Weird card reader and card behavior
 

I have a usb 2.0 card reader plugged into a usb hub on my mac laptop. But it is acting strange, whenever I plug in a memory stick pro duo card into the reader it just blinks, & mac os does not see it.

I have tried these memory stick pro duo cards;

A Lexar 4 gb mark II high speed card, just blinks

A San Disk 4gb mark II high speed card, blinks

A San Disk 4gb regular speed card, just blinks


the only one that worked & mac OS saw was a Sony branded 2gb memory stick pro duo card

these ones that blinked had video files on them, I dont know if that would make any difference.

I have also tried a Transcend class 6 SDHC card & this worked ok as well.

The thing is, I have used this card reader on a front usb hub on a dell PC with windows xp home & they worked ok.

Hello,

Just want to make sure you're using the word "hub" correctly. A USB hub is a device that has one USB "male" plug, and many "female" plugs. A splitter in other words, allowing you to plug many devices in the same USB ports.

A USB port is what we have directly in our computers.

So, are you using a hub, or plugging your card reader directly into the computer's USB port?

Nisaea

P.S. I ask because I've had lots of problems with hubs and card readers on my Macs.

Excellent catch!
I await this answer as well, for the reasons stated.

I've had issues with hubs, period -- Windows, Linux, OS X or OS9. :(

In general, I find card readers work best when plugged directly into a computer port, and not an external* hub.

(*Technically speaking, computer ports are just using an internal hub. Motherboards may have just 1-2 actual USB interfaces, but it's the cases that have all those ports on front/side/back -- desktop or notebook/laptop. USB PCI expansion cards are "hubbed" on the card itself. Just a bit of random trivia information, which I hope doesn't cause confusion.)

Yes, the card reader is plugged into a 7 port usb hub, which in turn is plugged into one of the only 2 usb ports on the macbook pro laptop. The other laptop usb port is occupied by a wired keyboard, (I read on Apple's website that things like Apple keyboards & ipods need to be directly plugged into a usb port & not a hub.)

I have used the 7 port usb hub with external hard drives, (dont know if this is bad or not, but so far, so good) without any problems yet.

Hello,

Try your card reader plugged directly into the mac and see how it works.

Try to avoid hubs as much as possible, or get yourself a good (expensive) one. Read the reviews and make sure your next hub will be fully compatible.

If nobody can help you here with a specific model, you could try to head over forums.macrumors.com. Free forum of incredibly knowledgeable Mac people.

Good luck.

Nisaea

I had a feeling the hub might have been part of the problem, I plugged the card reader directly into the mac, & all the cards worked.

I will go ask on mac rumors, I am already a member there, so someone may know.

Whoever wrote that information (at the Apple site) had it backwards. There's nothing special about a mouse or iPod, whereas a keyboard, card reader and hard drive all need to be as close to the USB source as possible (meaning NO HUB for those items).

There are several very low-cost hubs at Meritline, and a number of reviews for some models have confirmed them to work on Macs just fine. (A few reviews for other models confirmed the opposite -- no Mac compatibility.) I need a hub sometime in the near future, for a Mac, and I'll be buying mine there.

For this topic, at that site, I would suggest asking what somebody is using -- not what somebody suggests. Too often I'll see people giving standard answers of "buy one from the Apple store." There's zero reason to buy an Apple branded or certified accessory for a premium price (which goes mostly to fund the Steve Jobs retirement fund).

An easier answer would be to look here: http://eshop.macsales.com/search/usb+hub
OWC sells all Mac-compatible products, many of which are made by third parties. However, OWC doesn't always have the best price, so shop around once you see an item brand/model you'd like. Start with Amazon, which is usually cheaper if both places have the same item in stock. I just bought a RAID-1 enclosure from OWC last month, which was about $100 less than the Apple hardware, or the Lacie brand. But the actual Western Digital 2TB drives were much, much cheaper from Amazon (another $100 saved). An OWC+Amazon RAID-1 2TB (2x2) ran about $270 vs $450-500 from Lacie or Apple.

I know you want your budget to stretch, and I'd like to help you do that. :)

Hello,

When I spoke of specific model, I was talking about hubs, not readers. The problem is with the hubs, not the card reader, as Sossity said hers worked fine when plugged directly (as I'm guessing "all" readers are).

Nisaea

I also noticed that when I plug in & start up one of my external hard drives plugged into the hub, my mouse gets disabled for a few minutes, the mouse is also plugged into the hub.

Hello,

Another piece of evidence, if we needed more. Get yourself a good hub, and powered one (plugged into the wall).

Good luck,

Nisaea

Well I looked around, & looked on google, & alot of mac owners seem to have some success with the d-link 7 port hub, or a belkin 7 port hub, which of these would be best?

Hello,

Unless someone here has your exact Mac model and one of those exact hubs, my guess is that you're going to have to try one. Both companies are good, pick one at random! :-)

Nisaea

Of the two you mentioned, I'd get this one. D-link doesn't really make any bad products that I'm aware of. They're heavy into "communication" gear, like routers, switches, hubs and whatnot. And at least for routers and switches, they make some of the better ones -- especially on the gigabit class gear.

Belkin is a rebadger, if I'm not mistaken. So that may also be a D-link in disguise! :D

(NOTE: Re-badge = brand that uses gear from other manufacturers -- i.e., they don't make anything of their own.)