Normal USB usage causes Yosemite to Freeze

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Level 1

1 points

Normal USB usage causes Yosemite to Freeze

Since 10.10 and 10.10.1 Yosemite has been freezing me out of the OS on my 2014 Retina MBP.

It happens regularly when a new USB device is plugged in, or when an already plugged in device has an alteration in it's state of power. The result is that all mouse and keyboard input is impaired/frozen. This includes the trackpad, built in keyboard and external mouse. No amount of plugging and unplugging restores access to the computer. The system still seems to be running as the odd email notification will come up, and once I had a large folder of files copying that seemed to finish. To restore use, I need to force restart.

Other times, plugging in or removing (gracefully) a USB device will interrupt audio playing through my USB sound card, which goes silent for a second, or squeals at a speaker/ear piercing 10,000 Hz. This, and with Ableton live 9 freezing itself every 5 minutes makes using this thing for audio production completely useless.

The triggers so far have been...

Switching my Remote SL midi keyboard off and on again
Switching my Motu Mk3 Ultralight on or off
Switching my DN-MC6000 on or off
Unplugging all of the above directly from the USB port (i.e. hot swap)

Note: I have tried plugging in to my Dlink USB2 hub and also directly into the MBP. The Dlink has been very stable in the past, although audio equipment, and many other USB devices seem to prefer being plugged in to the root port. It's ironic that Apple applies form over function when it comes to the number of USB ports provided, yet seems so unstable when an external hub is used.

Note that the laptop came with Mavericks, and one of the first things I did before installing anything else was accept the Yosemite upgrade. So technically it's not a clean install. But there should have been very little in the way of system files that needed to make the transition.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Nov 28, 2014 12:09 PM

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Answer 1

rmumby

Level 1

4 points

Jan 25, 2017 9:08 PM in response to square_eyes

Same issue here on my 13" rMBP on Yosemite 10.10.5. I also have a lot of music production equipment connected

A MOTU Ultralite Mk3 like the OP

Two Midi controllers (AKAI Advance & Maschine MK2) connected via my monitors usb hub.

I think there is starting to be a pattern of music related devices... I wonder if this is hardware based or if its something related to the audio/midi settings in it. Any updates from anyone else?

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Answer 2

35o125

Level 1

4 points

Jun 27, 2017 4:13 AM in response to square_eyes

Did anybody solved this?

I have similar problem.
After switching off my Jupiter 50 synthesizer that is connected via USB to my iMac, I get message on the screen 'connection lost' (wireless mouse and keyboard stop responding + my external drive is not ejected properly) and I need to force shutdown Mac and restart once or twice to get everything to work again.
After that, if I am lucky, I can switch off my synth once or twice before I get 'lost connection' message again.

same thing was happening on my Mac Book Pro last year.

what's going on?
can anybody from Apple respond to this tread???

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Answer 3

square_eyes Author

Level 1

1 points

Dec 4, 2014 2:08 AM in response to square_eyes

I thought I might add that changing my Galaxy S4 from Camera USB mode, to MTP, then unplugging it also caused this.

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Answer 4

square_eyes Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 13, 2015 6:53 PM in response to square_eyes

This also sometimes happens when I unplug my USB 3 hub, which has nothing but an external (apple) keyboard and logitech mouse attached.

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,638 points

Jan 13, 2015 7:01 PM in response to square_eyes

Try testing without anything but a keyboard and mouse connected. Plug and unplug common things like USB drives or your Camera.

It may be one of these or the required drivers (if they have any):

Remote SL midi keyboard
Motu Mk3 Ultralight
DN-MC6000

If all of those are disconnected and something like a thumb drive causes problems, uninstall the software for all of those things and see if things like a thumb drive or hub works ok. You can test this by booting into Safe Mode which should disable any of the extensions required for those items:

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

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Answer 6

square_eyes Author

Level 1

1 points

Jan 13, 2015 7:26 PM in response to Barney-15E

Just to correct on my previous post. It happened when my USB2 hub was plugged in to the USB 3 hub (and USB 2 keyboard and mouse plugged in to that). I can't replicate the issue with my powered USB 3 hub alone. So far I think I have narrowed it down to powered USB 2 devices, with or without a hub.

Barney, I'll look at your suggestion. Note though that only the Ultralight had a specific installer. The other two use the default OSX USB drivers.

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Answer 7

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,638 points

Jan 13, 2015 7:31 PM in response to square_eyes

Well, that would make it easier to isolate.

Did you have the problem without the hubs daisy-chained?

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Answer 8

Mar 26, 2015 10:34 AM in response to square_eyes

When I unplug and reconnect my Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic mouse, it completely freezes Yosemite, and I need to perform a hard reset. I have no mouse drivers installed. The only other device I have plugged in at the same time is an Apple Thunderbolt Network adapter.

This has happened to me about five times recently. I've tried to reproduce this issue purposefully, to capture the event logs, but without success.

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Answer 9

square_eyes Author

Level 1

1 points

Jun 7, 2015 7:47 PM in response to Dejay Clayton

This is still happening for me. I have narrowed it to using a single USB 3 hub. Its really frustrating because although the computer stays opeating all USB input, including the MBP trackpad and keyboard freezes. I have to hard reboot and all work is lost.

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Answer 10

Jun 7, 2015 8:25 PM in response to square_eyes

update to 10.10.3 suplement update 1.0

i have same problem with usb modem huawei connect to my iMac 2013...always freeze....

and solved with this tutorial (you can try this) 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBM8qoV9VkM

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Answer 11

square_eyes Author

Level 1

1 points

Jun 7, 2015 8:36 PM in response to missmacmac99

I can't see anything in this video. What is happening? It just looks like they are installing a modem support utility.

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Answer 12

Jun 30, 2015 10:47 AM in response to square_eyes

Has this issue been resolved for you? I just got a new MPB Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015 that is having the exact same issue. I haven't yet been able to determine the cause, but not having the ability to use any USB hub or device is ridiculous.

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Answer 13

square_eyes Author

Level 1

1 points

Jun 30, 2015 2:14 PM in response to mikefromsudbury

Still happens to me 😟 It's BS.

I will try to do more testing this weekend. It's hard to eliminate. I'm pretty sure it's not just my USB2 hub now as it's happened with my new USB3 hub. I'm now thinking it might be certain USB2 devices.

I have lost A LOT of data now having to hard reset.

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Answer 14

Aug 16, 2015 1:28 PM in response to square_eyes

I just bought a new MacBook Pro Retina 2.8GHz in June and I've been having the same issue of USB activity (on/off/add/remove) causing the built-in trackpad and keyboard to stop working. The computer came with Yosemite but I did a clean install of Mavericks because many Native Instruments AU/VSTs were not working with Yosemite. With this new MacBook I started using an external 10 port USB 3.0 hub from Anker and almost anytime I add/remote turn on/off any USB 2.0 devices (APC40, Maschine, APCmini, Arturia Laboratory) the keyboard and trackpad go silent and requiring a reboot. I've also had this happen when plugging USB 2.0 devices directly into the computer. For some reason the computer's USB ports are acting very finicky and it's extremely frustrating.

I'll keep adding additional details to this thread until there's a solution or workaround.

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Answer 15

Alexg121

Level 1

0 points

Aug 20, 2015 6:37 AM in response to midi10110

Every time I unplug or shut off my Ableton Push my Early 2015 13" pro locks up. All I have plugged into it is a USB 3 hub with my sound card and whatever synth or controller I'm using.

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