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kh91 Author

Level 1

10 points

MacBook Air 11-inch, Mid 2013 won't boot with external USB keyboard

Hello,

Just bought a MacBook Air 11-inch, Mid 2013 (8GB, i7, 512GB SSD) today.

All available software updates are installed (OS X 10.8.4 (12E3067)).

Also have a Macbook Pro Retina.

If I connect a external USB keyboard (Kinesis Advantage Pro USB) to the Air then it don't boots.

If the keyboard is connected directly to the Air USB port then it don't shows the Apple logo on grey background after power on, just give a endless loop of the turning on sound.

If the keyboard is connected to the Thunderbolt display then same empthy grey screen after power on and no sound at all.

The same keyboard and Thunderbolt display work well with my Macbook Pro Retina and a Macbook Air 2011.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,

Karsten

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), 11-inch,Mid 2013,8GB,i7,512GB SSD

Posted on Jul 10, 2013 12:13 PM

21 replies

Feb 19, 2014 6:26 AM in response to faithfracture

Yes, I have been in touch with Kinesis a few times, no resolution yet, alas.

simong

Level 1

0 points

Mar 19, 2014 8:28 AM in response to kh91

Same problem. Brand new early 2014 and USB Advantage won't boot. Very annoying.

kh91 Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 24, 2014 3:10 AM in response to kh91

With the new Mac Pro my Kinesis Advantage works again after a SMC update:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1724

From the readme:

"addresses a rare issue where a low-speed USB device may not be detected at boot"

Hopefully Apple will update the SMC also for Macbook Air and Pro.

Jun 9, 2014 9:03 PM in response to kh91

I have this problem too. I have a Kinesis Advantage keyboard and these macbook specs:

Model Identifier:	MacBookPro11,3
Processor Name:	Intel Core i7
Processor Speed:	2.6 GHz
Number of Processors:	1
Total Number of Cores:	4
L2 Cache (per Core):	256 KB
L3 Cache:	6 MB
Memory:	16 GB
Boot ROM Version:	MBP112.0138.B02
SMC Version (system):	2.19f3
Serial Number (system):	C02M40K0FR1M
Hardware UUID:	11CCF03B-EE1A-56A8-B05A-356A9CFEB0DC

I didn't try the mac pro smc update because I didn't trust it would apply to a macbook pro.

wrtcedar

Level 1

9 points

Jun 10, 2014 12:01 AM in response to kh91

This incompatibility has gotten worse for me since the 10.9.3 OS X update. I now sometimes have to unplug and then plug in my Kinesis Advantage after waking my MacBook Pro from sleep before the keyboard is recognized. I sleep my MBP more often than I reboot it, so this is getting old. I remember having to do this 30 years ago, but I never dreamed that I would still be doing it. I hope that firmware update shows up for MacBook Pros soon.

Jan 5, 2015 9:14 AM in response to kh91

This problem seems to have been resolved for me as of OS X 10.10.0.

MacBook Air 11-inch, Mid 2013 won't boot with external USB keyboard