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Apple Wired Keyboard USB power

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Hi,

I have an Apple Wired Keyboard with the USB ports. Problem is that they don't give a lot of power to the connected devices although the USB ports on my Hack do have the ability to power everything. For Windows7 there is a fix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8kVWy8Qf7A

Is there a way to do the same in OSX by editing some plist file or something?
 
LeadmaN said:
Hi,

I have an Apple Wired Keyboard with the USB ports. Problem is that they don't give a lot of power to the connected devices although the USB ports on my Hack do have the ability to power everything. For Windows7 there is a fix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8kVWy8Qf7A

Is there a way to do the same in OSX by editing some plist file or something?

The Apple keyboard never really did produce a lot of power out of the USB ports.
It might be part of the firmware in the keyboard itself and unable to mod a kext or something to juice it up some.
 
As far as I know the keyboard is technically able to deliver the needed power. In the link I posted there is a register hack for Windows that works; I tested it.

It seems that the new iMacs also give the keyboard enough power to use the USB ports on the keyboard. So I figured it's something in the USB driver?
 
A user on Insanelymac pointed me in this direction:

I checked the ioregistry and I found there's difference in usbhub entry between cinema display and apple keyboard .
There's entries for 'extra power for ports' and 'extra power request' in keyboard hub.
Extra power for ports want 400mA and extra power request want 600mA.
So I guess it means that mac has 1100mA for usb ports.
But ioregistry of cinema display doesn't have those entries and hub supports 500mA and I can charge my phone.
If you can remove those entries in keyboard hub config, then maybe at least one port would work.
Maybe experts in dsdt could do that.


There's AppleUSBMergeNub.kext in iOUSBFamily.kext's plugin folder.
I think there's information that you need to change in info.plist of that kext.

I guess that display has its own power supply for usb ports.
I don't think it's possible to fix this problem with modifying info.plist.

Maybe this would give someone an idea? I can't find any plist in the mentioned kexts though...
 
I also have this issue and I have actually posted a thread on it as well.
There are what I could find 3 posts on this issue, mine included.

I find it fascinating that no one has a fix for this. I find it even more fascinating about all the people answering pure rubbish like "cable is too short", "firmware issue with keyboard", "usb port only delivers 500 mA" and so on....
Have you people actually used a REAL MAC sometime in your lives? This is not an keyboard issue, it works on a real mac period, and has absolutely nothing to do with cable length or anything else.
This is a usb driver issue.
How do I know this?
I recently by accident discovered that my iphone actually charges connected TO THE KEYBOARD during bios or shortly after, it's a brief period of 1-2 seconds before OSX starts loading.
As soon as it gets to the white loading screen it stops charging and then I get the "usb device needs more power" message.

So there you have it people, stop speculating, it's a driver issue.
 
I have to agree with you about this being a driver issue. I had a Rocket Fish Bluetooth dongle working fine in my Apple keyboard USB port while running Mountain Lion 10.8.1. After upgrading to 10.8.2 I get the error. (http://www.tonymacx86.com/209-os-x-10-8-2-update/comments16.html)
I can easily plug it into another port on my computer but like you I want to find out a way to make it work from the keyboard port.
 
Interesting concept - and I had read about the Windows fix for changing the power levels to USB ports, elsewhere.

I would add though that this shouldn't actually be a keyboard problem in itself. As eelhead points out the USB ports there are powered by the single 500mA USB lead and the keyboard is taking some of that, what's left is divided between the two other ports by onboard hardware.

The power going to the keyboard is coming from a standard USB port on the Mac. It's not a special keyboard or hub supply, just a standard USB 2.0 port spec. (And remember all iMacs come as standard with a bluetooth keyboard anyway)

I've heard tales that which USB port you plug a device into on the Mac can produce varying power outputs so maybe plugging the keyboard into a different supply might alter things sufficiently to run the Bluetooth adaptor. Perhaps it depends one where in the chain of ports the one you use is.

BUT hackintoshes have their own ports, their own supplies and I find it a little hard to stretch to the concept that altering a kext or driver on a hack specifically can change the power. If 10.8.1 could supply greater power to the same port than 10.8.2 then that's a big Wow! in my book

o_O

Going to USB 3 levels, yes for sure.
 
Hi,

I have an Apple Wired Keyboard with the USB ports. Problem is that they don't give a lot of power to the connected devices although the USB ports on my Hack do have the ability to power everything. For Windows7 there is a fix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8kVWy8Qf7A

Is there a way to do the same in OSX by editing some plist file or something?

Ok, there's perhaps a little misunderstanding going on here as far as I can tell...

The video doesn't tell you anything useful except that a "generic USB hub" is only given 100mA by the Windows 7 system USB driver. The video shows that by editing a registry key you can override this default and deliver the USB 2.0 standard power to a port - 500mA.

This is not something you need to replicate on a Mac because - as far as I know - the real Macs I've had default to delivering 500mA anyway.

However, take a look at these two screen grabs:

USB.png

and ...

USB-2.png

It seems that the Mac USB ports ARE producing the full power and that the keyboard only demands 100mA. What's more the data transfer speed through the keyboard is rated at only 1.5MB/Sec as opposed to 480MB/Sec in a standard hub!

So what are you trying to do? Get more power out of your Hackintosh port than it's present max? OR adjust the Apple Keyboard requirement...?

To do that in software would mean going into the kext:

AppleHIDKeyboard.kext, Showing it's Contents, going to Plugins and choosing the AppleUSBHIDKeyboard.kext ...

However there isn't a Plist in there to modify :(

If the keyboard has a built in limit on the power it uses I find it really difficult to understand why Apple has designed OS X to simply ignore its own keyboards requirements!

That you can simply alter a registry setting in Windows to trick the keyboard into taking more power might, just might, be "overclocking' it in the power-stakes - if you'll forgive the phrase. After all it doesn't have OS X there in the background on a Windows machine to look after it! Maybe it'll be damaged in some way, in the long run?

Very interesting but very confusing too!

:)
 
anybody found a solution??? please open a new thread with updated info
 
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