USB power on new Unibody (mid-2010) Macbook Pros

[zorinlynx]

Hello everyone.

I read on various sites that the new Macbook Pros don't support two full power (500ma) USB devices at the same time on its built-in ports and will error out if you try. This concerned me as I often have two full power devices plugged in.

Today I connected two full power devices at the same time. One was a powered USB hub driving a keyboard, mouse, and USB headset. The other is a Simpletech 250GB USB hard drive. Everything worked fine. Not only did it work fine, but the new MBP has absolutely NO problem spinning up that external drive; my previous (2006) Macbook Pro would fail to spin it up about 4-5 times, then finally get it going. This impressed me greatly!

I guess this means the statement of only one full power device at a time is false? Maybe we should try to get this updated on the sites that claim that.

 

[Vanarak19]

try plugging in two hd's?

I have never tried, but I have had issues with the front port not powering always with other stuff when something heavy is in the back port.

 

[zorinlynx]

try plugging in two hd's?

I have never tried, but I have had issues with the front port not powering always with other stuff when something heavy is in the back port.

I actually tested this shortly after, as I got curious. I was about to *spin up* two HDs simultaneously and neither hiccuped.

This was impressive as my old MBP could barely do one.

So I'm thinking the "only one USB port is high power" thing is bollocks.

 

[Vanarak19]

I actually tested this shortly after, as I got curious. I was about to *spin up* two HDs simultaneously and neither hiccuped.

This was impressive as my old MBP could barely do one.

So I'm thinking the "only one USB port is high power" thing is bollocks.

ill try it again sometime this weekend with the drives I have. Im pretty sure its still an issue. I could be wrong, I sometimes am