Failing USB ports 2011 Imac

srichards · 9 Feb 2015

Anyone else had this problem? Scanner not recognised and I swapped the hub over onto another port. Then it's fine... swapped back. Gone. Swapped another device to the iffy port, not recognised. Aarrgghhh.

Bit cheesed off as it is just a few weeks outside of applecare so I have to make a consumer law claim with Apple.

ancient_mariner · 9 Feb 2015

USB ports on my Macbook were really fussy about what they would recognise. I'm not sure whether it's a deliberate design tweak (they always worked OK with Apple kit) or simply shockingly bad manufacturing quality. If consumer law will help you get it fixed then that would be great.

redsnappa · 9 Feb 2015

We have a suite of 25 macs at work and 18 of them have the same issues you have described. It is obviously a design issue.

srichards · 9 Feb 2015

I never had any usb issues with any Mac before this one. This iMac has been rubbish. I've wasted loads on replacement hubs, scanners and messing about the last year or so as I assumed it had to be the old device at fault not the newer Mac!

I think it is duff. It's not the quality I expect either. I also had massive screen burn issues as well. Should have rejected it then and insisted on a replacement. It's just always been far too inconvenient to be without it. Still is.

redsnappa · 10 Feb 2015

The build quality of Apple products used to be superb when they were niche products but now they are mainstream product build quality issues are creeping in to their products.

PDub · 10 Feb 2015

I have this kind of issue on my mid 2011 27" imac. It seems like theres not enough power to distribute across 4 USB's when theyre all connected, when i disconnect one USB the one that didnt work now works.

Merluza · 10 Feb 2015

I've had this problem from time to time but I usually blame the hub rather than the Mac and if it's something important like a hard drive I plug it in direct. It also depends what you're running and how much juice it, and everything else, needs. The only sure way is to get a powered hub and plug it into the mains.

srichards · 10 Feb 2015

I have got a powered hub. It's been the same with several hubs, 4 different scanners, 2 eye tv thingies and 2 iPods, 2 Nokia phones. All have had issues. It's clearly the Mac that's faulty. It quite often works ok for months at a time. Then it has the fritz for no reason which is why I didn't think it was definitely that. Now the restart or swap about isn't working so whatever was iffy must be worse

Cameras have been less problematic and generally all of them have been fine. All plugged into powered hub that scanners plug into that periodically disappear...

srichards · 14 Feb 2015

It's still away at the repairers. Apple have supplied a new logic board and a new screen. I also had the screen stain/lcd burn issue as well as dust getting in behind the front which can't be cleaned without disassembly.

I'm totally discombobulated without my desktop Mac!

Pookeyhead · 22 Feb 2015

I'll add my 2p worth here. The darkrooms at work are exclusively Mac based, and use a mix of slightly older 23" iMacs (around 2012 or so I think) and a few 27" new iMacs. Around a third of the older iMacs have had issues with USB ports not working. It turned out that it was students plugging in USB hubs and running several devices off them. They're just weak and high power draw has just broken them. It will refuse to work if you exceed the current draw limits, so even though the students were abusing them, they must have been working within design parameters.

Just poor quality and poor design.

No issues with the 27" iMacs though. I know they're newer, but so far it seems the 23" iMacs are only an issue.

srichards · 22 Feb 2015

Got it back last week and forgot to update this thread. Doh! Consumer law claim successful. Logic board and screen replaced (dust inside and intermittent screen burn). Just got the hassle of getting the inspection fee back as it isn't automatic.

I've only ever used a powered hub with mine so power usage shouldn't have been an issue. The standard wired keyboard comes with a further 2 usb ports on it. Apple clearly think you need to daisy chain multiple usb devices. The rear usb sockets in my old one were poor and loose feeling. The replaced one is at least slightly better in this respect.

All usb sockets are used on the machine itself with one going to hub and that has several things plugged in but normally only a couple would be active at once. Most people would have half a dozen usb items at least so to not cater for this is daft.

I can only think if one of the items plugged into a non powered hub is a mobile phone getting charged/plugged in this is why they're tripping out. I don't use mine for that. The only charging item I use with it is a bluetooth device. That is only ever plugged in once every week or two for a couple of hours. But again with a powered hub it shouldn't be an issue.