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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Low Usb Power And Other Problems
secoff - Aug 5, 2005 - 2:41 am
My desktop G4 dual 1 GHz was perfectly happy for a long time, now I am suddenly getting a low USB power message. This message's appearance doesn't coincide with any changes I have made.
I find that I can no longer have my keyboard and mouse plugged into any sort of USB hub, powered, or unpowered. I tried unplugging all USB peripherals from my mac first. Then, i plugged the keyboard and my Turbo mouse into a USB port. Everything worked fine. Then, i plugged it into my powered USB hub and plugged that into the back of the computer. Low power warning and keyboard and mouse don't work. When plugged into the hub, I have nothing else plugged into the hub, just the keyboard, and then the turbo mouse connects to the keyboard. Plugging and unplugging the hub creates additional low power warnings on the screen.
To troubleshoot, I tried a different USB keyboard, three different hubs, powered and unpowered. No dice. I also tried going back to my original mouse. It simply doesn't work to plug the keyboard into a hub anymore. I also wiped the entire hard drive and did a fresh install of all of my software. I zapped the PRAM. (a couple of times)
This is highly unfortunate because I work at a recording studio, so the noisy computer sits inside an isobox (a box which greatly reduces the noise the computer makes.) The short USB extension cord the mac came with isn't long enough to reach around the back of the desk and then around the back of the iso box into the computer, so it is now dangling through the isobox's front door, which means I can't fully deal the front door and noise gets out. Worse yet, the cord doesn't reach to my keyboard tray on the desk, so the keyboard is set atop a piano keyboard, much farther out of reach. It's a royal PITA.
The only thing I can think is that we had a very brief power brown out during a thunderstorm last week. It was long enough to shut my computer off. (I had it on a UPS, but apparently it wasn't beefy enough. I have since upgraded to a pretty nice $180 UPS which should keep things running no problem should the power go out again.) My main hard drive got screwed up when the computer shut down so unexpectedly. This is why I had to wipe it and reinstall everything. Disk Utility couldn't fix that. Since erasing and reinstalling, disk utility indicates that there are no problems with my hard drive now.
I have also been having another weird problem where when I first start my computer, I get the spinning wheel for a relatively long time (over three minutes) and then i get a flashing folder with a question mark, alternating with a picture of a mac. After a few more minutes, it finds the system folder on a fire wire backup and starts up off of that, but it is completely unable to find my internal hard drive. (Even disk utility can't see it). Then, if I restart, everything starts up very quickly and normally off of the correct hard drive.
I also occasionally have started getting another weird problem. When I start the computer, it has trouble finding the internal hard drive, and then I get a terminal window, and it asks for my user name and password, but it won't accept my user name and password. Entering anything just gives a brief note that the password is incorrect and then I get the spinning wheel a while longer and then it's back to the terminal login again.
I plan to sell this machine in a few months to a coworker, but there's no way I can sell it in this condition. Can someone please advise me what to do next?
Thanks!
Sam E.
I find that I can no longer have my keyboard and mouse plugged into any sort of USB hub, powered, or unpowered. I tried unplugging all USB peripherals from my mac first. Then, i plugged the keyboard and my Turbo mouse into a USB port. Everything worked fine. Then, i plugged it into my powered USB hub and plugged that into the back of the computer. Low power warning and keyboard and mouse don't work. When plugged into the hub, I have nothing else plugged into the hub, just the keyboard, and then the turbo mouse connects to the keyboard. Plugging and unplugging the hub creates additional low power warnings on the screen.
To troubleshoot, I tried a different USB keyboard, three different hubs, powered and unpowered. No dice. I also tried going back to my original mouse. It simply doesn't work to plug the keyboard into a hub anymore. I also wiped the entire hard drive and did a fresh install of all of my software. I zapped the PRAM. (a couple of times)
This is highly unfortunate because I work at a recording studio, so the noisy computer sits inside an isobox (a box which greatly reduces the noise the computer makes.) The short USB extension cord the mac came with isn't long enough to reach around the back of the desk and then around the back of the iso box into the computer, so it is now dangling through the isobox's front door, which means I can't fully deal the front door and noise gets out. Worse yet, the cord doesn't reach to my keyboard tray on the desk, so the keyboard is set atop a piano keyboard, much farther out of reach. It's a royal PITA.
The only thing I can think is that we had a very brief power brown out during a thunderstorm last week. It was long enough to shut my computer off. (I had it on a UPS, but apparently it wasn't beefy enough. I have since upgraded to a pretty nice $180 UPS which should keep things running no problem should the power go out again.) My main hard drive got screwed up when the computer shut down so unexpectedly. This is why I had to wipe it and reinstall everything. Disk Utility couldn't fix that. Since erasing and reinstalling, disk utility indicates that there are no problems with my hard drive now.
I have also been having another weird problem where when I first start my computer, I get the spinning wheel for a relatively long time (over three minutes) and then i get a flashing folder with a question mark, alternating with a picture of a mac. After a few more minutes, it finds the system folder on a fire wire backup and starts up off of that, but it is completely unable to find my internal hard drive. (Even disk utility can't see it). Then, if I restart, everything starts up very quickly and normally off of the correct hard drive.
I also occasionally have started getting another weird problem. When I start the computer, it has trouble finding the internal hard drive, and then I get a terminal window, and it asks for my user name and password, but it won't accept my user name and password. Entering anything just gives a brief note that the password is incorrect and then I get the spinning wheel a while longer and then it's back to the terminal login again.
I plan to sell this machine in a few months to a coworker, but there's no way I can sell it in this condition. Can someone please advise me what to do next?
Thanks!
Sam E.
secoff - Aug 5, 2005 - 11:32 am
...and the fun continues. This morning upon booting, I encountered my first kernel panic ever. :-( I restarted using the reset button on the front of the machine, and it booted perfectly normally. I am beginning to see that the issue has to do with a cold start. My computer doesn't seem to be able to do that any more. However, when restarting, there is no problem. (I haven't tried connecting the keyboard to the USB hub after a restart, so I believe that issue is still there.) Any clues or things to try?
Thanks,
Sam E.
Thanks,
Sam E.
bobw - Aug 5, 2005 - 3:33 pm
Hi Sam
The USB bus could be damaged.
I would disconect the power cord and open the machine and oush (once) the PMU button on the Logic Board, near the battery.
Also, use the Start Disk PreferencePane and select the Insternal disk.
If these don't help, I would have it serviced.
--------
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
The USB bus could be damaged.
I would disconect the power cord and open the machine and oush (once) the PMU button on the Logic Board, near the battery.
Also, use the Start Disk PreferencePane and select the Insternal disk.
If these don't help, I would have it serviced.
--------
Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support
secoff - Aug 13, 2005 - 6:24 pm
Followup from Sam E. :
I discovered that during the power dip, the breaker on the power strip I had the USB hub plugged into was tripped. The hub had continued to function in an unpowered state, but connecting the keyboard, turbo mouse, and contour shuttle to the already overburdened hub pushed it over the edge. Since resetting the breaker on the power strip, I have experienced no further problems.
The other problems which were occurring had to do with a dying hard drive. Fortunately, it worked long enough for me to back everything up (how lucky am I?) before it failed finally and completely. I took the computer to my local apple store where they ran complete hardware tests which proved that the only thing that was messed up was the hard drive. I went to Best Buy to get a replacement 80 GB Seagate Barracuda, which could be had for $80, but they had 100GB Maxtors on sale for only $50 after instant rebate. I am aware that the maxtor is a lower quality drive than the Seagate, but given that I intend to keep this machine only until February 2006, I'm not too concerned about it.
So, the fix was a new hard drive for only $50 and the time it takes to put all of my software back on the drive and obtain reauthorization codes from several plugin manufacturers.
Thanks for the help anyways...
Sam E.
I discovered that during the power dip, the breaker on the power strip I had the USB hub plugged into was tripped. The hub had continued to function in an unpowered state, but connecting the keyboard, turbo mouse, and contour shuttle to the already overburdened hub pushed it over the edge. Since resetting the breaker on the power strip, I have experienced no further problems.
The other problems which were occurring had to do with a dying hard drive. Fortunately, it worked long enough for me to back everything up (how lucky am I?) before it failed finally and completely. I took the computer to my local apple store where they ran complete hardware tests which proved that the only thing that was messed up was the hard drive. I went to Best Buy to get a replacement 80 GB Seagate Barracuda, which could be had for $80, but they had 100GB Maxtors on sale for only $50 after instant rebate. I am aware that the maxtor is a lower quality drive than the Seagate, but given that I intend to keep this machine only until February 2006, I'm not too concerned about it.
So, the fix was a new hard drive for only $50 and the time it takes to put all of my software back on the drive and obtain reauthorization codes from several plugin manufacturers.
Thanks for the help anyways...
Sam E.
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