iSight & External USB Hard Drive - Camera Wont Work

[mrclever80]

Hey everyone,

Here is my setup:

2009 MacBook Pro 13"
Western Digital External Hard Drive (1TB w/ its own power source)
Logitech Wireless Mouse

0 items plugged in USB = iSight works great with Yahoo
1 items plugged in USB = iSight will not even turn on
2 items plugged in USB = iSight works great with Yahoo

Any idea why the heck the computer does this? it does not matter the order or which of the 2 USB ports I use, this happens period. i hate talking to my wife and constantly (if I have to move or something) have her reconnect to my cam because it goes down when I unplug or plug only 1 item in. ITS FRUSTRATING!

Please Help!

 

[mrclever80]

no ideas?

 

[winninganthem]

Normal troubleshooting steps:
Reset the PRAM.
Reset the SMC.
Repair permissions.

After attempting these three things if you still have issues, contact Apple, because it sounds like a hardware issue.

 

[mrclever80]

Appreciate the info. I just gave all 3 of those a try as well as I got frustrated and wiped the hard drive and reinstalled the OS and I still have the same issue. A friend of mine who has a Mac said he had something kinda similar and says that is has to do with how Yahoo works on a Mac that for some reason the camera and USB powered devices do not work very well together. is that possible?

 

[striker9]

I would give Skype a try and see if you still have these problems. It could very well be software related.

 

[dsprimal]

yeah i was just about to say, try out skype!

 

[winninganthem]

Edit: Just reread your post.
If you already wiped the HDD and the problem still persists, this is further evidence that the problem is hardware and not software. Macs are supposed to work with devices, you shouldn't have problems plugging anything into it.

--

Oh, I just remembered, try log in on another user account to see if the iSight works on a different user. If it does, then there is something wrong with your user preference files and you need to trash your preferences.

---

I had a similar issue in the past where my iSight would work intermittently. Most of the time, however, System Profiler would say that there was no device present.

I eventually took my system to the Apple Store and told them I did everything software oriented to fix the issue (logging under different user, SMC reset, PRAM, etc). The genius said it was a hardware issue and sent in my system for repairs. After two weeks or so, I got my MBP back with a new logic board and camera and it now works flawlessly.

 

[mrclever80]

Thanks for all the feedback. i did find something else out while playing around. If I have only 1 device plugged in and THEN i start Yahoo, my webcam and such works. Once I unplug it, my webcam icon goes gray and I have to either log out of Yahoo messenger or plug something back into the USB port.

I tried logging into my wife's account on here and her profile does the same thing. If I can not figure this out, I will take it in and see what they say about it.