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General discussion

Non responsive USB ports Power MAC G4 Tower

Feb 13, 2011 10:04AM PST

Techs, My G4 Tower went to sleep a couple days ago and when I powered back up the USB ports are not working. I have been to a few help forums and I guess my question is, without USB support you have no keyboard and without a keyborad how can I perform and of the suggested remedies? HELP!
Geemac

Discussion is locked

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Two possibilities
Feb 13, 2011 11:45AM PST

Two possibilities exist, and odds are very good the both of them will lead to the same ultimate conclusion that you need a new logic board.

The first possibility is if you have a bluetooth module (internal) for the computer. Then you could use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

The second possibility is finding a PCI USB add-in card that would work with whatever version of OS X you're running.

But it sounds like your USB controller died, which is about the only way all the ports would go bad at once. Of course it would be a good idea to test this by just making sure you have a USB mouse plugged in (optical), flip it over, then turn the computer on. If you see a red light at any point, then the hardware is clearly functional at the open firmware level and you have an OS problem. That would be what you want to see, but probably what you won't see. And that system is on the vintage list for sure, quite possibly the obsolete, so your only real hope of fixing it would be to scrounge ebay and the likes. Not really a good idea since you never know what other issues may be present, the person may not have any idea how to handle sensitive electronics, pack them correctly, etc.

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Great feedback..
Feb 14, 2011 1:07AM PST

Thanks for the feedback. The system powers up but, osx loads in, screen shows but no ubs support for mous or keyboard...I purchased it a few years ago to lern the MAC invironment. So it was no huge investment but very helpful to me. I would hate to lose all my info due to not being able to access it again...

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All you'd have to do
Feb 14, 2011 9:13AM PST

All you'd have to do is pull the drive, slap it in an external enclosure and connect it to another Mac to get your data. Not that difficult.

But if you tested as I said, and at no point does the red light turn on on the mouse, then you quite probably have a rather dodgy USB device that was plugged into that computer. The most likely reason for the USB controller suddenly giving out is that something sent a massive surge down the line and fried it.

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I guess you tried another USB device
Feb 14, 2011 8:49PM PST

in those ports.
Like another keyboard and mouse?

Just asking

P