Mac Pro 2009 strange USB issue, getting worse

[papoopeepoo]

Hello,

I've got a Early 2009 Mac Pro 2.93 quad core, 4870, 16GB of OWC ram. I've been experiencing a weird problem where the USB will completely cut out after working for a while. When I'm using a USB mouse, any amount of time after startup, the mouse and the keyboard stop working. If i plug in another USB mouse, the light will come on, but it doesn't work to move the cursor. If i share the screen from the MBP, i can control the Mac Pro perfectly well.

There doesn't seem to be any particular action that triggers the USB to stop functioning. I don't have anything but the keyboard and mouse wired by USB. I have a eSATA PCIe card, but that's it for added cards.


I'll keep experimenting, but if this sounds familiar to anyone, help would be appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: I did reset the PRAM once, and also disconnected the power supply from the wall for a few minutes.

 

[A Hobo]

I know it may seem unrelated, but try and remove the Esata Card and see if the issue is remedied.
i had a reasonable similar issue when i had the 4870 card as well, but it was stuttering mouse and window freezes, and it needed cleaning, removing the esata card will help narrow the issue to the GPU or pcie esata

If you are capable try to disassemble the GPU to add new thermal paste and clean the fins of dust.

 

[ActionableMango]

Have you tried moving the peripherals to different ports? For example if they are plugged in the back, plug them into the front.

At least two members here I've seen have had some, but not all, USB ports simply stop working. I assume there are at least two different USB controllers and in their cases one of the controllers died.

 

[papoopeepoo]

I'll try removing the esata card the next time I shut down. It could very well be my graphics card. I'll take it out and see if it's dusty or dirty.

I have tried using both the front and rear ports when this happens with no change.

Thanks for the replies

 

[papoopeepoo]

i removed, disassembled, cleaned, reapplied thermal compound, and reinstalled the video card. 30 minutes later, the same problem came back.

next time, i removed the eSATA card. Its 5 days later now, and no USB hiccups. it seems the Sonnet Tempo E2P was the culprit.

Thanks for the help. With this excuse, I'm upgrading to USB 3.0 and eSATA 6G now.

 

[A Hobo]

I know it may seem unrelated, but try and remove the Esata Card and see if the issue is remedied.

i removed the eSATA card. Its 5 days later now, and no USB hiccups.

I thought as much, Glad to hear you're all sorted.