Quirky USB port on Mac mini

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mudogramx's picture
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Quirky USB port on Mac mini

I have a rev A Mac mini at 1.42 ghz. I bought an iPod shuffle a few days ago. I leave it plugged in so it keeps a constant charge until I am ready to use it. I cannot put my mini into sleep mode while it is plugged in because it cannot charge. Something weird happened this morning. I noticed that my shuffle had a flashing amber light on it. I thought that was strange since it had been plugged in all night. I checked in iTunes, and sure enough it said no iPod connected. I tried resetting the shuffle to no avail. Thinking it was the USB port, I plugged in my keyboard. The keyboard did not work. At this point I thought my 2nd USB port was fried. That didn't make sense. I rebooted my mac and its working again. Has anyone else had this problem, and if so what is causing it? Thanks.

Whosawhatsis's picture
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I don't know what happened to

I don't know what happened to your USB port (although I seem to remember similar problems on my old Bondi, usually causing my mouse to stop working while I was playing a game), but I just thought I'd jump in and recommend getting a powered USB hub if you want to keep your shuffle charged without keeping the mini awake.

Jon
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Was anything else plugged int

Was anything else plugged into the USB port too? I get errors if I have my keyboard & mouse on one port of my Mini, and then try to plug in a CF Card reader into the second port of the keyboard. Too much power draw. I'd follow the above advice and try a powered hub, as then you wouldn't have to worry about keeping the Mini on all the time.

I also wonder if the Shuffle does a "deep sleep" mode like other iPods? ISRT my iPod (3G) staying on when plugged into an active machine, but that is with FW.

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I have a USB 2.0 External HD

It has 3 additional USB ports on it. It has its own power supply independent from the mini. I am not at my computer right now (at work) so I can't try that at the moment. Also, the shuffle is plugged into its own port. My mini would not recongnize my shuffle until I did. I have my HD plugged into the other port with my Apple Keyboard (with USB 1.1 hub) + DVD Burner plugged into it. It has two free ports (one on the front and one on the back). My shuffle wouldn't work through the front port. A USB 1.1 device did, which is strange. I never tried the back. I have quite a few USB devices so maybe I'm overloading it? I'm having a USB dilemma, lol. Sounds like a new disease.

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similair problems

Similair stuff has happened on my late ibook G3 Dual USB. I had problems with the USB drive I had attached to it. It would require a restart to get it to working. It seems to have something to do with when there are a lot of errors with data on the port, that it shuts it down. You might want to try to reset the power manager. I had also seen the symptoms on the FireWire ports as well. I think it is mostly a power manager problem.

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I will try that

When I get home. Thanks!

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