If the MacBook Pro is so good why does only 1 USB slot work?!

Oh, so i got my sleek and sexy MacBook Pro 15". It's beautiful, no question, and the software is great once you get used to it. It's not quite as fast as my Desktop windoze PC when it comes to editing, but its tiny and light so it's not fair to compare.

However, it comes with 2xUSB2.0 1xFW400 1xFW800. I dont have anything FW800 yet, so i guess like most people i don't use that. That leaves me with 3 ports for my external hard disks etc.

I'm right handed and like to use a mouse, so it makes sense to have my mouse in USB port on the right doesnt it? I thought so too. However the USB port on the left doesnt have enough power to boot my external (powered) Seagate 500gb drive nor any of my smaller 80gb pocket drives. It will power my USB thumb drive though. If i connect a usb hub on the left it will only power the mouse and my modem, nothing else.

So i now have to either use a hub the whole time or swap out drives... If you are planning on connecting 2 USB drives to your macbook 15" at the same time then you might have to think again, and i guess connecting 2 through a hub isnt going to be as fast as they will both be using the same I/O controller.

There are a few complaints on the web, but i guess most Mac users are too loyal to admit that there are any faults! I still havent admitted this to my pc using colleagues! I already overheated mine too

here is a link: CLICK HERE

But it is sexy, and whilst in the internet cafe i have notice more females coming to say hello since i bought my not-functioning-too-well fashion accessory! To quote MasterCard... MacBook Pro - two-thousand five hundred dollars, girls coming to chat me up... Priceless!

Hey didn't Mike tell you about bitching off topic in the video forum?

All my ports ran all of Robert's USB2 drives and his new MBP does too. However, not all USB drives are alike nor are all MBPs. So it's possible that your particularly attractive MBP (since I've never had girls approach me because of my computer, but I'm not interested in such shallow girls like that anyway ) needs a reset for the power management to reset the bus.

Suggestion #1.... reset pram and try again. The ports both are USB2.0 standard. If you are trying to run them while using battery power, the power management software sometimes plays volti"god" and lays famine to one port which hasn't been in use. If you run it in Boot Camp, both should run.

Suggestion #2.... you now have FW800... don't play with little children's USB2 drives anymore please

Laptops will never beat out desktops. Otherwise you'd lose your skin on your lap. Oh and using the MBP on surfaces like your bed is a no-no... even if your females want to look at your toy there

hmm, but how many ask what conditioner you use?!?

The new 131mb!!! software update that was released just now has an update for using USB external drives. i think most of the update is for the IPhone, which i dont have nor want.

I thought it was only windows that needed continual updates... My mac will be clogged up in a couple of months if they continue with releases at this rate.. ive already downloaded 250Mb of updates last week! Joy!

My seagate has e-sata... but i cant find where to buy the silly little PCI cards for the mac...

Besides... my old fujitsu had 4 USB 2.0 slots, all of which worked right out of the box!

Actually quite a few ask... and I always say...Phyto baby... the only way to go And you of all people should not be taking the piss on hair products. How is miss Snow in the Sahara wannabe? (If you can actually figure this one out, you deserve a beer!)

The Express Card/34 on offer for the Mac is all by the same manufacturers, Silicon Image chip 3132 which you can download the drivers from SI directly. Sabrent is the brand I bought for $50.

Btw save your safari browser before you do the update. 3.0.4 is unstable with 10.4.11. Keep your old safari elsewhere then try 3.0.4. If it's unstable... throw it out and use the old one.

Quicktime 7.3 also kills the QT MIME settings so Firefox can't use QT modules. You have to go to the QT MIME settings and reset to default.

girls and their hair products.. sheesh

All my holes work perfectly!! Just stuffed mine up to 4GB Ram too.....Mike et al, wanna giggle? Take a look at my blog for an image that took me Ten years to track down! I'm closest to the camera.......

BLOG

Cheers,

Mark.

Simon

Also don't upgrade from Software Update but download the 320MB Combo upgrade from Apple direct. It's more reliable to do it that way.

Mike, go buy a pair of long pants.

Hmm, maybe i'll wait until feb and then you can do it... or i'll go sit next to Robert and you can talk us both through it on the phone!

On my mbp:

I have my 2x 750GB+750GB External Raid 1 boxes daisy-chained on the Firewire 800 port.

I then connect their back-up drives in a daisy-chain on the Firewire 400 port.

that leaves me 2 USB 2.0 ports free. sweet.

I know you already have the USB-connected drives, but you will need to upgrade/get bigger ones sometime, or you could always just swap the drive into a firewire external case without too much expense.

daisy-chain is great as far as i can tell.

darren