Well these are third party products there's not much we can do". I explain that they all say they are mac compatible so how am i meant to buy a product if they say they're compatible but turn out not to be. I suggest we try them in another MBP to see if they work. He grabs one and plugs the hard drive in. It doesn't work. So I concede I need to really bug the manufactrer about it, but can we still try the card reader. That works in the stores MBP. So I'm like "aha! now can we figure out why its not working" at this point he suggests I go online and search for info from other users who may have the same issue. This is not why I brought applecare. To schlep all across london to be told to just search the internet. I tell him this and he goes off to talk to a colleague. The colleague suggests they boot from their copy of OSX and see if it works. They do this and the card reader works. So I'm even more confused. I ask if there's any trouble shooting they can do. Ask about USB Prober and neither of them know what that is. They suggest that I do an archive and install and see if that fixes any problems. This (to me) is not a solution. I want to know what is wrong with the ports not just randomly try fixes... I tell them this and I'm basically told its their time to finish and their solution is the archive and install. Thats it.

So not in a good mood for my wasted time I head downstairs and pick up the only card reader in the store, I explain to the guy at the till (who was helpful) that I'd like to try it as soon as I buy it. If it works I'll take it if not i'd want a refund straight away. He's cool and opens up the card reader. We plug it in and yup you guessed it it works.

So I depart, not happy but at least I have a reader that works.

So get home use the card reader everything is fine.

This morning I randomly try my original card reader... and guess what it works. in every port. What the ?*&! is going on. Neither of my original two caddies work but now I own 3 working card readers. (i'm gonna take two back but eugh! how annoying)

I'm no closer to knowing why the usb ports are acting up, and seemingly working at random and getting no help from the genius bar is just infuriating.

Is it too much to expect that the people working at the bar know a little bit of troubleshooting and don't just go "oh doesn't work. Try a reinstall of your OS". If I as an end user can find the USB Prober software surely these guys should at least know of it let alone be able to use it to try and decode any issues.

As you can tell I'm not a happy camper at the moment and this experience is putting apple in a very bad light.

If anyone has got any ideas/suggestions on what I could do to trouble shoot this myself or get someone at apple care to actually provide some useful support I'd be very grateful.


Thanks for letting me rant.

David.

That is unfortunate. To be fair, I've never received that kind of treatment at the Genius Bars here in Texas -- they've always been more than helpful. Sounds like you got a couple of bums. I know that the Archive and Install solution is frequently mentioned, and it has to do with system configurations getting corrupted and such (I believe). Another frequent solution is to create a new user account and try it. If it works, your preference files could be corrupt on your first account.

That aside, you've got a very strange problem here. I would tend to lean more on the side that the manufacturer of the accessories is at fault. A card reader doesn't draw much electrically at all, so it doesn't seem to be an issue with the ports but rather the reader initializing. I understand that it would appear that one port on the Apple Computer works better than others; but, I think the real issue is that these 3rd party manufacturers are assuming laptops will be "above" the USB2.0 spec, electrically. I'd still love to see someone with a multimeter test the ports to see if they are indeed "lower" than the spec; I'd guess that they are providing the 5V at 500mA but that the 3rd party products are requiring more. See the example post above about the external hard drive that requires up to 650mA. That's way out of spec (150mA - or nearly 30% - over), but they still label their product as "Mac compatible" and "USB2.0 compatible".

You might also just try getting a powered USB hub. Plug the hub into the MacBook, and then plug your accessories into that. See if they work then.

David

MacFixIt has a good tutorial on troubleshooting devices.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070226082505461

One thing that is simple to try is to clear the caches as noted halfway down the page.

"Deleting kernel extension caches Kernel extensions store frequently accessed data in cache files. These caches have the potential for corruption, and as such can cause issues with device interaction.

Fortunately, clearing these caches is a relatively painless process with little propensity for consequence. Try the "deep" or "extended" cache deletion routines offered by tools like Cocktail, Mac Pilot or Tiger Cache Cleaner, or manually delete the following files:

* /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
* /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches"