USB port drawing too much power. The device that is plugged into it will be deactivated

[jrydinger]

I'm on a MacBook Pro 13 2017 with no Touch Bar.

I use a 30w charger brick and a regular USB-C cable. Would it make any difference if I changed to this cable https://www.apple.com/se/shop/product/MWP32ZM/A/thunderbolt-3-pro‑kabel-2-m + a 61W brick?


I'm getting the classic "USB port drawing too much power. The device that is plugged into it will be deactivated" or something like that (My MacBook is Swedish). This problem occurs when trying to connect either a firewire interface using adapters. A Sandisk Extreme USB-C SSD or a Midi keyboard using Apple AV adapter.


I've tried several times reseting NVRAM and SMC

I've tried changing USBC cables.

I've tried booting the computer with all the accessories already connected.

I've tried connecting the Sandisk SSD to my Apple AV adapter with power connected to the adapter

This problem occurred when I updated to Big Sur.


Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[joevt]

You are saying that you get the problem in either of these 3 cases:
1) A FireWire interface using adapters. What adapters?
2) A Sandisk Extreme USB-C SSD. Which model? Not bus powered?
3) A MIDI keyboard using Apple AV Adapter. Do you mean the Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter?
4) A Sandisk Extreme USB-C SSD connected to Apple AV Adapter with power.

And you have no other devices connected at the same time as when you have one of those 4 situations?

What does the USB tab in System Information.app show in each of those cases?
[/icode]system_profiler SPUSBDataType[/icode]

I guess a workaround would be to connect the devices to a Thunderbolt dock or USB hub.

 

[jrydinger]

1) Firewire --> thunderbolt2 --> USB-C (common fix and has worked for me past 5 years)
2) Sandisk Extreme, Not bus powered
3) Yes, the apple digital AV adapter
4) yup

Yep, no other devices but one at a time. When I open system information there's nothing showing at all. Just blank. I Can charge the Mac though.

Doesn't the Digital AV adapter count as a powered hub? In that was the adapter should work right?

 

[joevt]

1) Firewire --> thunderbolt2 --> USB-C (common fix and has worked for me past 5 years)
2) Sandisk Extreme, Not bus powered
3) Yes, the apple digital AV adapter
4) yup

Yep, no other devices but one at a time. When I open system information there's nothing showing at all. Just blank. I Can charge the Mac though.

Doesn't the Digital AV adapter count as a powered hub? In that was the adapter should work right?

Nothing in System Information.app? Maybe you need to reinstall Mac OS? Or at least try a clean install to a new disk to see if that works.

 

[jrydinger]

Nothing in System Information.app? Maybe you need to reinstall Mac OS? Or at least try a clean install to a new disk to see if that works.

I see the ordinary stuff but no confirmatipn that the USB is connected*
I’ve tried reinstalling big sur but now I’ll try installing Catalina instead since the problem didn’t occur on Catalina. I’ll keep you posted.

 

[jrydinger]

I see the ordinary stuff but no confirmatipn that the USB is connected*
I’ve tried reinstalling big sur but now I’ll try installing Catalina instead since the problem didn’t occur on Catalina. I’ll keep you posted.

So installing Catalina did not solve it. This is getting reaallyy annoying

 

[monokakata]

I never saw that warning before a couple of weeks ago. It was my MOTU M2 USB audio interface. I got the warning on an iMac Pro (Mojave). Then I tried the M2 on a recent MBP running Big Sur, with the same result.

Something went bad in the M2, which I returned; the new one is just fine on both machines.

So I'd be suspecting your peripherals -- not so much a matter of power draw per se, but of something wrong with the peripheral's circuitry.

 

[jrydinger]

Ok, this seems to be a very weird problem (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3739129). I’ve seen many ways of solving it on different forums but switching peripherals dosen’t seem to be doing the trick. I’ve tried three different USB dongles (powered and unpowered) focusrite pro 40 FW interface, midi keyboard and two different external hard drives (sandisk extreme ssd and lacie rugged)

thanks for the advoce though.