Use a USB charger with a newer PowerBook and 10.3

Nov 04, '04 08:39:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

For years, I've traveled with a USB charger for my cell phone and PDA -- it saves on lugging extra adapters when I travel. Once I switched to a 15" Al Powerbook (with OS X), my USB adapters stopped working. I was stunned, amazed, and frustrated, as Apple's tech support considers USB chargers devil spawn, and refused to consider inadequate power to a usb port a real problem.

Of course, all my other USB peripherals worked (scanners, USB drives). It was just that the USB chargers demand a lot of power, and they just weren't getting enough. I have been assuming this was a problem between USB 1.1 and the newer USB 2.0 ports on my new PowerBook. I was just getting prepared to put up with this.

However, I just discovered that if I simply launch System Preferences, the charger now works. This isn't a true hint, as I don't know why this is working. However, after trying every possible combination of variables over the last year, this is the only thing does the trick. Any comments that would explain this 'fix' would be appreciated, but if there are other road warriors out there that use USB chargers, give this a try.

[robg adds: I can't test this one, but if you can, please post your experiences...]

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