My MacBook Pro (Original) USB ports recently stopped working. They come up in system profiler as being there, but when I connect a device, such as a flash drive, no leds turn on, and no power is given to it. I have tried resetting the SMC and PRAM, but all to no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you in advance for your help
I have tried resetting the
SMC and PRAM, but all to no avail.
If DaddyPaycheck's question does not apply, you have a hardware problem. Take the computer to an Apple store or an AASP. Whichever is more convenient for you. Or if you have Apple Care, give them a call.
I had a nearly identical issue today with a new CTO MacBook Pro...specifically, the USB ports on this new unit were unresponsive to devices being plugged to their slots. We reset SMC to no avail, unplugged all other non-essential peripherals, and still no change.
We were specifically trying to boot a previously functioning Seagate hard drive with a fully intact install of Snow Leopard. Eventually the MBP detected the drive and read the contents. We selected the externally connected drive for startup (which S/L found without issue) in System Prefs. At boot, no progress further than Apple logo (without animated gears indicating some type of load process).
Moved to an identically equipped secondary Thunderbolt MBP which presented with exact same issue. To further verify this was an issue with the USB ports on a Thunderbolt model MBP, we attempted boot of the externally connected drive to an iMac and then a MacMini. Both of these units booted the drive without issue. The Thunderbolt MBPs can see the drive, read the contents, but can't boot them.
Disk Utility verified and ran repair on the external drive and reported zero problems.
Both MBPs are being returned to Apple. Too much to risk for only having two USB ports.
