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USB ports too close

P

Politis

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 10, 2010
125
0
I did my research and users said in in 2008, in 2009 and 2010 and I just discovered it!
The 2 USB ports on MacBook Pro are TOO CLOSE. There are too many things I cannot plug in at the same time, for instance my memory stick and my external hard drive. :mad:

Does Mac ever learn or has it completely given up on its MBPs?

I know, some will say buy an extension. But why?
 
Politis said:
I did my research and users said in in 2008, in 2009 and 2010 and I just discovered it!
The 2 USB ports on MacBook Pro are TOO CLOSE. There are too many things I cannot plug in at the same time, for instance my memory stick and my external hard drive. :mad:

Does Mac ever learn or has it completely given up on its MBPs?

I know, some will say buy an extension. But why?
Click to expand...

Why? So that you can actually plug two USB devices into your MacBook Pro at the same time. You had to know they were too close when you purchased the MacBook, or you should have. It really isn't that big of a deal.

Politis said:
Does Mac ever learn or has it completely given up on its MBPs?
Click to expand...

Just a pet peeve of mine (especially since you might not be a native English speaker) but the company's name is "Apple".
 
NickZac said:
I agree it is often a frustrating design flaw/drawback.
Click to expand...

Strange i never noticed, probably because I have no problems with my mouse and hard drive plugged at the same time. Although I could see a poss problem with some of the older physically large usb sticks.
 
yeah, noticed that the other day when trying to plug in a flash drive...

but the only time I have two things in there is when I'm at the office, and one of those USBs is from the Apple Cinema Display.

So I just use the USB port on the back of the display.

Most mice/keyboards I use these days are Bluetooth anyway...
 
NickZac said:
I agree it is often a frustrating design flaw/drawback.
Click to expand...

the USB ports have to be this close because they are attached to the logic board. you can't make the logic board deeper because the battery is there. it's hardly a flaw. it's just a compromise.
 
I only use my USB ports every few months to plug in a printer or a flash drive...

One thing Apple could have done was place the USB ports with one port (minidisplay perhaps) in the middle?
 
The spacing between the MBP's USB ports conforms to the USB specification, and even has about a mm to spare. Unfortunately, there are a lot of USB devices that are wider than the width specification. Two plugs that meet the specs will easily fit, side by side.
 
This thread is the perfect accompaniment to the "Greasy Keyboard on my Display" and "My Mom and I Drop My Computer and it Sounds Bad/Apple Should Give Me Back My Busted Adapter" threads. All we need is a "The Laptop Edges are too Damn Sharp" and we'l have the complete set.

The USB ports are too close to fit a flash drive plus a regular cable, but two cables fit just fine.

By the way... I got a papercut on the box the laptop came in. The edges of the cardboard around the handle hole are very sharp. I cannot believe that Apple would make something like this. I would like to start a class action on behalf of all those who have had paper cuts inflicted on them by the box. Who's in?
 
You can get a Dlink USB Hub box or USB cable, either way you can get it. Be sure you use USB hub box with power adapter that don't want to ruin the battery down..

My older Dlink 1.0 hub box works great on my old sony lappy (USB 1.0) that was Ubuntu Linux automatic switched to USB 2.0. so My older Dlink hub box moved to near my Mac lappy it's only use a fan pad under of my mac lappy. I plan to get new USB 2.0 hub box or firewire hub box.
 
treestar said:
the USB ports have to be this close because they are attached to the logic board. you can't make the logic board deeper because the battery is there. it's hardly a flaw. it's just a compromise.
Click to expand...

It's a design flaw given it is one of the few complaints people have regarding MBPs. The logic board design and battery was made by Apple, and so it is a flaw. Two USB Flash drives will not fit very well side by side from many larger makers, especially the more durable drives with robust casings.

As far as those who are mocking the OP, your ability to think in a critical manner is disappointing. With this line of reasoning, possible responses to those who note that they can not use the two devices at the same time for certain devices would be:
"Well you don't need to be using two USB devices at the same time."
"You are plugging them in wrong."
"You are sitting your MacBook Pro on the wrong angle and so gravity is preventing this from working"
"It's an Apple and so you are an idiot to question this or any issue"
"Your USB device is a piece of crap"
"You should just shut up and use FireWire"
"You should use a hub"
"One USB port is all you need anyway"
 
do what i do (and no- i'm not annoyed by it - you'll get used to it)
get a 1/2/or 5 metre usb extender wire (very cheap) and plug that into one USB port --> In the other end plug whatever fat usb device you have (i have a CDMA modem), and use the 2nd usb port for w/e else you have
 
If Apple sold those the white usb cord extenders that come with the keyboards i'd buy about 4-5 if the price is right; we can't even use the full size ones because of that obnoxious little nub at the top.
 
Perhaps the problem is not with port spacing on the notebook, but with the size of the devices being plugged into them? I have noticed some cables seem to have larger ends and these conflict with each other.

I have switched out all my cables with what I call " notebook friendly" connectors.
 
terzinator said:
yeah, noticed that the other day when trying to plug in a flash drive...

but the only time I have two things in there is when I'm at the office, and one of those USBs is from the Apple Cinema Display.

So I just use the USB port on the back of the display.

Most mice/keyboards I use these days are Bluetooth anyway...
Click to expand...

Thats not true.
 
ummm, pretty sure this is an issue with just about all USB ports. Even my old desktops if you plugged in a USB stick into one of the back ports, you would lose access to the one right below it. Heck I have one USB stick that if you stuck it in any one of the USB ports in the back it blocked all 4. Simple solution is the USB extenders as mentioned earlier. A simple 1' long USB extension cable will fix the problem. These can be purchased for less than a dollar at monoprice.com Seriously.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_6 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E200 Safari/6533.18.5)

Obviously you guys have never built custom rigs before. The USB spacing on desktop motherboards is even worse.

If apple had to choose sacrificing a bit of battery life over USB spacing, I think we can all agree on which to choose.
 
vant said:
wirelessly posted (mozilla/5.0 (iphone; u; cpu iphone os 4_2_6 like mac os x; en-us) applewebkit/533.17.9 (khtml, like gecko) version/5.0.2 mobile/8e200 safari/6533.18.5)

obviously you guys have never built custom rigs before. The usb spacing on desktop motherboards is even worse.

If apple had to choose sacrificing a bit of battery life over usb spacing, i think we can all agree on which to choose.
Click to expand...

+1
 
johnnj said:
By the way... I got a papercut on the box the laptop came in. The edges of the cardboard around the handle hole are very sharp. I cannot believe that Apple would make something like this. I would like to start a class action on behalf of all those who have had paper cuts inflicted on them by the box. Who's in?
Click to expand...

I got a paper cut from my box when I opened my MBP. LOL. Bleed everywhere.
 
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