Mac Pro 3.1 USB issues in Mountain Lion...I have the solution!

[WillThePlank]

So today I upgraded my 8 core Mac Pro 3.1 to Mountain Lion. To my dismay I found my USB ports had stopped working, After shouting, Swearing and wanting to make Apple rue the day they overlooked such an issues I found the solution!

Online I saw someone mention about the AirPort card causing the USB ports to stop working. How do you ask?

If you've bought your Mac second hand and it has BT+AP Combo there's a chance someone has installed a Atheros Apple wireless G card, While that works fine in SL and under for some reason the older AirPort cards do not work in ML

Also if you have had the machine from new and bought a generic AP card on eBay that can cause issues too. If your system was specd with Wifi from new check that it has a Broadcom card in it which supports Wireless N.

So try removing your wireless card and see if your USB ports start working...If so then hooray you now need to replace it with a newer card. If not then well...It was worth a try!

 

[bax2003]

Hello Will

Had the problem, Mac Pro 3.1 with airport card from MacBook Pro 2006. Removed the AirPort card and USB is working fine now....

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4140613?start=15&tstart=0

And now off topic: about your "new" mac pro 3.1 quad....can you post a few pictures of inside your mac, especially behind alluminium processor cover. Thanks I cannot find any pictures of that Quad Mac Pro 3.1.

You can post it here for example:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1420953/

 

[WillThePlank]

Hello Will

Had the problem, Mac Pro 3.1 with airport card from MacBook Pro 2006. Removed the AirPort card and USB is working fine now....

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4140613?start=15&tstart=0

And now off topic: about your "new" mac pro 3.1 quad....can you post a few pictures of inside your mac, especially behind alluminium processor cover. Thanks I cannot find any pictures of that Quad Mac Pro 3.1.

You can post it here for example:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1420953/

Might of been the thread I saw it on.

And yeah I had a look while I had the fan assembly out the other day to run a SATA cable to the optical drive bay for the SSD, Seems like it's just a hollowed out heat sync...Will get a pic when I get a chance

 

[thehimay]

And now off topic: about your "new" mac pro 3.1 quad....can you post a few pictures of inside your mac, especially behind alluminium processor cover. Thanks I cannot find any pictures of that Quad Mac Pro 3.1.

Shoot. Makes me regret not snapping a few pictures with my dSLR while I had the CPUs and Northbridge scrubbed clean before re-gooping and re-installing my heatsinks a few weeks ago. My 3,1 has never been so clean & pristine!