Mac - USB Issues.

N

Nycto

Registered
Hello, new Mac user here.

I bought a used Mac G4 as a curiosity item a few months ago. Regrettably the CD's did not come with the computer.

It worked fine until one day, the mouse and keyboard no longer functioned properly. The mouse no longer works at all, and the keyboard doesn't seem to do much, but if I bang on it, I can bring up a help screen sometimes, but not much more than that. Oddly enough, both the keyboard and mouse do work fine on my other machines.

Anyway, since I can't get around in the system, due to both my mouse and keyboard not working, as well as my unfamiliarity with the OS, I'm rather stuck. I'm getting to the point where I'm tempted to blow away the OS, which is Mac 10.2, and replacing it with the version of System 7 hosted for download on Apple's website. Before I take any such measures, is there anyone with an idea as to how I can resolve my problem?
 
System 7 will not run on that Mac. You need OS 9 or OS X (preferably 10.4).

http://www.applerescue.com

You can find some great prices on Mac OS X there.

As for USB keyboard and mouse, you can use any USB keyboard and mouse. Doesn't have to be specifically from Apple. Just be aware that the Windows key and the Alt key will be the Command key and Option key, respectively. Also, Mac OS X supports mice with more than one button.

Where did you get this Mac by chance? Sounds like this seller gave you a clunker for a Mac. :confused:
 
It's not so much that the Mac is a clunker...although as far as I can tell, this one is about six years old. It's a got a 500mhz PowerPC chip and 256 megs of SDRAM. I picked it up from my school's surplus store, where they sell dated equipment. And it worked fine for about a month, and then suddenly, none of the usb ports worked. Since this machine has no PS/2 support, I don't know how to get around in it, and worse yet, I don't know the operating system. I have a legitimate copy of OS too, but I can't access the information in the computer because of course the usb ports are not functioning.

I called Apple's customer support, and they basically told me to take it to a certified Apple repair shop, and there's only four of them in my state, and they're all more than an hour away. It would probably cost more in gas money and repairs than I even paid for the machine, and that's rather disappointing.
 
You may just need to "reset" the usb ports.

Power off the computer, unplug the mouse and keyboard, and unplug the power cord from the electric socket.

Wait about 20 - 30 minutes and plug it back in and power the computer on,
then plug the mouse and keyboard back in to see if they work.
 
I have tried to reset the the usb ports as stated in the previous post, but the mouse and keyboard still do not work properly. As stated earlier some functions on the keyboard do work, the arrow keys for example, and the enter key allow me to change the names of desktop icons, and occasionally I can get a help screen to pop up. But the mouse is totally inoperable.

I've tried switching out mice as well, but with no luck. The cursor just stays frozen in the corner. If anybody else can help me, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
Have you tried resetting the PMU? Assuming this is a Power Macintosh G4, if you open up the side and look on the logic board, you'll see a button that is for resetting the Power Management Unit (PMU). The instructions on what to do are here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=95037

Make sure you only push that button for about 1 second....just a quick push. It's all laid out in the directions.

Also, see about reseating the RAM modules or try and get some new RAM for it.

More information on your Power Macintosh G4 (if this is what you have) here:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g4/stats/powermac_g4_500.html
http://lowendmac.com/ppc/g4saw.shtml
 
I'd try the PMU also before anything else. Your Mac is never going to zip along with only 256 Ram, thats minimum.
 
I reset the PMU and checked the battery on the motherboard. The battery is alive and well, and the reset did nothing to fix my problem. None of my usb mice worked, and I've tried three different ones each from different manufactures. My keyboard retains the limited functionality it had before I reset the PMU. And yes, this is a Power Macintosh G4,

It really bugs me that Apple cut PS/2 support for their machines...
 
Linux has more flexible options for a machine with so little RAM, though it's a bit challenging to use. At least, I think there are LiveCDs that should show whether the USB controller is working, and the mouse and keyboard actions are getting to the computer.

Apple never included PS/2 support in their machines. They just had ADB (Apple Desktop Bus), which had interesting characteristics.
 
Decade said:
Linux has more flexible options for a machine with so little RAM, though it's a bit challenging to use. At least, I think there are LiveCDs that should show whether the USB controller is working, and the mouse and keyboard actions are getting to the computer.
Click to expand...

It's a little more challenging on a PPC based Mac. I've done it before a million times, and it's not that bad on New World Macs like the Power Mac G4, but you'll have to do without Adobe Flash plugins for your web browsing. If you can live with that, Linux will do it for you. But I still recommend OS X

Apple never included PS/2 support in their machines. They just had ADB (Apple Desktop Bus), which had interesting characteristics.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily true. Apple had the Power Mac 4400 which was made to be more "PC-like" in hardware support. It had both ADB ports and PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse. Most Macintosh clones during the time of the 4400 also had PS/2 ports (my old StarMax 4000 from Motorola is but one example).
 
Is there anyway to get around and at least retrieve my serial numbers for the OS without using a mouse? That way, if I am forced to blow away the system, I can at least give Apple Tech Support a number. In my past experiences, Microsoft will sometimes give out discs for Windows if one can verify they own a copy of the software, and merely lost or broke the disc they originally purchased. I would think, just as with a Windows machine, that ownership of the software would transfer from the seller to the buyer along with the machine itself.

Since the PMU reset did not work, I suppose I will have to totally wipe the system. I'm running Ubuntu and XP together on an 800 Mhz Pentium III just fine, and so I might just install the former on the G4. Before I doing anything that extreme, are there any other things I might try?

Ultimately, if this doesn't solve my problems, is there anyway I can (cheaply) replace usb ports for this Mac without soldering or anything like that?

Oh, and by the way, I'd really like to thank all you guys for taking time out to help me with this. I appreciate it a lot.
 
The iMac doesn't have slots other than RAM. You can't replace the USB controller except by electrical engineering or replacing the motherboard.

Apple doesn't use serial numbers for OS licenses. They don't seem to want to bother verifying that any OS has been on any particular machine except for the original OS, and I don't think they make that publicly available. I don't know any PC reseller that keeps original restore disks for machines that old, either.

nixgeek said:
Apple had the Power Mac 4400 which was made to be more "PC-like" in hardware support. It had both ADB ports and PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse. Most Macintosh clones during the time of the 4400 also had PS/2 ports (my old StarMax 4000 from Motorola is but one example).
Click to expand...
Yes, I thought about the 4400, remembering things like the StarMax 4000. However, the 4400 itself doesn't have PS/2 ports, as far as I can tell from any documentation or owner pictures. I was depending on a semantic distinction between Apple's computers and the clones.
 
So basically, if reinstalling another OS does not work, I'm screwed?

I don't really want to invest more than the $70 I paid for the machine.

Maybe growing up on PC's has made me a little biased, but I'm going to be upset if I can't get my Mac to work because of something so relatively minor. Even on the laptop I bought two months ago has two methods through which an individual can interface with the machine. Therefore, if one ever quits working, there's another one available.

And that the usb ports are integrated into the motherboard board instead of being a seperate chip is in my mind another serious design flaw, because instead of replacing a card, I'll have to buy a whole new Mac.

Is there a way to issue a run command to the disc drive without using a mouse? Autorun is disable/nonexistant, and I want to install Ubuntu via a Live CD
 
If you have enough of the keyboard working, you could select an icon on the desktop and open things using the arrow keys and commands like Command-O to go into a directory.

However, Linux doesn't install easily from within MacOS or other protected operating systems. You're supposed to boot the Live CD, by having it in the drive while you reboot and you press either C for boot from CD or Command-Option-Shift-Delete for the boot drive selection menu. These options are available only before the OS loads.
 
I've got a working mouse again. I was able to run from cd using the c command, and the Live cd loaded up fine, so I think this pretty much solves my problem, though I'm not really sure what happened, lol. I'm installing Ubuntu 6.06 now. Thanks guys for the help, it means a lot. If I have any further problems with the machine, I'll be back :)

For clarification, if I choose to purchase Mac OSX, is there a particular version that would best fit on a machine with my specs? I'm thinking about installing some extra ram I have laying around, not sure if they're compatible, but if so, I'd have 384 megs to play with...thoughts?
 
This is what Dan Knight is for.

While OS X versions have gotten faster on the same hardware with each release, that trend has sort of stopped at 10.4. So, last I checked, they tend to recommend 10.3 for machines with less than 512MB of RAM, and 10.4 for machines with more.
 
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