Card reader doesn't work on Mac?

[mjs1973]

I took a couple photos last night, and figured I would check them out on my Mac G5 at work today. I plugged my Sandisk Card reader into the USB port on my computer and I get the message you see below. What's up with that? There is no external power supply for this card reader. I tried two seperate USB ports, one on the keyboard, and one on the tower, and both gave the same message.

[masdog]

Did you try to plug it in on a different computer or attach different USB devices to your Mac? It sounds like the USB ports on your G5 are unpowered, and they don't deliver enough voltage to the card reader for it to operate properly.

By testing it with different devices, you'll be able to tell if your USB ports aren't delivering power to the attached devices or if you have an issue with your card reader.

[mjs1973]

I use this card reader on my laptop at home all the time, but this was the first and only Mac I ever tried it on. I don't have any other USB devised hooked to my Mac at work, other than my optical mouse. I would think that would be drawing power since it has a light in it. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't be trying to download my photos at work anyway.

[masdog]

LOL...I'm not going to comment on that since I have stuff on my work laptop that I probably shouldn't.

But...you need to find something else to test the USB port, or that particular USB port. If you have a self-contained external hard drive that gets its power from USB, it would be the ideal device to test the USB ports for power.