USB Extender

[uno1234]

I have been extending my keyboard and mouse with a 16 foot USB "Repeater", which is some sort of high quality extender. The Repeater plugs into my Apple keyboard, and my imate adapter plugins into my ADB mouse.

Lately, my keyboard and mouse have been disconnecting from the computer (causing me to think the computer has crashed...). It's quite annoying. Unplugging the keyboard from the usb repeater and plugging it back in reconnects the keyboard. The 4 button mouse only works again upon restart.

I'm thinking that the power connection is being lost, and maybe a powered hub at the end of the chain might help things. Any ideas?

Thanks.

[PT2GO]

I had the same problem. A powered hub doesn't help. I finally gave up and bought a new Turbo Mouse.
Tried track ball (into ADB/USB adapter)directly into one of the Mac USB ports and everything else off the hub. Tried running off the hub.
It hurts to go spend a hundred bucks on a new one, but it's now trouble free. I can plug and unplug as much as I want to and it works just fine.
Jerry
Nashville, TN

[Tim R.]

I had trouble with a "repeater" USB extension as well. I would loose my Kensington Turbomouse settings all the time, and plugging in my Firewire drive would crash the Keyboard as well. Unplug/plug the Keyboard would fix the crash but, again Kensington settings were lost. On a different system, the Mac wouldn't shut down when the repeater was plugged in (granted I had a boatload of other USB stuff on that system). I'm using a Hub with a long USB/A/B cable on both systems now with no probems. My conclusion: USB Sucks!

Tim

[uno1234]

It's weird, because I'm not exceeding the 20 foot USB recommended maximum, AND I'm using a repeater... which you would think helps the situation.... what exactly does a repeater do?

Hmm... well the imate might be a problem. I love my mouse, but maybe it's time to let the adb go...?