Question - PowerPC G5 USB Port Problems

[xBeeza]

I inherited a 1.8 Ghz PowerPC G5, OS X 10.4.11 that seems to work in fine except that all of the USB ports don’t work. They show up under System Profiler>About this Mac>More Info. The firewire ports seem to work. Has anyone else had this problem? I’m currently using a borrowed Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse with it so the Bluetooth works. Is there any built in Tiger or 3rd party utility I can use to test or fix these USB ports? Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[rdowns]

There is an Apple Hardware Test on the original install discs. You can try that. Sadly, if the USB ports don't work, a new logic board is the only thing that will fix it.

 

[velocityg4]

If they are bad you could always buy a cheap USB 2.0 expansion card. Though I do not think it will work for boot options. Once the OS has started to load USB devices will work fine.

 

[wpc33]

Though I do not think it will work for boot options.

PPC will not boot from USB, anyway. Ext. boot is Firewire.

 

[MacVidCards]

PPC will not boot from USB, anyway. Ext. boot is Firewire.

I imagine he wants to use boot options like "which disk to boot from" (Option Key)

Or "Firewire Target Mode" (T)

or "PRAM Reset" (Apple/Option P R)

None of those will likely work if the OS has to load a driver for a USB card first...hence not available @ boot.

 

[xBeeza]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not sure what "PPC will not boot from USB" means or whether I need it to. Basically what I was planning on doing is to use this as a file server to my other Mac Pro and Laptops. I was planning to load Leopard, install two 1.5TB drives and essentially use it as a remote Time Capsule (if I can get this to work) and auxiliary data storage for my EyeTV HomeRun Tuner and other backups. The Bluetooth and Firewire ports work. One of my concerns is that if I load Leopard will Bluetooth be enabled automatically so that I can use the BT Keyboard and Mouse to login. Or has anyone used one of these to substitute for the none working USBs or knows of an adapter for the firewire ports to USB Keyboard/Mouse?

http://www.greatcables.com/29554

Thanks

 

[velocityg4]

I imagine he wants to use boot options like "which disk to boot from" (Option Key)

Or "Firewire Target Mode" (T)

or "PRAM Reset" (Apple/Option P R)

None of those will likely work if the OS has to load a driver for a USB card first...hence not available @ boot.

This is what I meant by boot options.

Basically any keyboard or mouse command before the OS loads. You could not go into Open Firmware either. Install disc booting would be limited to either selecting the disc to boot from within Mac OS X or if no hard drive has an OS X installation. If the OP was having problems getting the OS to load it would be quite difficult to perform a DVD boot.

Anything like Safe Mode, Verbose and Single User would require editing the com.apple.boot.plist file.