> From: Donald Keenan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Yeah, I am confused about the power issue. On the one hand, I thought > usb peripherals didn't need the support of a hub and I thought the > wording on the box of the superdisk implied that it didn't need an > additional source of power to operate. When I bought it from the Apple > store, the marketing of the product implied that one simply plugged it > in and voila, it works. So I was naive on that account.
You weren't naive, Apple was naive. The superdisk SHOULD work exactly as you describe, but it's just a badly-designed product that draws more power than it should in some situations, causing problems. Hopefully future versions of the OS will find a more graceful way of dealing with this phenomenon. I suspect that the problem is that Superdisk's power requirements from the USB bus fall close to the maximum. The manufacturers forgot to account for the idea that some other power-drawing devices (like the mouse) might be on the same bus. This is JUST a theory, not fact, but it neatly explains the problem. What I see happen a lot is that people tend to plug in SEVERAL self-powered devices into their Macs (or an unpowered hub) and get confused/angry when they don't work right. The USB bus can only hand out a finite (and rather small) amount of power, and apparently doesn't handle overdemand very well at all. > I also thought that the purpose of usb hubs was to give one more ports > and didn't realize that they are necessary as an intermediary device to > power devices so that one could use the ports already built into the > computer. No, that's not correct. Powered USB hubs are needed to give one more ports and to provide additional power for "self-powered" devices. See the paragraph above, there is only a finite amount of power that can travel on a USB bus. > The impression I've had is that people could even daisy chain > devices without a hitch. You can, if they are not "self-powered." > seems to suggest I won't be able to use those ports without the > support of a hub for anything more than my keyboard itself and the > mouse. No, that's not true. Lots of devices (even self-powered ones) work fine connected directly to the Mac's USB ports or the keyboard "extra" port -- just not the SmartDisk, apparently. > And now I suspect that the same is true > of firewire ports? Definitely not. Let me put it this way: Intel created the USB port. Apple designed the Firewire port. Guess which one has fewer problems? _Chas_ Come to ... The CHASbah! http://thechasbah.blogspot.com **Go see BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE. It may change your life.** -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | - Epson Stylus Color 580 Printers - new at $69 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> iMac List info: <http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/imac-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
