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USB Device Drawing Too Much Power

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Sep 1, 2012
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Motherboard
GA-Z77X-UD5H
CPU
i7 3770K
Graphics
GeForce GTX 660 Ti
Mac
  1. MacBook Pro
Mobile Phone
  1. iOS
I recently let my Hackintosh fall asleep overnight on the Windows side. Once it woke up, I got a continual error message: "Power Surge On Hub Port", saying that "A USB device has exceeded the powers limits of its hub port."

I had been running this system fine for weeks until this point; no devices had been added or removed since I got it running. The only thing that changed was I let the computer fall asleep overnight (first time I ever did this).

To solve the problem, I unplugged all my USB devices and got nothing. I then simply uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it from Intel; the problem resolved itself: I didn't get the message again.

I booted to Mac and got the "Because a USB device was drawing too much power from your computer, one or more of your USB devices have been disabled." Again, I unplugged everything to avail. During the process, I got a random kernal panic that hasn't repeated itself, and the Windows side of the Hackintosh screwed up again.

My best guess is that this correlates to the USB drivers being corrupted or something similar, as reinstalling the Windows ones worked, but I don't know how to reinstall them for Mac. I did a reinstall of Multibeast (without a full format), and got no results. Short of simply turning off notifications, I'd like to know what causes this. A couple questions:

1) Are the USB drivers corrupted? And why would they be? If so, how can I reinstall them for Mac?

2) Would Sleep mode be the culprit? If so, how? It's fallen asleep before, but only for a few seconds at most.

Here's what I've tried to fix the problem:

1) Quickly shutting down and restarting: ineffective.
2) Unplugging all USB devices: ineffective.
3) Unplugging USB connectors from the motherboard: ineffective.
4) Booting to Safe Mode: ineffective.

Any input would be welcome! Specs are in my signature. As of now the Mac notifications cause constant interruptions that are hindering my workflow to the point where the computer is not usable for any length of time.
 
I had the same problem a while back. It occurred after adding my third HD. I booted and it gave me the same error - I would click out of it and it would keep coming back. I tried most of the same things you did without a fix.

Eventually I shut down my computer, turned off my PSU, and unplugged my PSU from the wall. Waited for 5 or 10 minutes, plugged it all back in and never had the problem since.

I assumed it had something to do with me adding an extra HD, but I really have no idea. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the reply!

I found an odd "solution", but the messages have since vanished and haven't returned.

1) I used this code to disable the User Notification Center plist for about 1 hour without shutting down my system:
Code:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.UserNotificationCenter.plist

2) I then reloaded the User Notification Center plist with the following code:
Code:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.UserNotificationCenter.plist

For some reason, this fixed the problem on both the Mac-side and the Windows-side.
 
I just finished building my new Hackintosh and I found this exact same problem after installing second HDD. I'll try unplugging the power supply first and if that doesn't work I'll try AlphaBoy's solution.
 
I get this same problem only on the Macintosh side, not Windows or Ubuntu. I get 5 notification windows, then it stops. I simply gav e up and put them out of view. I coincidentally happened when my wife didn't like the Vantec NexStar external drive case light on at night and shut it off while my computer was shut down.
 
I also had this recently and it was fixed after I did what GSUS969 suggested and simply powered everything off and unplugged the PSU for a while.

It dawned on me that prior to this issue appearing I had turned off the wall socket (without first turning off the switch on the back of the PSU) because I was going away for a few days. Not sure why it would effect anything but I think turning it back on at the wall plug (whilst the PSU switch was still in the on position) may have caused a small power surge or something like that.
 
I did this and only waited one minute and it worked. Thank you.

Thanks for the reply!

I found an odd "solution", but the messages have since vanished and haven't returned.

1) I used this code to disable the User Notification Center plist for about 1 hour without shutting down my system:
Code:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.UserNotificationCenter.plist

2) I then reloaded the User Notification Center plist with the following code:
Code:
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.UserNotificationCenter.plist

For some reason, this fixed the problem on both the Mac-side and the Windows-side.
 
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