Anyone ever managed to power a USB flash drive independent of the bus-power? [more inside]
posted by britain on Feb 20, 2008 - 10 answers

I have a Windows box (~1yr old) that spontaneously developed an eldritch USB failure mode: The first device I plug in works indefinitely, despite Windows' complaint of "power surge on hub port," but no additional devices I plug in respond at all, and if I remove and replace the first device, it no longer works. This condition can be reset by unplugging and replugging the motherboard front USB header. [more inside]
posted by DoubleMark on Feb 17, 2008 - 5 answers

Like most mefites, I have far too many gadgets, and the wall warts to match. I suspect most of them could be replaced with a single USB charger - is this something that already exists? [more inside]
posted by spaceman_spiff on Dec 28, 2007 - 8 answers

USB 2.0 PCMCIA cards on a Mac G4 Aluminum Laptop: Does the card brand matter? [more inside]
posted by sdis on Sep 30, 2007 - 0 answers

Instead of powering a device with 2 AA batteries, I'm interested in creating something that would allow it to draw power via USB. Is this possible? [more inside]
posted by Diskeater on Nov 30, 2006 - 17 answers

How many USB devices can I power from my system without problems? If USB devices are drawing too much power, which ones are best to off-load on to a self-powered USB hub? [more inside]
posted by gwenzel on Mar 20, 2006 - 10 answers

When I turn on the phantom power switch on my new Digidesign mbox, I get a warning that the device is pulling too much power from the USB port (and then it stops working). I'm using a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop, which is one of the recommended systems on Digidesign's site. I have Win XP Service Pack II installed. What gives? [more inside]
posted by grumblebee on Aug 21, 2005 - 26 answers

What do you do with the assortment of cabling and other electronic doodaddery (especially that not currently being used and not wanting to throw away!) that one tends to accumulate in the course of lifetime when you have a love of almost all things electronic? [more inside]
posted by dgeiser13 on Jul 21, 2005 - 34 answers

I'm setting up a new Mac Mini for someone. I needed to plug in a keyboard, a mouse, a printer, and, occassionally, a flash disk. I went with the Apple Pro keyboard because it had two USB ports. I figure, one for the mouse, and one for the flash disk. The printer could go in the other USB port on the machine itself. Well, I try plugging in the flash disk and I'm told there isn't enough power. Is this perhaps a software setting? Surely the flash disk can't use a tremendous amount of power, so can I do something to trick the system? Do I really need to buy a powered USB hub now? I might as well replace the mini and the keyboard with Airport-enabled equivalents, if I can never use both USB ports on the keyboard.
posted by odinsdream on Feb 22, 2005 - 18 answers