Can the USB ports on the external display be used?

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Level 1

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Can the USB ports on the external display be used?

Hi,

I use a Dell 2407 external display with my MBP, using the MiniDisplay-to-DVI adapter. I have a simple question:

Can the USB ports located on the Dell monitor be used with my MBP in any way?

Thank you!

Macbook Pro 13", Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Jan 30, 2011 11:12 AM

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Answer 1

John Guo

Level 5

5,353 points

Jan 30, 2011 11:20 AM in response to visa-air

Yeah, the USB ports on any display nowadays are used as a USB hub. I sync my phone by plugging the USB cable not to the computer itself but to the monitor. I also have connected hard drives, TV tuners, etc.

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Answer 2

visa-air Author

Level 1

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Jan 30, 2011 11:29 AM in response to John Guo

Thanks John!

How do I do it though? I plugged a pen drive into the monitor's USB port, and the light on the pen drive started flashing, but it never showed up as a drive on my Mac.

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Answer 3

John Guo

Level 5

5,353 points

Jan 30, 2011 11:30 AM in response to visa-air

Your display should have a USB cable going into your computer as well. At least mine does. If it doesn't then I guess it's only good for charging a device.

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Answer 4

JoeyR

Level 6

8,305 points

Jan 31, 2011 10:49 AM in response to visa-air

As John indicated, you need to connect the USB port on your Mac to the USB connector on your monitor (I've never seen a monitor with just a USB charge feature... it wouldn't really be worth it to design a monitor with the ports available for charging only). The display connector on you Mac does not provide USB data transfer. Your display should have a USB connector that would attach to your Mac.

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Answer 5

Ornamon

Level 1

4 points

Jan 13, 2016 10:41 PM in response to visa-air

This worked for me. I just bought a Dell 2515 and there was this extra cable with a USB on one side and a strange connector on the other. I plugged the weird one into the monitor and the USB into my MBP and now I have four three WD unpowered HDs on the external display. I didn't have to use the so called "powered" USB port the display comes with. I would take a picture of it, but the whole thing is black and you can barely see the ports. They should make them white so you can see them. (This topic aside.)

Works great!

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