USB drawing too much power..disabled... No USB plugged into MacBook

My MacBook Pro 2008 15" unibody gave me the messages that says USB is drawing too much power. One or more USB ports disabled. etc... The only thing is, there are no USB devices plugged into the laptop. Also I don't currently have a battery in the laptop. I just ordered a new one and waiting for it to get here. Would I get this message because there is no battery installed and only running off of AC cord? Is there any other reason I might get this message with no USB devices plugged in?

It's never a good idea to run your MBP or any Apple notebook computer without its battery. I don't know whether or not that's causing the problem with the USB ports. Try the ports again once you install the new battery. You may have to do a SMC reset first. See this LINK.

Thanks for your input. That's what I planned on doing but I figured I'd post on here to see if anyone has heard of this before.

If there's anyone who has encountered this before and found a solution let me know. If not I'll just wait for the new battery. I'm installing lion on it now so I can run a Hardware Test via the Lion internet recovery to see if that brings anything up.

USB drawing too much power

Hi I am new on this forum and have same problem with mine MacBook pro 13" Mid 2010. Same message twice without anything pluged in USB ports. Another thing, the headphone connector also dont work and a green light on side of the camera is always on. I did all resets that i found on internet, reinstall OSX Mountain Lion and also run a hardware test (result - no issues found)
Also i did close up check of all connectors for some objects inside that could cause shortcut but didnt found anything.
Anything else works just fine (FireWire, mini display port, card reader, dvd drive, MagSafe, speakers etc.)
Any sugestions what could it be or what should i doo next?

Thanks Marcel

You say you don't have anything plugged in, but really there is things plugged in most people don't know this. Your Bluetooth card, Facetime camera, Keyboard and Trackpad are all USB and they are internal USB ports. It is easy to figure out which of these is at fault.

The simple one, the camera light being on that is a sign there is something wrong, have the camera checked out, probably needs replacing.

If you don't have a easy sign, first moving the mouse, if it moves then it is good. Then try typing, if the keys work, then it is not the keyboard. See if Bluetooth is turned on, if it is off try to turn it on, if it is on or turns on, then it is not that. Then, open photobooth or similar app and use the camera (you want a video and you want to get sound, it has 2 functions), if it records video and audio, then it is not the camera. If it is not a problem with any of these, then it could be a problem with the port, 1 drop of water is one of the causes for an empty port to do this.

So theoretically if i disconnect camera from logic board and then turn pc on i should enable all mi USB ports and headphones connector.

Marselus said:

So theoretically if i disconnect camera from logic board and then turn pc on i should enable all mi USB ports and headphones connector.

Click to expand...

With a problem with the camera it should only disable the port the camera is in, not anything else. If none of your ports are working there might be a problem with the logicboard. As for your headphones, those should not be affected by USB. But who knows, it could be shorting something else out causing the problem, It is worth a shot.

So i have disconnect the camera, but still same thing. Usb message and headphones not working, everything else is ok. Probably need new logicboard :-(
Will try to get it repaired by profesionals maybe they will do it cheaper than changing the logic board.

Is the "logicboard" the same thing as the motherboard? A friend recently had the latter replaced on his MBA, at 9 months old.

Yes its the same thing

Hi
So i have found other(used but working) logicboard from same macbook as i have but has got faster processor. Mine is 2.4GHz and the one i have found is 2.6GHz, can anyone tell me if it will fit into mi Macbook?
Thanks Marcel

This thread is worrying me. Is failure of motherboards (logic boards) on Apple machines a common thing? I know several people here who in the past year have had it happen to them, and I just put it down to overheating from inadequate cooling provision. But it seems to be routine. In all my years with Windows laptops and desktop machines (going right back to the beginning) I've only had one motherboard fail, and that necessitated complete replacement of the machine. The mother/logic board is the most expensive component in the machine. Given local experiences here I find this very worrying.