T40 doesn't recognize USB ports

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atkinso8 · #1 Post by **atkinso8** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:12 pm

My t40 (with XP) doesn't recognize anything I stick into the usb port (thumb drives, peripherals, etc.)

I have all the latest SP's and updates. The device manager says everything is working fine. The BIOS also says everything is enabled for the usb. I've even uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers on the lenovo site.

Are there any other options?

zdriver · #2 Post by **zdriver** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:44 pm

In the device manager under usb controllers, are there any yellow exclamation marks, or anywhere else?
If you go into the properties of the usb root hub, power tab, what does it show for power available and description?
Have the usb ports ever worked? Recent failure or a new to you T40 you just got running?

hhmcsv · #3 Post by **hhmcsv** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:38 pm

Are the USB-ports completely dead or is it just WinXP that gives error messages?
Anyway, it could be a variant of the theme that many have reported - that the USB-ports perform as USB1.1 instead of USB2.0.
I have that sickness on my T40, and sometimes that ends up that the items connected gives the error message that the device is not recognized.
Some suggest that this behaviour can be fixed with at heatgun on the USB-gear inside the computer. For that I have not had the neccesary guts to this somewhat drastic resoldering procedure.
Instead, I am using a PCMCIA-card with two USB 2.0 ports as a workaround, and that is working fine - I only have to remember to have that unit at hand.

#4 Post by **Harryc** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:48 pm

Boot up a Linux Live CD and see if USB works in Linux.

amardeep · #5 Post by **amardeep** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 8:12 am

I believe this is a fairly common occurence on T40's etc. In device manager I have the USB 2.0 controller disabled as it seems a bit less flaky trying to run as USB 1.0.

atkinso8 · #6 Post by **atkinso8** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:30 pm

this is what i've done so far:

1) the usb ports do work on knoppix

2) the thumb drive i'm testing will show up in the device manager, but no where else (which doesn't help)

3) i've turned off usb 2.0

4) i've tried to assign it a drive letter / mount point. even when that's successful, nothing else on the machine will recognize the thumb drive.

Beaver · #7 Post by **Beaver** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:38 pm

So this leads us to the end - problem with detached chipset. Reflow can probably help. My ports are running in 1.1 mode but from time to time they are little bit "sensitive" and cause the USB flashdrive to be disconnected and instantly reconnected again. Probably the end of my USB ports is coming too

madkat · #8 Post by **madkat** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:14 pm

3 words: PCMCIA usb card

sorry...

Beaver · #9 Post by **Beaver** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:33 am

Well, it's a solution too but I prefer to solve problems by fixing existing hardware instead of adding another one

When your LCD fail, I will suggest you to fix this problem by using external panel

SteveS · #10 Post by **SteveS** » Mon Dec 22, 2008 5:50 pm

I have a T40 and a T41 with the same problem. Madkat’s solution of the PCMCIA adapter is the only way I solved it. It works good, but you can not boot from a drive on one of these ports.

I doubt that reflowing the Southbridge chip will fix this problem. While it is true that the USB ports connect directly to it, so does just about every other port in the machine. The chances that only the USB would be open from board flex is extremely small.

My experience with T4x USB ports that are either dead or now only operating as 1.1 speed devices is that the southbridge was damaged with a ESD hit on the USB port. The USB ports are not buffered, and have inadequate ESD protection, resulting in this common failure.

A well equipped prototype lab that has the tools for reworking boards with BGA components might be able to remove and replace the southbridge chip, assuming you can find a replacement. While system boards can be found on e-bay and other places, they probably cost more than a reasonable quality used T40 now. I picked one up on e-bay missing only the hard drive fro $95.

Beaver · #11 Post by **Beaver** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:41 am

SteveS wrote:My experience with T4x USB ports that are either dead or now only operating as 1.1 speed devices is that the southbridge was damaged with a ESD hit on the USB port. The USB ports are not buffered, and have inadequate ESD protection, resulting in this common failure.

Huh a new interesting thing I found out with my USB 1.1 problem - when I booted up to Fedora, the USB ports were working on FULL SPEED. Wondering what the hell is wrong !

rbena · #12 Post by **rbena** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 8:31 am

The USB ports issue is one of the common problems on the T4x. One of the more recent threads is at
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

Really would be good if a sticky can be created for this topic. Can a moderator please let us know how this can be done - many thanks!

SteveS · #13 Post by **SteveS** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 12:53 pm

Beaver writes:

Huh a new interesting thing I found out with my USB 1.1 problem - when I booted up to Fedora, the USB ports were working on FULL SPEED. Wondering what the hell is wrong !

Be careful with your conclusion from this exercise. Others have reported that downgrading the driver also “returned” operation to USB 2.0 mode. I tried the downgrade on one of my damaged T40s and saw the same results – no more message telling me “the device would work faster if it were connected to a USB 2.0 hub” . But when connected a protocol analyzer to the port – I found that it was if fact still working only in USB 1.1 mode, and just not telling me about it.

I suspect that the newer drivers include code which detects the hub speed, while the older one did not. It may also be possible that some machines still do work in a crippled USB 2.0 mode. In this case, something is damaged and the newer driver has diagnostics which detect this and shift to 1.1 mode, whereas the older driver did not.

sjthinkpader · #14 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 2:52 pm

SteveS wrote:...protocol analyzer...

Wow, I am envious.

rbena · #15 Post by **rbena** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:58 pm

Beaver · #16 Post by **Beaver** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:07 am

SteveS wrote:...it was if fact still working only in USB 1.1 mode...

Well, I am not judging from the messages but I transfered huge amount of data from the external HDD - and this action was fast as normal USB 2.0. But only in Fedora. In WXP it's still the same even with power savings turned off etc. Weird.

Nameless · #17 Post by **Nameless** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:35 pm

Beaver wrote:
SteveS wrote:My experience with T4x USB ports that are either dead or now only operating as 1.1 speed devices is that the southbridge was damaged with a ESD hit on the USB port. The USB ports are not buffered, and have inadequate ESD protection, resulting in this common failure.
Huh a new interesting thing I found out with my USB 1.1 problem - when I booted up to Fedora, the USB ports were working on FULL SPEED. Wondering what the hell is wrong !

Not sure about Fedora's nomenclature, but technically USB 1.1 (12 Mbps) IS "full speed" (industry nomenclature). USB has 3 current flavors: low speed (1.2 Mbps) which I think was 1.0; full speed 12 Mbps, I think came with the 1.1 update to the USB spec; and high speed (480 Mbps) which is USB 2.0.

USB 3.0 is coming soon, 4.8 Gbps if I remember right. It's been a few years since I worked on USB stuff.

Beaver · #18 Post by **Beaver** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 6:52 am

Transfer from USB HDD to internal HDD was rated at about 20-30 MB/s so it was using 2.0 mode. For sure. Do no try to persuade me that it was different cause I seen it

sktn77a · #19 Post by **sktn77a** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:34 pm

Well, if youre getting full speed with another operating system, that suggests the hardware is fine. If you get reduced speeds with your windows installation, you could do a clean install (?)

jcfr · #20 Post by **jcfr** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:18 pm

Hello

Same usb2 reconize as usb1 issue with my T40P since 1 month

i buy a pc card usb2 card and plug several usb device :
- mouse works
- usb key works
- usb external 2.5" hard disk doesn't works

could you help me ?

thanks

hhmcsv · #21 Post by **hhmcsv** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 6:04 am

The problem with your external disk on the PC-card USB could very well be inadequate power supply from the pccard. That was the case by me, the solution is using a separate lead to the original ports on the T40 directly to the power socket on the HDD.

jcfr · #22 Post by **jcfr** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:38 pm

Sorry i didn't understand nothing
i am french my english is limited

i would try to show your reply to a friend

jcfr · #23 Post by **jcfr** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:45 pm

I must open the pc and change plug of electric cable ?

hhmcsv · #24 Post by **hhmcsv** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:40 pm

No, you do not have to do anything to your T40. My external HDD has two plugs: One a USB connection, which usually does it alone. The other (a little round hole) is a plug for power supply to the disk (5V DC). If you connect the USB cable to the PCcard-usb-port and the power plug using a separat cable to the T40's original usb-ports, I think it will work. But of course, you have to have such a cable, in my case it was supplied with the external HDD (LaCie).

hhmcsv · #25 Post by **hhmcsv** » Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:50 pm

Here's a picture:

The thin lead is the separate lead for power supply. Hope this helps!

Beaver · #26 Post by **Beaver** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:07 am

It should work OK in this configuration... Just press the data USB cable deeper into the PCMCIA USB port

If the HDD is not spinning at all, your internal USB ports are completely dead

jcfr · #27 Post by **jcfr** » Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:02 am

Ok thanks i have understand

i have of my two external disc which gets this power cable

I will try tonight

hhmcsv · #28 Post by **hhmcsv** » Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:49 pm

Hi jcfr!

Did you succeed?

Hans-Henrik

richp · #29 Post by **richp** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 2:54 pm

Reinstall your chipset drivers, take note of the chipset in device manager, ie 815, 865, etc then grab the chipset from either IBM or directly from Intel. My normal install from scratch is OS, chipset, then other drivers before it even gets a network cable plugged in. I just did an HP a couple of weeks ago, every time I plugged in a USB *anything* the machine would continuously reboot, finally had to remove the USB from hardware manager, delete the darn things and put the correct one in from HP. the bad ones came from microsoft update. One of the few times I ever allowed MS to install hardware drivers.

lifrancis · #30 Post by **lifrancis** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:37 pm

It seems to me the USB problem is software, not hardware. When I boot up with the external HDD plugged in, it works as USB 2.0, but if I plug in after booting, the ports are only USB 1.1. Using an USB PCMCIA card does not appear to help.

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