ibook with usb hub?

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right i bought a generic "safecom" 4 port usb 2.0 hub today i have 2 printers plugged into it, yet when i plug it into my ibook it will not recognise it? it says on the box that it is mac compatible, i plugged it into my pc to check it works, and it recognised it instantly.


any ideas then guys on how to get this thing to work then?

cheers, Paul
 

rman


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Here is my guess. Does your iBook support USB 2.0 or 1.2?
 
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its a brand new ibook out of the box today, so i presume usb 2.0, i looked in the system profiler under usb and it recognises the hub, but it wont recognise the printers i have plugged into it
 

dtravis7


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What printers are they? Brand and Model?
 
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a canon pixma ip4200, bought from the apple website! and the brother hl-2030 both of them work fine when plugged directly into the laptop just not with the hub, i also tried my cameras and usb sticks in the hub and still nothing, yet it all works fine when i plug it into my windooze pee cee :eek:neye:
 
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It sounds like the hub is either defective or you didn't plug in its power.
I'd say number one.
 
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johninc said:
It sounds like the hub is either defective or you didn't plug in its power.
I'd say number one.

its a passive usb hub, which should be fine for printers, and i can't imagine that it is defective since i have now tried it on 3 different pc's and it worked fine on all of them..... :eek:neye:
 
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on my ibook i also have a generic (though only 1.1) USB hub and it works just fine with everything that i plugged in so it shouldn't be the ibook
 
U

ultrablue

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I have found it best to use active hubs for printers, keyboards, mice... just the stuff that are going to sit at your desk.

As for your problem here, you might want to return it and try another brand. Some "OSX compatible" products have not worked with my ibook in th epast.
 

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On my Mac Mini I have an Off Brand USB 2.0 4 Port Hub. It's powered and works with everything I plug into it, Printers, Scanners, USB Sticks, ETC. It was the cheapest one in the store.

It's a Dynex. Got it at Best Buy 6 months ago.
 
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I think the reason you USB hub is not working is because the ibook USB ports are not powered. If you plug in the A/C adapter it should work.
 
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Sorry to ask the obvious but...

Do the printers work if they are connected to the iBook directly, avoiding the hub?
 
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radarbob

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Yeah, what mig.gentry said. And Macintosh needs drivers for the printers just like a PC does.

USB is designed to be "daisy chained" but is there a driver for the USB hub? I wouldn't think so, but check on the mfgrs web site.

Let us know how it works out.
 

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