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Turning off Mac's USB ports

Ian Osborne

JREF Kid
Ian Osborne
Joined
Aug 4, 2001
Messages
8,957
Mac question: does anyone know a way of turning off broken USB ports, to avoid this after every restart? At the moment, I just turn the notifications off until the messages stop, but I'd prefer a more permanent solution.

picture.php
 
Ian Osborne said:
Mac question: does anyone know a way of turning off broken USB ports, to avoid this after every restart? At the moment, I just turn the notifications off until the messages stop, but I'd prefer a more permanent solution.

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=885&pictureid=10278[/qimg]
Click to expand...

Hmmm. According to this:

http://www.mac-forums.com/apple-notebooks/310529-popular-usb-devices-disabled.html

Your usb port is already turned off. That's why you're getting the overcurrent warning. Recently upgraded to El capitan? This might be a thing. Take out the battery? Do not trust anyone who tells you to take it to the Apple store.
 
Thanks. :-)

From the link, it looks like it might be a logic board problem, which is not good. I've ordered a new front panel board and cable, which I'll fit myself to see if that works. If not, it's time for a trip to the Apple Store.
 
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Ian Osborne said:
Thanks. :-)

From the link, it looks like it might be a logic board problem, which is not good. I've ordered a new front panel board and cable, which I'll fit myself to see if that works. If not, it's time for a trip to the Apple Store.
Click to expand...


I'm a little wary of the logic board diagnosis especially if you just upgraded to El Capitan. It might be a bug. I would stick to the easy things first. What did you have plugged into the usb drive. Did you try a different cable? That kind of thing.

You also might want to reset the SMC:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Good luck.
 
The two front-panel USB ports actually broke while I was on Yosemite, but the notifications stopped coming for some reason, so I left it. When I upgraded to El Capitan, they returned. The FireWire ports on the front panel board are fine, though.

I've tried the SMC - no luck. :-(

Thanks for all your help and advice.
 
Ian Osborne said:
The two front-panel USB ports actually broke while I was on Yosemite, but the notifications stopped coming for some reason, so I left it. When I upgraded to El Capitan, they returned. The FireWire ports on the front panel board are fine, though.

I've tried the SMC - no luck. :-(

Thanks for all your help and advice.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by 'broke'? What are the symptoms? What devices had you plugged in?
 
elgarak said:
What do you mean by 'broke'? What are the symptoms? What devices had you plugged in?
Click to expand...

By 'broke', I mean they're dead - nothing I plug into them, such as flash drives or portable drives, is seen by the Mac. They died when I was using them to copy an SSD, in a USB docking station. Never worked since. :(
 
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