Did a whole lot more testing on Friday night and while I have yet more questions than answers about the USB issue on my MacBook, I did test my little netbook and it seems to work fine.
On the MacBook Pro I added a USB2 powered hub to the second active USB able. So on one MBP port->hub I had EQMod, FCUSB, and the gamepad, and on the other I had the imaging camera and the guide camera. Here's the bizarre bit...
The VMWare Windows XP seems to have just started treating the 2 separate USB ports and hubs as one 7 port hub. Hence, I think, one USB1 device is dragging all devices down to USB1 speed. WinXP is giving a warning when I plug in the guide camera that it can perform much better if plugged into a USB2 hub. It is.
Despite the above, I fired up PHD guiding and connected the QHY5 no worries. But as soon as I start looping (ie it tries to capture images) I get the Blue Screen of Death and WinXP restarts itself. So it's talking to the QHY5 but image capture is serious problems.
Keep in mind this was working fine earlier in the week, exact same setup.
I tried 2 other guide cams - DSI II Pro and a DBK21. Same problem. Connects to them fine but as soon as I start trying to capture images, BSOD.
Thinking maybe the USB drivers/device were corrupted in WinXP, I completely uninstalled them and reinstalled. Still same problem.
I'm going to investigate more about how VMWare handles these USB devices and maybe a VMWare/WinXP reinstall may be required. Bugger. That's a bit of a deal for me.
In the meantime, the little nettie chugs along fine. Not the fastest or biggest screen, but works.
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