CoolMax HDD-211 USB External Hard Drive Help!

I received this USB/FW-based hard drive for Christmas and have given up on it after hours of trying to fix it. The hard drive is "detected" on a PC and on my Powerbook because in System Profiler, it reads "USB Mass Storage" whenever it is connected. I have tried using the A/C adapter but whenever I do that, my Powerbook's display turns black and it does not turn on for about 5 minutes (I have never seen this before but it happens everytime!). Also, when I try to find the Disk on Disk Utility, it does not appear in the left column. It simply shows the Macintosh HD. The USB cord that came with the hard drive has 3 openings in order to connect one to the drive, one to my Powerbook, and if needed, one to another computer to extract more power. I have tried doing this and the same thing happens. It shows up in System Profiler but other than that, its as if the system doesn't detect it! I have tried e-mailing the manufacturer but it seems to be something with MacOSX that I can't figure out. Also, on USB Prober (which I don't really understand how to use), it also says USB Mass Storage when the drive is connected but I don't know where to go from there. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)