USB ports on keyboard are powered down....

[mbrown2112]

Hi,

My external drive has 2 USB plugs for those occaisons when 1 USB port simply doesn't provide enough power (my IBM laptop for example). When I plugged this external HD into my iMac for the first time, I plugged in both USB plugs into the USB ports on the keyboard. That was a mistake because with both plugged in, I got an error message indicating that the device was drawing too much power and that the ports would be de-activated (or something to that effect). I have since re-booted a couple of times, however, the USB ports on the keyboard are still not back on and nothing works when plugged into them. Instead I get an error message indicating that I should plug the USB device into a different USB port.

Does anyone know how to turn these USB ports back on? BTW, the external drive works fine plugged into 1 USB plug on the back of the iMac.

Thanks for the help!
Matt

 

[dops7107]

The keyboard USB ports only support low powered (or self-powered) USB devices, such as mice and printers. Your hard drive may not be one of these; have you tried a mouse?

 

[maverick808]

Also the USB ports on the keyboard are USB 1.1 which means they are very very slow. Even if you could power a hard-drive off them it would take hours to transfer stuff to and from it.

Your hard-drive will certainly be a USB 2.0 device. Plug it into the back of the iMac rather than the keyboard.

 

[mbrown2112]

I tried my iPod and a 512meg USB thumbdrive (can't imagine it uses very much power), neither of which worked. When I plug them in, I get a warning message indicating that I should plug the device into a different USB port. I have not tried the mouse, however; I can try it when I get home from work tonight.

Matt

 

[maverick808]

I tried my iPod and a 512meg USB thumbdrive (can't imagine it uses very much power), neither of which worked. When I plug them in, I get a warning message indicating that I should plug the device into a different USB port. I have not tried the mouse, however; I can try it when I get home from work tonight.

Matt

Again, both these devices will be USB 2.0. Anything that requires fast data transfer will be USB 2.0 and since the keyboard ports don't support USB 2.0 you shouldn't be surprised that these devices don't work in there.

The mouse is a 1.1 device so it will work in the keyboard.

Plug the other stuff into the back of the iMac.

 

[mbrown2112]

Hi maverik808,

Ya, I plugged the external drive into the back of the Mac and it worked fine. What happened originally however was that I connected both of the external drive's USB plugs (both are to be used in low power situations) and the iMac threw up a warning message indicating that the USB device was drawing too much power and that the USB ports were being turned off (or something like that). Now the USB ports on the keyboard seem to be de-activated. Neither my USB thumbdrive nor my iPod would work when plugged into the keyboard.

Is there a system setting where I can check if the USB ports are active/inactive?

Matt

 

[mbrown2112]

Ok,

I'll try plugging the Mouse into the keyboard when I get home from work later tonight.

Thanks for the advice.

Matt

 

[maverick808]

Is there a system setting where I can check if the USB ports are active/inactive?

If you install the developer tools there's an app called USB Prober that gives that type of info.

However, just unplug the keyboard from the back of the iMac then plug it back in again and the ports should reactivate.