I have the same problem, last time I tried to update firmware (which is basically the only time I use US
. I had to change out my laptop (13" retina MacBook Pro), and the new one was utterly unable to connect. I tried first with a very crappy cable and then changed to a nicer one, and I got different "blinking patterns" from the lights near the USB port. Saw some "could not enumerate device" stuff in the system logs. Ended up connecting it to a linux server (with the same "nicer" cable), and that worked flawlessly.