the USB device drawing too much power has been disabled.

I have a number of iPhones and then also a bunch of USB cords. I have one cord that came with a 4s that causes this problem. Outlet won't charge, Excesive power errors on the different macs. Also gone thru with phones 2g 3gs 4g 4s all the same problem with this cable. I havn't taken it back to the store, but I guess I should. This is defenatly a cable issue.

As for other issues causing this problem it is usually something that draws to much power. Sometimes this can be solved with a separete powered hub.

I started recently to have the same pop up window, "USB draining too much power....", I have no any different peripheral I have no used in the past. I did resett SMC, no changes.

I have external monitor attached. and USB microphone with included mouse control. The system report showed this devices required 100 mA and has available 132 mA each.

It seems to be random.

I have used this mic with external monitor for hours and everything works fine, no warnings.

I have sometimes attached USB 3.0 express card.

I really do not see why now this is happening. Is it the last Lion update bug?

Any solutions outhere?

Buying and external powered USB hub for now?

hi guys, just fixed it. im guessing you have more than one iDevice lying round the house, obvioulsy all coming with a sync cable. Try using a different one because you might for example, be using an iPad cable and getting too much power (because its a larger device). Hope this helps!! 😀

I have been getting the error message constantly now. My Razer Deathadder mouse keeps cutting out and was convinced it was just that as everything else I have plugged in stays active, but I continued to get the message with NOTHING plugged in. Apparently having no USB device plugged in can still have a USB device draining too much power.

I just recently started having this problem so naturally I googled it. I found this thread that's almost a year old but it helped me tremendously. I've been through countless USB cords, whether they were authentic Apple products or cheapy $5 ones. I read a response saying that it happened even when the USB cord was plugged in with no iPhone or etc connected, so I tried it and same for me. After digging through my parents' computer room, I found an authentic Apple USB cord and I tried that, and viola! It worked. My cheapy $5 cord was the problem. It works to charge my iPhone but if I want to sync it whatsoever, no luck. I was actually scared it was my MacBook Pro or my iPhone 4S... but it wasn't! Good luck to everyone else, because this is obviously still a problem!

I tried a PRAM reset while I had external montiors and a hub still plugged in and the error persisted.

I got rid of this error by doing a PRAM reset while everything non-essential was unplugged from the machine (including external monitors) and waiting for it to startup up completely before plugging things back in.

I am a developer and had this problem when plugging an iphone or ipad mini directly to my macbook retina. I swapped cables and problem solved.

SO - problem is - bad apple lightning cable. I am swapping it out at the apple store today.

eskim023 is right.. it's a **** lightning-usb cable. freakin Apple was saying its a maleware on my phone or macbook and I should pay them 99 bucks to solve that.. *** em.. bunch of aho and sscammers.. not gettin money from innovation so now they want to scam us

See my earlier post two back - nothing to do with cables as none was plugged in. It then just stopped doing it for no apparent reason.

Today, though, it's back. And it's not even the same computer. It's now happening on my six-week-old Mac Mini (2.5GHz i5 running 10.8.3). First time it's shown up since I bought it, following a re-boot earlier today with no changes made to peripherals, cables or anything else.

And, incidentally, if the computer has disabled the devices allegedly 'drawing too much power' why does the warning still keep coming up when you close the window?

Yes, I'm having this too. First my phone stopped charging in my car (Subaru). It would either not charge at all or it would begin charging and then stop. I switched white cords, using a cord that works on my computer, and that would not work. I just plugged the car white cord into my computer and got the same message. Time to switch back to the cord that works. Hmmmmm... Yes, phone charges. Yep, definitely seems to be the white cord. And I am getting the warning even when nothing is plugged in. Strange. To the store I go. Thanks for having this info here!

I posted here a year ago saying that I have this same problem even though no usb device was plugged in ( I also had followed every suggestion that had been made here, no change). It is still there a year later, and just has become a nuisance that I ignore the best I can every morning I start up the machine. I also had stated that it was an Apple problem, and all the advise by apple staff here was just a cover up - the apple staff then removed my post. Well, I was right, a year later customers are still coming in here, reporting the same problem. I still have the same problem too, no matter what hard drive I start up from and no usb device attached. I think the time has come that apple will have to step up to the plate and admit its shortcomings, and there are plenty, that were easy to cover up before because the public was on their side. BTW, I have been on the mac since the early 90ies, and I repeat itagain here, Apple has become a greedy company like the rest of them, ruling with an authoritarian fist. Now watch the apple police remove this post again.

I've read of the same problem in Hackintosh forums (e.g. Tonymacx86.com's) so it would appear to be a software issue rather than a hardware one.

I fixed it for now by turning my Mac off, removing all USB cables, unplugging it then leaving it turned off for about ten minutes. Only after re-booting did I reconnect any of the USB cables and (so far) it's been OK for several days now.

Our two year old was watching Dora on Netflix when my wife smelled something burning. She ran into the room to find the belkin charger smoking. It's the usb charger for wife's ipod touch 4th gen. The 20" imac had this same message on the monitor.

I read all the posts here, and i am still not sure if this is a bad cord issue or is it possible that the mac is spiking electricity?

I will try to call Apple, but if anyone has any good advice-- phone numbers, real people who are concerned, that would be good. The 2 year old could easily have burned himself or worse today.

Thank you for your help.

<Email Edited By Host>

I fear the Standard Answer:

"Belkin, you say? You have reached Apple Computer, sir. We don't do Belkins."

Hopefully, the Next Step won't be attained:

"As a Post-Mother's-Day Special Treat, your warranty has been voided..."

Apple's so unpredictable these days...

So was the iPod touch plugged into the Belkin charger or the iMac?

What was plugged into the Belkin charger at the time? (when I think charger, I think power adapter)

What was plugged into the iMac to prompt the message?

Either way, of course stop using the Belkin charger and make sure everything else works. Does a different charger work?