MacBook Pro USB port problem...

Thanks for the replies guys. I've contacted the HD caddy manufacturers again to try and get some more info.

I'll go through the tutorial and see if that makes a difference. At this time I'm just scared that at a time of need the card reader is going to stop working again cos at the moment i can see no rhyme or reason why it suddenly started working.

I find interesting that people are having trouble with the LEFT side port.
I use a number of devices on my USB ports, including Digidesign audio products. This from Digi:
"Compatibility Alert
Use of Mbox, Mbox 2, Mbox 2 Mini, or Other USB Audio Devices on the Right-Hand USB Port Is Not Recommended
The 15" MacBook Pro models have 1 USB port on the left side, and one USB port on the right side.
The 17" MacBook Pro models have 2 USB ports on the left side, and one USB port on the right side.
Due to internal USB architecture issues on the MacBook Pro, use of Digidesign, M-Audio, or third-party USB audio devices is supported on the left-hand USB ports only (the port or ports next to the power adapter cable).
Use of such devices on the right-hand USB port is not advised because it may cause audio interrupts and/or dropped samples.
However, the use of an iLok on the right-hand port has been qualified and is fully supported."

Now, I have been using their stuff since my Quadra 840 AV, and I know that they test things extensively. Obviously, they have found some difference between the sides of the computer. What I'd really like to know is if this is power related and can we find a fix, like a powered hub? I have definitely experienced trouble with the right side port with some devices. My Mbox 2 mini will "drop off" the bus. My USB to serial converters (2) different brands, will both drop off.

If anybody has a real solution, that would be superb.

I thought I'd chime back in on this. It turns out my problem is not related the the USB directly. The noise showing up on my recordings is actually being cause by the MBP power supply. If I record running on battery power, I'm fine. Plug it in and I have unusable audio. This seems to be either an issue with the power supply or the ac adapter.

That is an earth loop problem.

One solution is too use an earth lift. (This does not mean on the A/C plug!!) It refers to the audio conections betweeen the audio interface and the mixing desk or amplifiers which run the loudspeakers. the earth shield on the cables is causing a loop. Making sure everything is running from the same wall socket might help but with laptops this problem does occur often.

Di box x 2 for stereo or a dedicated AV laptop di will nsolve it. Or an isolating transformer box. Canford Audio do a stereo one.

Hey, I really appreciate this reply. I think I am finally getting to the bottom of this frustrating problem. Would you mind re-posting the last sentence? I did not follow it.

Ok so you have a mixer. The mixer and the laptop when running from mains power is causind a lop between the two earths.

The way to solve this wrongly is sometimes to lift, (cut) the earth on the plug. THIS SHOULD NEVER BE DONE. However some mixers dont have an earth pin on the plug - confusing? IT IS!

The answer is what is called a Direct Injection box or Di box for short. Behringer do them cheaply as do other manafacturers and they have an 'earth lift switch'.

There is a nice soulution for mini jack out puts called an A/V di box which has a cable attached to a small black box with the switches on. (Audio Visual) Used on powerpoint presentations that have sound from laptop.

The cheap way to try to cure this is to look at the cables between mixer and laptop and severe (cut) the earth which on XLR is pin 1. On mini jack it is the shaft before the ring and before the tip.

If you are a moulded mini jack to RCA plugs x 2 then get one that is not of the moulded variety or chop the end and wire your own RCA phono plugs. Easy as you only wire the pin to tip and the other plugs pin to mini jack ring. Leave the outer shield un-connected so that both RCA or Jack plugs at mixer end have only their pins conected to the inner ( non shield) cable.

John;

Did you ever figure out a solution to this problem? I, too, have just moved to a Macbook Pro from a PowerBook and I'm having terrible problems with "awful noise" (static, weird reverb sounds, etc, etc) from my same setup that worked just fine with the PowerBook.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Hi there,

I just wanted to add my experiences into this.

I have a few 2.5 inch external notebook drives of varying capacities, a 3.5 inch powered drive, an IPOD Mini, and a USB mouse.

The right hand port works 100% of the time with all devices.

The left hand port will work with the IPOD and mouse and 3.5 inch powered drive however when I plug in one of the 2.5 inch drives the power light comes on but the drive won't mount. Once I have done this the port then seems to be degraded and will not work with any subsequent devices, even the devices which worked previously e.g the mouse.

The USB port is still functioning a little as when I plug in the IPOD and remove it again from the left hand port, the back light comes on on the IPOD so it knows it has been disconnected from something.

The 2.5 inch drives are 0.5 watt and should therefore work as long as the port is delivering sufficient power. If I use two USB cables with the 2.5 inch drives (one power and one power and data) they work. I can then remove the additional power from the right USB slot and the device continues to work using just the left port.

The main annoyance with this is the state the USB port is left in when I plug a 2.5 inch drive in. I can't use it for anything and I have to reboot the Macbook. Is there any way to restart the USB host from the command line, or can I disable and reenable a USB port?

The second annoyance is that I'm unable to connect two external drives at once, something I can do with a cheap and cheerful £400 notebook.

I take it from this thread that this is by design and if I took it in for repair it would come out in the same state?

Thanks,

Mike...

I think my experience is a lot like that of others.
I try to connect my 2.5" external powered Xxodd HD via all available USB ports. It used to work both at the left and at the right. Now it is not recognized. I cannot tell for sure, but I suspect that the problem might have begun after upgrading latest firware a couple of days ago. I cannot imagine any other cause.
Now the thing is that the native HD in my MBP is too small to edit videos and I need this external HD. I presume my problem does not lie in power of the ports as my Xxodd is self-powered.
Would any of apple developers bother to help find a solution to appearingly common problem?
Thanks in advance.

Besides the port issue, firewire is a much better choice for video editing because it can sustain throughput, whereas the 480 MB speed of USB is not the throughput you get for video purposes.

My Xxodd doesn't seem to support firewire.... Alas!

Very interesting thread! I had no problems with the USB ports of my MacBook Pro 17" for over 12 months, until recently when I plugged in a Nokia 6300. From that point neither left USB port would recognise USB devices. I tried my iPod, Apple Keyboard, a variety of USB Keys, with no success. All these devices continued to work fine in the right USB port.

I tried all the recommended solutions... cache clears, various resets, archive restores, etc. Nothing worked. I then opened up the MacBook, disconnected the left I/O board for 10 minutes, and re-connected it. Success! The left USB ports sprang back to life, and have been fine ever since.

Obviously, this solution may not be for everyone, but I thought I'd throw it into the mix as one possible solution for those willing to try it.

Cheers
Rod

Message was edited by: bigbod

I searched out this thread after my wired keyboard quit working on my MPB.

I have a powered hub that I plug into the right USB socket, and it appears to have failed. I swapped in a good powered hub but the right USB socket was inactive; it worked in the left socket. After restarting the system the right socket works again, so I'm wondering if the MBP takes the port off line somehow after a failure. I didn't see anything relevant in the system log.

This is the second D-Link hub that has failed on this system in three months, which I didn't see back in the dark years when I used a Dell. It's probably coincidental but I think I'd better get a spare just in case.

I've been paying attention to my MPB lately after seeing this thread. I was using a Griffin Powermate to edit with FCP and I left one night while starting a 9 hour MPEG 2 compression. I had use the Powermate all day on the right side USB port with no trouble. When I left, the Powermate was glowing and working. When I came in the next morning, the Powermate was not flashing and had just 'dropped off' the bus. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and, viola!, it worked.
My theory is that the right side (maybe even the left with some of you) is losing power after a period of inactivity and the bus just goes dead until you can get it to reset itself by plugging and unplugging.
What would be good here would be if someone knew where there was a system log, or one could be created, to monitor USB activity.
Is there an app. or something built into the system that we could use to monitor the USB ports continuously and alert us when it drops off the system and when?

The USB related events do show up in the system.log file which I think resides in /var/log. Alternatively, you can view these log files in Console.app.

I had a recent Apple tech finally ackowledge the specific difference that the left side port is not powered the same as the right side port. I'm glad I'm not (completely) nuts.