Is my USB port broken?

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Hey everyone.

I have had my first MacBook Pro for a few months now and love it.

I have a weird issue with one of the USB Ports though. The one next to the magnetic power adapter doesn't seem to want to run an external Hard Drive through it.

When I plug in an external hard drive it doesn't register on the Mac and I hear a faint clicking sound from the External Hard Drive. I have tried a couple of different hard drives, with the same effect.

Other devices work fine, such as my graphics table, keyboards, etc. I wonder if the port isn't supplying enough power for an external hard drive?

Is this normal? it's a bit annoying as I have a couple of external hard drives that I want to connect at the same time.

Thanks

Mark
 
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I'm not sure if it's normal but I have the same problem with my macbook.
 
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Could it be that one USB port is not as fast as the other? Hmm I dunno, I never tried it on mine. If you have a little portable flash drive thing.. try using that and see if that works
 
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Not all external hard drives will run straight from USB ports without a separate PSU providing the power to the drive. MacBook Pro's do seem to have low power USB outlets (mine won't even charge my Blackberry). There has been some discussion on this forum so would suggest you do a search. The other solution is to buy a powered USB hub to connect your hard drives to.
 
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Not all external hard drives will run straight from USB ports without a separate PSU providing the power to the drive. MacBook Pro's do seem to have low power USB outlets (mine won't even charge my Blackberry). There has been some discussion on this forum so would suggest you do a search. The other solution is to buy a powered USB hub to connect your hard drives to.

Wow, that's a bit rubbish!

The Hard Drive does work off the other USB port, and also on other laptops, so that isn't the problem.... unless that particular USB port doesn't deliver as much power as the other one.

I'll have a search.

Cheers
 
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Aha.. I see..

Mark, read this:

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/05/the-macbook-all.html

you will see in the comments below that this also seems to effect the MacBook Pro, which is what I believe you are experiencing.

Aha... so I was right. Oh well. At least now I know. Looks like I have one Eternal HDD at a time. Unless I get a mini hub and power them both off the decent USB port and leave the one at the back for my graphics tablet.

Thanks or the link.... most useful.

Makr
 

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