Thinkpads Forum

I have a USB problem on ThinkPad A31...

1) When I plug any USB device into either of the two standard USB slots on the A31, the whole system dies, easy to recover, just press the power on button but can get highly annoying!
2) Exactly the same as above but can also happen when USB devices are removed, doesn't happen everytime but it can happen!
3) The two USB ports on the A31 are stacked on top of each other. The bottom USB port is fine-ish(see problems above from the "problems"), the one on top is dead, whenever I plug ANYTHING into it the system dies and whenever I remove ANYTHING it also dies. I think this may be due to a broken pin??

I know the devices are OK as I use them on my ThinkCentre all the time, the devices are things like pensticks and mice etc.

This may all be becuase my software/drivers for the USB support is out of date, are there any drivers or anything I can get from the IBM/lenovo website to help with this? When I try to update the USB drivers in the Deice manager on XP it says that there is no "better drivers for you".

Thnk you!!
A31

I would check that your BIOS and Embedded Controller are up to date with the latest version. You can find this and all the drivers available for your A31 on the following webpage.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... VGUYW.html

Your USB ports are shorting out, likely because of some bad solder joint, loose pin or other damage.

Get a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card and call it a day, the ports on A3x units are 1.1 anyway...

Everything is OK now, got the latest BIOS works fine!!
Thanks for your help!!
and yes the upper USB port has a broken pin, oh well!
A31

Glad you at least got one of them working!

yeah, think the other one is permanently damaged. may have been dropped in previous life!!