t40 Shuts down when USB drive inserted

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GoPool · #1 Post by **GoPool** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:14 pm

Sometimes when I insert my usb drive into my t40, it immediately goes off, and the only way I can get it to start again is to remove and reattach the battery. I do not know if this is a new problem, but any help would be appreciated.

ibm t40 2373-96u
windows xp pro sp2
80 gb hd
512 ram

aschb · #2 Post by **aschb** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:30 pm

If I detatch an USB Device (i.e. Harddisk) some times the T43 shuts off and does a restart. Therefore I usually shut down windows and detach the device.

egibbs · #3 Post by **egibbs** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:57 pm

The T4X series seems to have design issues with the USB ports (or as I said in another post, "weak USB ports").

My T42p shut down when I turned off a digital camera attached to a USB port, and it never woke up again until IBM changed the system board. You should consider yourself lucky that you are able to revive it just by pulling the battery - that didn't work for me.

If it's shutting down when you attach a USB drive, I would say DON'T DO THAT. Shut the machine down, attach the drive, and boot. Otherwise you are risking a system board failure, a trip to depot, being told that you have a "liquid spill" and are responsible for the repair, etc.

Ed Gibbs

Eric Giles · #4 Post by **Eric Giles** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:31 pm

egibbs wrote:If it's shutting down when you attach a USB drive, I would say DON'T DO THAT. Shut the machine down, attach the drive, and boot. Otherwise you are risking a system board failure, a trip to depot, being told that you have a "liquid spill" and are responsible for the repair, etc.

Ed Gibbs

EXACTLY. My T40 was doing about the same thing, and had been for months. When they finally decided to let me send it in for repair, they replied 'liquid damage'.

At this point, its almost better to buy a used, guaranteed T4x system board and replace it yourself. That is what I am going to do when mine gets back.

Eric Giles

christopher_wolf · #5 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:54 pm

To me, that would indicate a power draw issue with the USB ports. A rather serious problem given that, should proper power management not occur with the USB ports, the device attached, especially an external HDD which would require a significant amount of power during spin-up ops could pull more through the ports than they are rated for and end up frying them. If that occurs, the only practical fix is a new planar.

Did you check the state of the affected USB port in the Device Manager?

hongcj92 · #6 Post by **hongcj92** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:20 pm

what is a file system for your laptop hard and usb storage? For best performance, try to configure as same file system.

rxtech27 · #7 Post by **rxtech27** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:55 pm

Holy moly!! I am having the same problem. I plugged in a USB drive and it "killed my computer". Right now when I try to power it up the lighted panel just flickers. . anyone know what I can do to fix this???

**This is my first post on the forums and am glad to have such an excellent forum community to go to when my thinkpads are having problems. I have T40s and have had nothing but trouble. Stay tune for some more posts from me!!! Thanks for all the help in advanced!

dcouzin · #8 Post by **dcouzin** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:58 pm

My T42 has USB troubles too, but much milder than those described here. It can recognize a USB 2.0 device but then can't connect it to the USB 2.0 hub. I described the trouble to Lenovo, and assured them that it wasn't a trivial software problem, and they promptly agreed to replace the system board. So they must know.
How did IBM produce this mess? They used Intel chips for the USB. Intel was big cheese in USB. Microsoft produced the drivers and they read an Intel inf file.

dorin · #9 Post by **dorin** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:19 am

or it can be a short circuit somewhere, it happened to my x40 when the usb cable was short circuiting, so try to rule that out...

egibbs · #10 Post by **egibbs** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:56 am

rxtech27 wrote:Holy moly!! I am having the same problem. I plugged in a USB drive and it "killed my computer". Right now when I try to power it up the lighted panel just flickers. . anyone know what I can do to fix this???

**This is my first post on the forums and am glad to have such an excellent forum community to go to when my thinkpads are having problems. I have T40s and have had nothing but trouble. Stay tune for some more posts from me!!! Thanks for all the help in advanced!

The usual failure mode when it fries is no lights at all, so flickering lights might be a good sign.

Pull the AC and battery. Hold the power button down for at least 30 seconds, then press it 25 times or so. Put the battery and AC back and try it.

If no joy, call Lenovo for a new system board.

Might be a class action suit in here somewhere, especially since Solectron keeps finding liquid spills.

Ed Gibbs

rxtech27 · #11 Post by **rxtech27** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:50 pm

Thanks Ed . . ill give that a try and keep you folks posted.

rxtech27 · #12 Post by **rxtech27** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:56 pm

Ok Ed,

No luck . . did it several times and it still flickers. My notebook was built last year and unfortunately is out of warranty. How will they go about helping me???? Thanks!

GoPool · #13 Post by **GoPool** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:23 pm

Ok, I have found the problem. I was looking over my laptop today, and I saw that in one of the usb slots, that platics slit in the middle is missing. I'm assuming that the plastic slit is there as an insulater, and inserting a usb drive in there without that slip caused a short circuit. Thanks a lot guys.

t40 Shuts down when USB drive inserted

t40 Shuts down when USB drive inserted

FAT32+NTFS?

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