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MattZani

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Apr 20, 2008
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UK
Just got a 2012 Mac Mini, Toshiba USB3 external HDD, doesn't seem to get USB3 speeds after its been to sleep, reverts back to USB2 until I unplug and replug it, unmounting doesn't work.

Any ideas?
 
Just got a 2012 Mac Mini, Toshiba USB3 external HDD, doesn't seem to get USB3 speeds after its been to sleep, reverts back to USB2 until I unplug and replug it, unmounting doesn't work.

Any ideas?

don't sleep the mini. it is low energy when not sleeping. or sell the toshiba. I never sleep a mini. only the screen.
 
Do you have another Hard Drive to test this with? if so do you still have the same problem?
 
Not another USB3 one no, its only slightly faster than a USB2 one I have, but not anywhere near USB3 speed.
 
Just got a 2012 Mac Mini, Toshiba USB3 external HDD, doesn't seem to get USB3 speeds after its been to sleep, reverts back to USB2 until I unplug and replug it, unmounting doesn't work.

Any ideas?

So you are monitoring that before sleep, the usb3 speeds were (a lot) higher than after sleep?

Give us the results of the performance. I can't really judge right now what is going on. Try this program: Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test.
 
you do realize that the toshiba usb3 has a very slow hdd in it you are lucky if you get 80mbs if it is the 2.5 inch one and about 110mbs if it is the 3.5 inch one.

My mistake, its actually a Hitachi Tuoro, I think anyway. 3.5".

So you are monitoring that before sleep, the usb3 speeds were (a lot) higher than after sleep?

Give us the results of the performance. I can't really judge right now what is going on. Try this program: Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test.

Before sleep - roughly 100mb/s read/write
After sleep - roughly 30mb/s read/write
 
yeah the usb3 function is auto sense. sleep turns it off on 2 of my usb3 drives. So I never sleep the mini just the display. In my case the display burns a lot of power so when the mini turns off the signal to the display the power saved is quite a bit.

the mini on idle but not sleep burns around 7-8 watts.

the screen drops from 18 watts to 2 watts when the display is turned to sleep. so the savings are pretty good. not perfect.

sleep and pcs/macs always have conflicts.


try setting the energy saver like this >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 

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That's what I always have, I just used to sleep it myself when going to sleep etc. kind of annoying. Hopefully an update will cure this?
 
SO YOU ARE ONLY sleeping off the display not the mini?

this setting works with my usb3.

let me check.

yeah I don't lose the usb3 when just the screen sleeps.
 

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No, I meant when putting the whole thing to sleep. At the moment I have no devices listed under the USB3 part, but Touro 3.0 under USB Hi-Speed Bus.

If I un/replug it it's listed under USB 3 SuperSpeed Bus and I get USB3 speeds.
 
How annoying. Assuming its the external thats causing the issue though?
 
How annoying. Assuming its the external thats causing the issue though?

past on threads on many pcs/macs over the last few years with problems like yours yes. But as always just a guess maybe 85% sure. It may be true with any and all usb3 devices. I gave up sleeping any pc/mac years ago I just sleep the displays .

I have 6 pc/s and 3 minis I would go nuts trying to fix issues like this. I am lucky in that the pc's need to run 24/7. the 3 minis cost me about 25 watts an hour on idle. that is about 15k watts a month or $2.50 a month . worth the hassle of trouble shooting
 
Why would you sleep it anyway? It demands the same user intervention as powering on and off.
If I have my mini downloading or so, I use the 1-minute monitor off delay (XBMC keeps it awake when watching movies), and if I do nothing, I just turn it off. It is booted back in 15 seconds (on a HD, not even SSD), so I don't care about sleep.
 
Why would you sleep it anyway? It demands the same user intervention as powering on and off.
If I have my mini downloading or so, I use the 1-minute monitor off delay (XBMC keeps it awake when watching movies), and if I do nothing, I just turn it off. It is booted back in 15 seconds (on a HD, not even SSD), so I don't care about sleep.

I just sleep the screen , but I never sleep the mini
 
As an update, I never really fixed this. It's not the Mini sleeping (I just switch the screen off), it's the drive, and I'd rather not have it spinning all the time. So most the time I use it as USB2, and if I need to do a big back up (switched off auto due to another issue with it not waking up quick enough for TM) I just unplug it and plug it in so I get USB3 speeds.

Must be a fault somewhere along the USB3 line, my USB3 CF reader never has the problem but then it doesn't sleep.
 
USB 3.0 not working - the reason why

Apparently, the USB speed is determined by the FIRST USB device that the system encounters so if you have a keyboard, or mouse, then this will cause the system to use USB 2.0 even when it discovers a Touro 4tB drivecapable of USB 3.0.
 
Apparently, the USB speed is determined by the FIRST USB device that the system encounters so if you have a keyboard, or mouse, then this will cause the system to use USB 2.0 even when it discovers a Touro 4tB drivecapable of USB 3.0.

that is referring to daisy-chaining, first device connected

USB2->USB3->mini = USB3 speed (for the USB3 device)
USB3->USB2->mini = USB2 speed (for both devices)
 
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