Plugged external hard drive into brand new macbook to begin moving music files over. Worked fine, but needed to move computer. Moved computer, and plugged external hard drive into 2nd usb port (the one closer to the front of the laptop) and it immediately cut my laptop off!! Cut back on, tried plugging just the usb cord into the port (no longer connected to anything) and it cut off again! Tried reseting SMC (ctrl-cmd-option-pwr or whatever) to no avail. Now charger just blinks this very dim red/orange color and nothings happening. What have I Done?????
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External Hard Drive Fried My Brand new 13in!!
- Thread starter jet0226
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Make an appointment with Apple. Does the "white LED" on the computer blink (meaning is it on)? Could be a logicboard. I plugged in a USB HUB into my first MBP and coincidentally my logicboard went out. It was a model of USB hubs that Apple sells in the store.
Sounds like you didn't do anything wrong. New computers do go bad on occasion. The good news is it's under warrantee and if you call Apple they will make it right.
I take it that when you say you moved the mbp you had stopped the transfer...
I take it that when you say you moved the mbp you had stopped the transfer...
@HBOC - no the white light does not blink. Nor does the battery meter on the side. It's like the thing is completely dead. I have an appointment at the apple store tonight, just wanted to know if anyone had experienced this.
@xlii - I actually never even started transferring information - simply had the external drive's folder open and was browsing the files.
@xlii - I actually never even started transferring information - simply had the external drive's folder open and was browsing the files.
Be sure to try to get them to replace it rather than fix it. Reason is that for (14?) days after purchase you'll be using the return policy rather than the warranty.
why are you using usb hard drives? they are super slow. use firewire, it's 3x as fast. or even thunderbolt now that it's becoming available. you *can* fry a logic board by using a usb hard drive that draws too much current, as the larger and faster drives tend to do. firewire on the other hand, provides quite a lot more bus power than usb, so you can freely use the biggest and fastest drives out there without worry.
How big of an external HD are we talking about that requires so much power that it fries the MBP? I ask because I may purchase a 2TB ext HD soon to Time Machine with my MBP/future iMac.
Any of the current ones that are AC powered don't draw power from the computer at all; they're self-powered. That said, the portable ones that are USB-powered should be able to be powered by any modern computer with at least USB 2.1
All 3.5" drives on the market today require an A/C adapter. I'm talking about bus powered 2.5" drives. USB provides only 500mA of current, while many of the biggest and fastest 2.5" drives require slightly more than that.