Take a look at a Macbook Pro, specifically the USB ports. Spot any differences? Anything to suggest one may be hiding a secret? No? Well although the USB ports on the Macbook Pro look identical it seems Apple has a little surprise attached to the rear port (closest to the screen).
The rear USB port actually connects to a hidden (internal) USB Hub, which is also shared by the keyboard, Bluetooth, track pad, iSight camera and the infra-red receiver. While it is still a functional USB port for the most part, certain devices can have problems, caused by the USB hub.
Our attention was brought to this issue when we tried to use a USB hub on one of our own in the rear port. It seemed to be working as expected at first, however we were confused to find that when we attempted to use a USB headset in the external hub we found Skype calls would have quality issues. We also noticed a form of lag when using a mouse in the hub.
We found that a simple swap of the USB hub from the rear to the front USB port on the Macbook cleared all the issues! A little investigating and we uncovered the Macbook Pro’s secret hub. This explained the problems we’d experienced, considering having a USB hub plugged into a USB hub has never been a recommended setup!
Tags: Apple, macbook pro, USB Hub
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hello there
wonder if you’ve encountered this with mac book pro..?
my wife just bought a brand new one and as soon as she plugged it in and went online – using wifi through our our BT homehub – my pc started experiencing all sorts of net issues, crashes, up/downloading problems that simply weren’t there before… i wouldn’t mind but i’m connected via an ethernet cable! any clues as to what my be causing this… her old imac (about 4 years old, also using the wifi, causes none of these problems..
does this make any sense or have you heard of these issues before??
any help gratefully recived!!
thanks
robert
Hi Robert,
We don’t normally support home user gear, but as you’ve taken the time to read and comment on our blog we thought you should probably respond
There are certain technologies that Mac OS X uses to advertise and find services on networks. It’s entirely possible that there is something on your computer that isn’t liking the “new” and increased network traffic. It seems a bit unlikely, however.
I’ll be honest it sounds much more likely that your PC has some form of nasty on it, which it contracted at roughly the same time as your new Mac arriving.
If your PC is still having problems with the new Mac not on at all, or at minimum not connected to the network, we’d suggest running a quick malware scan either using the free Microsoft Security Essentials (available from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ – I know that it’s free and from Microsoft but we’ve been pleasantly surprised by it), or with MalwareBytes Anti-Malware (available from http://www.malwarebytes.org).
apple macbook pro mb990lla 13 inch…
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