So I recently purchased a 12" powerbook. Revision D, 1.5Ghz and all that. It's got a fresh format of Tiger, and all the software updates installed.

I have a Nexstar 3, USB 2.0 and Maxtor 250gig HD in there, connected through a 7-port, powered USB 2.0 hub I got off ebay. I've used this setup on my 17" Powerbook for months and it was fine.

All of the sudden, I use it on my 12" powerbook and it's playing up. It disconnects by itself randomly for some reason.

When it disconnects, everything else that's also connected to the hub stops functioning (like my wireless keyboard and mouse) Also, it gives me that window where it says you need to 'disconnect devices before you remove them'. Another thing is...i've noticed when I am copying stuff onto this hard drive, it goes at like, 2mb/s....but in system profiler it still says it can operate at 480mb/s.

Tried different usb port on powerbook, same problem.
Verified disk, and repaired it (as it had a problem), same problem.
Verified disk on my powerbook, it was ok.
If i don't have that HD on, usb hub seems ok, and so do other USB devices. It all says connected
I have another exact same caddy, different HD inside, and when I use it, it's perfectly fine.

I think there's something wrong with the caddy? The Nexstar 3 thing.

I'd say you've narrowed it down yourself. Try bypassing the hub with that suspect box and see if you can still do a long copy from it -- if it vanishes when directly connected to the laptop, then you kow it's the box.


B.

Check the internals. Make sure its all connected.