A reader wrote to me this morning that his Mac threw the following message every time he plugged in the DVD player:
USB accessories disabled. Disconnect high-power accessories to activate USB devices.
Regardless of which port the device is connected to, the same message is always given and the external DVD player refuses to work.
Chapter in this post:
- 1 Why is the power consumption too high?
- 2 What USB specification does my Mac support?
- 3 System Information app provides details about the USB ports
- 4 Possible remedy: Y-USB cable or active USB hub
- 5 Active USB hub (with power supply unit)
- 6 Y-USB cables for external power supply
- 7 My recommendation: active hubs with power packs
- 8 Similar posts
Why is the power consumption too high?
The above message comes because the USB port on your Mac cannot provide enough power to operate the DVD player. The USB specifications regulate how much power is available at the USB port:
- USB 3.1 Gen 2: up to 3.000 mA
- USB 3.1 Gen 1: up to 900 mA
- USB 2.0: up to 500 mA
- USB 1.1: up to 500 mA
If the device wants to provide more power than the port can deliver according to the specification, the warning message appears on the Mac and the device is deactivated.
What USB specification does my Mac support?
To find out which USB standard your Mac uses, you proceed as follows:
- Apple menu
- About this Mac
- Support
- Specifications
There you will find a link to the Apple site, where you can find information about your Mac. Under the heading "Top up and expansion" I could see the following data:
System Information app provides details about the USB ports
If you want a little more information, you can call up the system information in the following way:
- Apple menu
- About this Mac
- Overview
- System report
- Hardware> USB
With me you can see the USB 3.1 bus, which you can select in order to determine the maximum current that an external USB device without its own power supply can have under the entry “Available current”. In my case this is 900 mA.
Possible remedy: Y-USB cable or active USB hub
Since the USB ports in the Mac are difficult to exchange, there is only one way to get the external device working: you have to make sure that it gets more power. This can be done either with an active USB hub or with a Y-USB cable realize. With the solution with the Y-cable, however, I have a massive limitation that I will explain below.
Active USB hub (with power supply unit)
An active USB hub is a type of USB distributor, which, however, has its own power supply and thus also supplies the connected devices. I have that with me Orico A3H13P2 running with a total of 13 ports, but there are also smaller, active hubs here at Amazon that do the job. The Anker Ultra Slim 4-Port Hub with power supply would be a smaller solution, for example.
If you have a high need for USB ports, you can go for it take a look at the Orico Hubthat I have in use:
Y-USB cable for external power supply
The other solution is a so-called Y-cable, which is so called because of its construction. You connect this cable to both the Mac and an external USB power supply unit and connect it on the other side to the external DVD player, Bluray burner or the external CD drive - whatever it should be.
This way, the external device is powered by the power adapter while the data connection is running on the Mac. This is a good copy of a Y-USB cable Y-cables from Goobay. However, not all USB Y cables support the USB 3.0 standard. For external hard drives, SSDs and fast storage media, you should use a cable that offers USB 3.0.
- USB cable with 2x USB 3.0 male to 1x USB 3.0 female (Type A) and 5 Gbit/s SuperSpeed data transfer; USB 3.0 cable...
- Y USB cable for feeding power from two USB ports for energy-intensive devices such as external hard drives 2,5"...
- Premium quality UL-certified Y cable; UL certification for guaranteed safety; Double shielding...
My recommendation: active hubs with power packs
I would tend to use an active USB 3 hub with a power supply rather than the Y-cable, as you can also use this to connect multiple devices to a USB port on the Mac or to charge the iPhone and iPad or to connect them to the Mac. This means that the area of application is much broader.
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Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.
The page contains affiliate links / images: Amazon.de
