USB ports on back of Cinema HD display

[tigress35]

Hi,

I have a 1.5 year old 23" Cinema HD display connected to a Mac Pro with 10.4.11 (all latest updates installed).

Over the past 2 days, upon awaking from sleep, my keyboard/pen tablet would not work. Initially I solved the problem by unplugging the display's USB (which the keyboard was plugged into.. pen tablet was plugged into keyboard) from the back of the Mac Pro and plugging it back in again. However it continued to happen, so I was hoping a restart might help things.

I restarted and after doing so, even unplugging the USB from the back of the Mac Pro would no longer make it work again. I now have the keyboard working again by having a USB hub acting as an extension cord plugged directly into the Mac Pro. That is not ideal, however, as it is an older USB 1 hub and my pen tablet's mouse was then now jerky (settings haven't changed and was smooth plugged into the keyboard), so I had to plug the pen tablet directly into the Mac Pro, losing another USB port, and ultimately, of course, I'd like all my equipment to be within working order and have those USB and Firewire ports on the display back.

Does anyone have any troubleshooting suggestions? The display seems to be working just fine otherwise *crosses fingers* Is there any way to fix this?

 

[sickmacdoc]

Well just a couple of things to throw out there troubleshooting-wise:

1. Does the problem you describe continue to happen if the other USB port on the back of the display is used?

2. If so, since you have some known good ports on the Mac Pro, does the problem continue when you plug the USB end of the Cinema Display cable itself into one of the known good USB ports on the Mac Pro while keeping the the keyboard and tablet plugged into the display?

3. Have you tried resetting the SMC (System Management Controller) with the instructions here for the MP: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1806 ? While I have not had this type of problem on my MP yet, failure to see ports (and ports operating erratically) did happen periodically on a G5 I had and resetting the PMU (as it was called on PPC Macs) normally took care of the problem. While it no longer calls out port problems specifically in this doc as it did in the PMU doc for the G5, I would certainly try it, hoping it was part of the "and so forth" that they do list!

 

[tigress35]

Thanks for your reply.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Tried, but I either failed to successfully reset it or it's not helping. I followed all the instructions, though the only thing I could think that I might have done wrong is plug the monitor in along with the mouse and keyboard (but keyboard and mouse plugged directly into Mac Pro) Otherwise I couldn't figure out how I'd know when my computer had finished booting or how to shut it down to plug in the rest of the peripherals.

I did have high hopes when I read the document, because I've also had the fan occasionally run super loud and have to either put the computer to sleep or restart it to get the fan to stop. Yesterday I also noticed the computer waking several times on its own from sleep. So I thought for sure that it all added up to that problem, but either I didn't reset it correctly or there's something else wrong.

After it didn't work the first time, I shut it all down again and tried to find the manual reset button inside my computer. I read some things about it being under drive 4 but I could not for the life of me find any diagnostic lights or anything I might be able to see under drive 4. I bought my Mac Pro in 2007 so I don't think the thing about it not existing would apply. I couldn't find any pictures that would help me locate it, so I just put the case back on and followed the instructions for resetting again, still no dice.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Wow- that is disappointing news.

You got me wondering where in the heck I had seen a pic detailing the location of the SMC switch in your model (since I couldn't just look in my early 08 MP because it doesn't have that switch any longer) and finally came up with the following shot that shows it (the white button) in relation to your logic board. Now finding it behind the drives and everything else is up to you! I too saw the note that it was behind the 4th drive slot, but from looking at this pic I don't know- it does look possible though. At least this will give you a target to search for- and since it meant to be reset I can't imagine it being too hard to get to. At least I hope for your sake, as what you want to do next is what I would do too.