Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, MacBook Pros and more. Optical Drives for Apple iBooks, Powerbooks, MacBooks, MacBook Pros in Stock. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

OWC: Juice up your iPod w/NewerTech High Capacity Battery from $19.99. Free Installation. Videos for most models. Pro Installation Service w/FedEx Shipping From $57.95 (Battery Included).

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Lab Report

Sometimes You Feel Like a Dolt, Sometimes You Don't

- 2004.07.19

I recently started work on a book requiring many scans and photos, SO I went to Staples and shelled out a few bucks for the following items:

  • USB Canon scanner (Canoscan), which is about 1/4 the size and twice as fast as my old Umax SCSI scanner that finally died
  • SanDisk multiple-format digital camera card reader
  • Belkin USB hub, since I'm on a PowerBook and one port is dedicated to an external keyboard and mouse (my trackpad's dead, and I don't have time to get it repaired right now).

So as far as a review goes, let's just go down the list:

Canoscan scanner: This set me back less than $50 - that's 1/8 as much as I spent on the old Umax scanner lo these many years ago. Installed smooth, works great. Fast, simple interface. Programmable buttons for various autolaunching functions, such as copying or faxing, on the front. Scan quality is excellent. This is the lowest end machine I could find, and it was Mac compatible off the shelf and works great as far as I'm concerned.

SanDisk card reader: This also works as advertised. It treats MMC cards like USB key-drives, so they just automount on the desktop. iPhoto recognized it and imported the pictures smoothly - no problems there. Simple to operate, card only goes in one way, and when my wife goes into digital photography, it'll read 8 different formats. No problems there.

Belkin 4 port USB hub: There's only one problem. When I plugged the USB devices into the hub, nothing happened. Winky lights came on, but the scanner didn't respond, nor did the card reader's light didn't come on.

Well, that's fairly obvious. It's a powered hub (I knew enough that if I was going to be plugging all these powered devices in at once, I'd better supply power outside the laptop's power supply). Obviously the thing's not plugged in.

I checked the plugs. Everything was plugged in.

It must be the power strip. Checked that - no problem there.

The hub isn't supposed to require a driver - neither is the card reader, for that matter - but you never know. I checked with the card reader's website, which suggested plugging it in bypassing the hub, which I did, and it worked.

Now I knew that the problem was with the hub, not the reader. The same was true of the scanner. It works on the laptop, not on the hub.

Maybe it's a USB 2.0 hub? All my stuff is 1.1. But USB 2.0 is supposed to be backwards compatible. That can't be it.

Could the hub be defective? Maybe, but I usually think it's something I'm doing wrong before I resort to the hardware excuse.

I go to the reader website. OS 9 drivers exist. It makes no sense to try this, but when the logical stuff fails, try the illogical. I install the OS 9 drivers, even though I'm in OS X. Maybe it runs in classic or something. Zip.

Yah, I hear what you're saying. Why not just unplug stuff and plug it back in?

I don't like mysteries. When something doesn't work, there's a reason. Even though I could work around it, what could it be? Maybe it's a symptom of something more fundamental.

I go through a little grump-fest complaining to myself that this stuff is supposed to be easy, for cryin' out loud. It's a Mac, and you're supposed to be able to just plug it in. Maybe I'll have to get myself worked up enough to bang out an article for Dan about it.

Next I tried System Information. All the devices are recognized on the USB bus list. Even when plugged into the hub where they don't work. It had to be a power problem.

I unplugged the power supply and checked the specs. Right voltage. Right polarity. It's the supply that came with it, I'm pretty sure. (You should just see my storeroom/office.) Get a voltmeter. Power is coming through the jack. Everything is kosher.

It must be a hardware problem. Where's the dang receipt?

One more try: Go to Belkin's website. Hubs don't need drivers. They don't. But maybe there's something in the FAQ.

I found Belkin's support page well organized. There's Mac-specific help, too. Maybe the hub's power only works on PCs or some stupid thing like that.

USB is supposed to be universal, no matter the platform, but you never know. Belkin's site confirmed there's no driver for the hub (duh!) and I read through the FAQ. "Device does not respond - try unplugging hub, plug hub in, then device." Nada.

Try plugging hub into other USB port on machine. Nope.

Try updating USB drivers for devices plugged in hub. Already done.

Then I ran across this little gem in Belkin's FAQ: What's the switch on the side for?

What's the switch for?

There's a switch?!?

Yup. It's on the side. It's not visible from the top, and it's a small transparent slide switch.

It's marked Bus Power or Self Powered. Guess which setting it was on.

It's been a looooong time since I couldn't get something to work because I didn't know I had to turn it on first.

This is a public service message from your friendly Mac Web columnist: "Always turn on the device before cussing."

Jeff Adkins is a science teacher who isn't afraid to state his preferences in computing platforms. In his classroom he has everything from a beige All-in-One to a a G4 XServe, and they all work together nicely. He calls himself the "poster child for technology integration" in the classroom. He was the 2006 Outstanding Educator of the Year for the California Computer Using Educators (CUE) organization. He also maintains a site for astronomy teachers at www.AstronomyTeacher.com.

Recent Mac Lab Reports

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Mac Lab Report copyright © 2000-08 by Jeff Adkins. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.