Mac will not mount external USB drive but keyboard/mouse OK

[funkytwig]

Hi everybody,

My Mac Pro will no longer recognise or mount USB drives but the USB keyboard/mouse work fine. I have tried several different drives. I have tried Mac formatted drives and Windows NTFS drives. I have looked in the /Volumes directory to se if they are shown there. Nothing works.

I have even booted into windows and can mount drives there either. I think it may be a hardware fault.

It is a Late 2008 Intel Model which has been upgraded to 3Ghz CPUs.

Any ideas?

Regards,
Ben

 

[philipma1957]

are your usb drives using the usb jack for power?

this is an example of what I mean

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392032


or are they powered via an external ac adapter?

for example this has to have the wall wart to work
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182221

 

[funkytwig]

Philip,

I have several of both. None work.

Ben

 

[philipma1957]

That is a bad sign. Is your cpu upgrade new and problem came right after or did the upgrade work for weeks /months and problem then came?

I don't know if you have pci or pcie slots in the 08.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2&cm_re=belkin_usb_pci-_-15-108-012-_-Product

My 2010 had a 2 or 3 month problem. the built in usb jacks did not work with a lot of items. i purchased the above belkin and it has always worked. It bypasses the built-in usb. Now 3 or 4 months after I have used it most of my built in usb problems have stopped. So my built in problems had something to do with osx software. I am using version 10.6.6. i still have one problem with built-in hubs front and back they will not work with any usb active extensions.

like this;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...active_extension_cable-_-12-816-021-_-Product

my best guess is try the belkin to by-pass the problem.

 

[CaptainChunk]

Also, try doing a reset on the PRAM and SMC. Hopefully this isn't a problem with the logic board.

 

[handheldgames]

Do the drives work elsewhere?

 

[funkytwig]

Also, try doing a reset on the PRAM and SMC. Hopefully this isn't a problem with the logic board.

How dangerous is resetting SMC, what will it do?

 

[funkytwig]

Do the drives work elsewhere?

Yes

 

[philipma1957]

back to my other question you had better cpus put in. did everything work for months and month or did the usb problem happen right after the new cpus?

 

[funkytwig]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2&cm_re=belkin_usb_pci-_-15-108-012-_-Product

My 2010 had a 2 or 3 month problem. the built in usb jacks did not work with a lot of items. i purchased the above belkin and it has always worked. It bypasses the built-in usb. Now 3 or 4 months after I have used it most of my built in usb problems have stopped. So my built in problems had something to do with osx software. I am using version 10.6.6. i still have one problem with built-in hubs front and back they will not work with any usb active extensions.

I thought Mac Pro were all PCI-E and PCI is not backward compatible. The item you recomend is PCI.

Ben

 

[funkytwig]

back to my other question you had better cpus put in. did everything work for months and month or did the usb problem happen right after the new cpus?

I purchased the Mac used , the CPU upgrade had already been done. Everything has been working fine for a month or two.

 

[funkytwig]

Thanks everybody, I got a PCIe USB 2 card and all works great.