Mounting of USB ports

[LandyMan]

In my never ending quest of getting the Firewire issues sorted, I have noticed something else: I plugged the chassis into the USB port on the right hand side of my MBP ... mounts and everything is fine.

When I plug it into any of the other two USB ports, the little light just starts flashing, and it doesn't seem to mount properly. System profiler sees the chassis, but not the drive inside so to speak.

Is this a fixed mounting thing, or is it something more sinister?

Oh, and welcome to the big leagues bwana

[bwana]

In my never ending quest of getting the Firewire issues sorted, I have noticed something else: I plugged the chassis into the USB port on the right hand side of my MBP ... mounts and everything is fine.

When I plug it into any of the other two USB ports, the little light just starts flashing, and it doesn't seem to mount properly. System profiler sees the chassis, but not the drive inside so to speak.

That's kinda odd - does it make a clicking sound?

Is this a fixed mounting thing, or is it something more sinister?

Careful - sleep with one eye open - its out to get ya

Oh, and welcome to the big leagues bwana

Thanks - pleasure to be here.

[LandyMan]

That's kinda odd - does it make a clicking sound?

Yes, sometimes it does ... as if it is shutting down hard. Also, when trying to boot with it in one of these "other" ports, the machine freezes, until I unplug, then it continues to boot.
EDIT: On closer inspection, the drive does not seem to spin up

[bwana]

Yes, sometimes it does ... as if it is shutting down hard. Also, when trying to boot with it in one of these "other" ports, the machine freezes, until I unplug, then it continues to boot.

Sounds like a power issue - my pb does that with certain external drives. Does it stop if you also use the USB power cord?

[LandyMan]

Powers up fine with the additional USB power cord also connected. You guys think this is a port problem ... though, Bob said he has some power issues with his ViPowER as well. I just find it funny that it works on the one port, but not on the other two ... unless there is a bit of a power drain on the left hand side, as they are both connected to the same "Circuit" on that side

[bwana]

Powers up fine with the additional USB power cord also connected. You guys think this is a port problem ... though, Bob said he has some power issues with his ViPowER as well

No - I think its a enclosure problem - in fact I think if you measured out the voltage from the port it would be 5v.

[LandyMan]

Quickly did a very dangerous test: Unplugged the USB power only cable: "click click click click click" as if trying to spin, but just not getting there

[koffiejunkie]

Not all USB controllers can give enough juice to power a hard drive. I have a 5400rpm notebook disc in an enclosure - won't work without the second (USB-power) port also plugged in. I get exactly the same issues as you.

To make matters worse, I have only two available ports on my notebook, so I ended up buying a USB switch with an external power source to be able to use the external notebook drive properly.

[LandyMan]

Not all USB controllers can give enough juice to power a hard drive. I have a 5400rpm notebook disc in an enclosure - won't work without the second (USB-power) port also plugged in. I get exactly the same issues as you.

To make matters worse, I have only two available ports on my notebook, so I ended up buying a USB switch with an external power source to be able to use the external notebook drive properly.

Yeah, I have seen that happen before as well. What is just interesting to me is the fact that it works perfectly on one of the USB ports, but not on the other two

[koffiejunkie]

Possibly you have two USB controllers, one feeding one port, another feeding two.

[LandyMan]

Possibly you have two USB controllers, one feeding one port, another feeding two.

Check post #5 in this thread

[Gadget_guy]

I had the same problem, but this was only fixed when I plugged in the external power, in post #5 you said you did try that.

I blew the USB controller in the enclosure once when I had about 5 different adapters lying around and I plugged in the wrong one. I had to buy a new enclosure and then moved the drive to that enclosure and everything worked fine again.

[neio]

@ Bwana, why are you not sticking to your rule of no more than 499 post per user?

[bwana]

@ Bwana, why are you not sticking to your rule of no more than 499 post per user?

My rule was never becoming a master - 499 posts was just a factor of that.

[LandyMan]

My rule was never becoming a master - 499 posts was just a factor of that.

So you gonna recycle all the old ones now?