USB PORT QUESTION

[cgratti]

On the Mac keyboard there are 2 USB ports, I have my mouse in 1 of those ports and nothing in the other. I tried to put a card reader in the port and got an error that it is drawing too much power and is being deactivated.

My question is this: Why would apple even bother putting 2 USB ports on the keyboard if they are too weak to run anything but a mouse? My iPod Mini dock, or scanner can't use it either.

What a waste of a USB port IMO.

 

[devilot]

My digital camera can be plugged in... my USB stick can be plugged in...

 

[livingfortoday]

Well, the keyboard ports are un-powered, just like you can buy a hub that's unpowered. It can serve devices that don't need to draw power from it, for example I have an external hard drive hooked up to one side of my keyboard right now, because it draws power from an AC adapter.

If you want a powered port, I recommend a USB hub.

 

[alex_ant]

It works with any self-powered USB device. Mice are actually not self-powered, they just use very little power. Printers, scanners that have AC adapters, digital cameras, most gamepads, etc. will all work. It would be nice if they keyboard could be its own powered hub without having to have a separate power source, but I think it's a limitation of the USB spec that prevents it.

 

[Heb1228]

It might work if you unplug the mouse and try one device at a time. Its always worked with everything I've plugged into one.

 

[strider42]

What a waste of a USB port IMO.

Well, since its a free port that doesn't sacrifice, its kind of hard to call it waste. It works fine with plenty of low power devices (which is what all non powered USB ports are meant for). And its also kinda useful for those that want their mouse on left side of the keyboard.

 

[thomasp]

The only things I can't run in my Pro Keyboard (on a g3 iMac) is my USB2 pendrive and an external floppy drive (which hasn't been used in ages!). But, those don't run in my hub unless I plug that into the mains.

Things like printers, digital cameras, ZIP drives, and Harman Kardon speakers seem to run fine. I even had an ISDN modem running from there a while ago.

 

[jamesW135]

The usb hub on the keyboard are USB 1.1 you need 2.0 for a usb card

 

[Erendiox]

You know, interestingly enough, I find that if I plug in one of those usb splitters and connect from there, it allows me to plug in a bunch of devices I normally couldn't plug in. I have a 1 to 4 little USB hub and for some reason, while my USB stick normally gives me a low power error, when I plug in the hub to the keyboard, and the stick to the hub it works fine 🙄 . I can't see how this makes any sense, since i'd think the hub would just subtract power from the situation. Anyway, just thought i'd share. 🙂

 

[TheMonarch]

...What a waste of a USB port IMO.

What about lefties? 🙂