Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#7): USB disasters and recovery
[Published Thursday, June 28th]
USB problems: devices not recognized, more, fixes Since Mac OS X 10.4.10 makes major modifications to the USB subsystem in Mac OS X, it's no surprise that many users are experiencing significant issues with USB devices after the update. These include inability to mount or recognize devices, crashes when connecting devices and more. Many of these issues were also occurring under Security Update 2007-005, which is rolled into Mac OS X 10.4.10.
One MacFixIt reader writes:
"Ever since installing the 10.4.10 update on my first generation MacBook my USB 2.0 Mercury Elite Hard Drive from Other World Computing will not mount. The drive was working perfectly before the update and now won't mount at all. I can however see the drive under the USB tab of Apple System Profiler it shows up as 'Macpower USB2.0A 3.5" HDD.' I can't get it to mount with either Disk Utility or DiskWarrior.
"I've done all the basics including restarting, repairing disk permissions, running all my cron scripts (using Cocktail), swapping out the USB cable, swapped ports, tried it with and without a hub. I've plugged in a different USB drive and it works fine so I know it's not an issue with the port. , and I even reinstalled the 10.4.10 combo updater. The only thing I can figure is it's an issue with the 10.4.10 update."
Another reader adds:
"After downloading and installing the update Mac OS X 10.4.10 intel version I can no longer address my external backup USB hard disk. Hardware system profile find the usb 2.0 storage device, but I can't see it on my desktop or with the disk utility program. I have a similar usb disk which I have tried with with the same result. The Usb hard disk is of the type Amitech. I have tried with another USB cable, same result. It worked fine with Mac OS X 10.4.9."
There are three commonly successful fixes for these issues:
Fixes
Get the update off your Mac Use our tutorial on reinstalling Mac OS X to get Mac OS X 10.4.10 off your Mac and revert to an earlier system state. Note that since many USB issues also occurred with Security Update 2007-005, you may want to abstain from that update and stay at a vanilla copy of Mac OS X 10.4.9.
Revert kernel extensions This problem can sometimes be resolved by reverting to an earlier version of the IOHIDFamily.kext and IOUSB.kext via the following instructions:
- Download the appropriate version of the Mac OS X 10.4.9 and Mac OS X 10.4.8 combo updaters for your system (more on why later) from Apple's download page, but do not install either.
- Download and install the shareware application Pacifist
- Drag the Mac OS X 10.4.9 installer package onto the Pacifist application icon.
- Click the triangle next to "System" to expand it
- Click the triangle next to "Library" to expand it
- Click the triangle next to "Extensions" to expand it
- Find the file IOHIDFamily.kext. Click the Install button in Pacifist and enter your administrator password.
- Find the file IOUSBFamily.kext. Click the Install button in Pacifist and enter your administrator password.
- Restart your Mac and check for resolution of the issues. If the problem still exists, repeat the steps, but use files from the Mac OS X 10.4.8 combo updater.
Update USB device firmware Outdated firmware or drivers may be precluding recognition for some devices. Try checking your device manufacturer's Web site for the latest downloads.
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Previous coverage:
- Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#6): Various wireless connectivity (AirPort) fixes; Yet another fix for audio popping
- Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#5): Wireless connectivity issues
- Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#4): Audio pops: explanation, workaround and fix; more
- Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#3): Important files modified by this update, downgrading components; possible fix for audio pops
- Mac OS X 10.4.10 (#2): Audio problems -- poor quality; Wireless issues; App launch failure; more
- Mac OS X 10.4.10 released: USB, third-party software, security improvements
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LOL... another apple history maker...
That's the problem with reading macfixit... although they have very good and informative articles, they make it sound like every update Apple releases is an absolute disaster that will fry this or that component of your machine. In my experience, that is generally not the case. Oh, sure, I've had the occasional problem with updates, all of which to my recollection have been easily fixed by an application of the combo updater (or OS updates) or, perhaps in some extreme cases, an archive and install of the OS followed by a re-application of the update in question. I have yet, however, to run into an update that was inherently problematic, and I have installed every update Apple has released since the dawn of OS X, on multiple computers.
Now I'm not saying that the problems that macfixit reports are in any way inaccurate, simply that I highly suspect they are rather less wide-spread than they make it sound, and that in most cases the problems are actually caused by something else that was just exacerbated/triggered/hi-lighted/whatever by the update. Not always, of course- there have been a number of times when Apple has re-released an update, or released an update for the update specifically to fix such problems, but to read macfixit you'd think they needed to do this with every update they've ever released, which is not the case-most are just fine in general.
Why doesn't Apple number it 10.4.9.1? Perhaps it would be too logical! The way Apple has decided to number this update seems to confuse a lot of applications into thinking that the user has 10.4.1 installed and refuse to launch. Naming yet another update 10.4.11 would not improve things a bit.
I was called to a client yesterday, with a dual processor G4, that had lost his connection to all USB devices except the mouse and keyboard.
I reinstalled drivers, cleared the parameter ram and repaired permissions. To no avail. I was then told that the machine had been upgraded from 10.4.9 so I downloaded and installed the 10.4.10 combo update. After installing it the machine was back to normal.
Hans
I just had another incident similar to the previous one. But this time the client actually had to install the combo update twice. Go figure.
Hans
- by billboswell June 29, 2007 3:58 AM PDT
- <class="merchant"><span>></span><div class="datestamp"><i>This is a reply to a previous comment by febef</i></div></class><br />
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(8 Comments)I have found that by using this ritual BEFORE downloading and applying an update, I have had absolutely NO PROBLEMS...
? Repair Permissions
? Shut Down
? Disconnect All FireWire & USB Peripherals
? Startup
? Use CockTail to Empty System Caches & have it run CRON
? Restart
? Now run Software Update.