imac shorting flash drives

[rfomlover]

One of the imac in my house keeps breaking flash drives. They work fine on all other computers but if I plug one into the imac it doesn't work on the imac or ever again on any other computer or radio. I've tested 2 old flash drives and I get the same result. They never even power on. So confused. And now I've lost all sorts of data. Any body heard of this?

 

[chscag]

The only way that would happen is if your iMac was driving the flash drive with too much power. That might occur if your USB ports on the iMac are not working right. Flash drives, especially the cheaper ones, are easily damaged.

 

[pigoo3]

I was thinking the same thing. USB ports are putting out too much power for some reason. Could harm other USB devices as well. Any problems with keyboards or input devices (mouse) plugged into this computer?

If too much power to the USB ports is the problem…not sure if there is a fix. You could try an SMC Reset just in case:

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) - Apple Support

- Nick

p.s. By the way…what model iMac are we talking about? I hope it's not an ancient 15 year old G3 iMac!

 

[rfomlover]

Mice and keyboards don't work either unless bluetooth. External hard rives and iPhones work without issue. I forgot the x,x but is a 24" aluminum 2.8 ghz core 2 extreme. Got it new Jan of 2008.

 

[dotdotdot]

Flash drives don't work on my iMac, either. Never did, right out of the box. I confirmed that it was a good drive, on my mother's Toshiba.

 

[chas_m]

I wonder if the reason these drives "don't work " after a while is because you're not properly ejecting them?

 

[rfomlover]

SMC reset made my laptop faster but the imac is still being slow. Dont want to try another flash drive.