Generic USB hub driver

[snorby]

I just got a generic USB hub (4 ports) as a gift from a company. There is no indication of the brand at all either on the hub itself or its box. I plugged it in my MacMini and nothing happens (which seems pretty normal) but then I tried to plug different types of USB devices (both USB1 and USB2 devices) in the hub and none is detected. I tried the hub on my Windows PC and it is immediately detected as a "generic USB hub", and all USB devices work perfectly with it. I looked at the properties of the device in the Windows device manager, but there is still no indication of the type of chipset included (just "generic usb hub").

Is there a way to scan usb ports under Mac OS X ? Something like the lspci command under Linux which scans PCI devices and reports chipset types ? I tried to look at various logs but I cannot find any trace of the hub or the devices I tried to plug in it.

Thanks

 

[MisterMe]

First, when asking for help with a peripheral or peripherals, name the peripherals at issue.

Next, Macs do not show empty drives and vacant ports. If you insert removable storage in a powered drive, then it will mount the storage volume. As for those other USB devices, they may be use bus power or require external power. Whatever the power source, it needs to be powered on to show up. Some devices are plug and play. Others require user-installed drivers to operate. Printers and scanners fall into this category. Some of these require setup after the drivers are installed.

Without a clue what your problematic peripheral(s) might be, there is nothing more that I can say.

 

[snorby]

My post probably wasn't clear enough, but my problem is precisely that I don't know exactly what type of USB hub it is, since there is no indication at all on the device and I received it without any kind of instructions. Though, I am asking if someone knows a command or software that could tell me which chipset is included in the hub, so I can try and find a driver somewhere. I tried to find some software to scan USB ports and report information on connected devices but couldn't find anything useful yet.

Thanks.

 

[MisterMe]

My post probably wasn't clear enough, but my problem is precisely that I don't know exactly what type of USB hub it is, since there is no indication at all on the device and I received it without any kind of instructions. ...

You said that you "... tried to plug different types of USB devices (both USB1 and USB2 devices) in the hub ..." You don't know which types of devices those are?

 

[snorby]

My bad, I didn't understand you were talking about the devices I tried to plug into the hub. Here is the list :

• A 5-buttons Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical mouse, which is the mouse I currently use with my MiniMac
• My standard 109-keys USB Apple keyboard
• An USB2 512 MB Verbatim memory stick (formatted as FAT)
• An USB1 generic (no brand) 32 MB memory stick (formatted as FAT)

All these devices work without an external power supply and work perfectly when I plug them directly into the USB ports of my MacMini. However, when I plug them (one at a time) into the hub, the memory stick volumes are not mounted, the mouse cursor does not move and nothing happens when I press a key. Basically, it looks like the devices I plug into the hub are not even detected by the OS.

Thanks.

 

[snorby]

Well I finally booted my PC with a Linux live CD to use the usbview application, and found that my mysterious USB hub is indeed a "generic copy" (i.e. with no brand on it) of this model http://www.typhoon.de/en/art.php?p=630&pv=3 which according to the manufacturer's site requires Windows to work. I tried to find a Mac OS driver for this model but didn't find any, so I guess this is a lost cause.

 

[jeremy.king]

I didn't realize a hub needs drivers

You can scan the USB bus with the Apple System Profiler application and selecting USB under Hardware - you should see all connected devices.

 

[snorby]

I too thought that USB hub didn't need drivers as I thought they are basically the same kind of hardware that manage USB ports included in the MacMini for instance. Here, I believe the chipset included in this low-cost hub is not recognized by the system, which thus does not recognize to what kind of device it is talking to. When I use the system profiler (can't believe I didn't think of using it, I am too much of a Linux user still, I always try the command line to solve problems ), the hub simply does not appear in the hierarchy of USB periphericals.

Thanks anyway for the help.