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Middleman-77

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 29, 2012
139
61
So one of my family members recently bought a Max Mac Studio. And putting it together we discovered that the system somehow seems a bit underpowered particularly when it comes to peripherals. For some strange reason it seems that the system doesn't supply enough power if you plug devices directly into the Mac Studio. FYI attached to the Mac Studio is an assortment of devices - an OWC TB3 dock, an Orico USB 3.1 hub, a Keychron K1 keyboard, a Logitech mouse, a Huion tablet, and a small bunch of drives namely Drobo 5C, Areca 8050TB3, Sandisk 1TB SSD for scratch disk, and a OWC NVMe case with Kingston 2TB (for documents & files). The two smaller drives and Drobo are attached directly to the OWC dock, which is connected via TB3 and the rest connected directly to the Studio or via the Orico hub. What we discovered is when we connected the Areca drive via TB4 to the Studio it doesn't pick up. But when we plug it via USB 3.1 via the OWC dock it works (because it has its own power source). Am just wondering if anyone else has ever experienced something like this at all?
 
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Middleman-77

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 29, 2012
139
61
Have you tried rebooting with the device plugged in?

TB4 mandates 15W per port.
Yes we are trying. We've tried several combos - the drives connected on the OWC dock as well as all on the Mac Studio. We are currently evaluating whether it is the actual TB4 cable on the Areca itself that could be the issue, since we are not getting a response on TB4 with the Areca on any of its ports.
 

n7vy

macrumors newbie
Feb 7, 2011
12
4
I’ve been ripping DVD’s all day and I kept getting low power elerts due to usb usage. The only thing plugged in was the portable DVD player, keyboard, led Cinema Display hub and a 4 way usb hub. I had to remove the 4 way hub and the alerts went away. So far this is the only negative I’ve found on the new studio.
 

DRDR

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2008
210
195
The same was true with the 2018 Mac Mini when connecting too power hungry TB3 stuff.
 

edubfromktown

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2010
837
711
East Coast, USA
I haven't had any low power warnings using a (powered) Caldigit TS3+ for some peripherals, with others (like Apple SuperDrive, SanDisk Ultra, WD 14 TB external drive, USB sticks, etc.) directly attached to the Studio.
 
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