Freeze on Start Up... USB related

[iriejedi]

I have seen this in the past with other Mac towers so I was able to trouble shoot quickly but now I'm wondering what is the actual cause and thought maybe some could explain.

My new mac Pro (sorta new Early 2008) - would not boot this morning. It 'bonged' and then sat at the Grey screen. 3 times I tried this and with slightly elevated blood pressure tried with some optimism experience unpluging all USB cords... this would be 23inch monitor plug (for monitor ports) and a mouse in the 2nd back USB slot. I had a new shuffle in the front slot for the first failed start up.

After being unplugged it worked just fine...

Anyone have an high level explanation of why a USB device can stop a boot up?

Thanks for the learning tid bit.

IJ

 

[rness024]

Same problem

I just experienced the same or very similar issue on my newish (6 months) mac mini. My computer would begin to reboot, and freeze on the apple screen. Right after I unplugged a usb drive that I had in there and it started working.

I can't explain it, I'm just relieved that it works now. backup in progress.