T43 USB port overload question

[beer]

Got a T43. Bought about a year or so ago as a refurb. Running XP Pro SP3, 80g, 1g RAM. CDrw and the internal wireless thingee. I have nothing external hooked up. While running it off of the battery, which was about at half strength, (battery starting to poop out, btw) I got a warning message that one of my USB ports was sucking too much power or shorted out or something (sorry, can't remember the exact verbage) and I need to reset it or close the USB thingie. It showed the 3rd from the top of the list of 8, then 4th, and then back again when I tried either action.

Computer was started from sleep mode but did the same after rebooting. Ran it off of plug-in and now off of battery and all seems good.

Herein lies the possible rub: Right now, it's flat on a hard surface, when the error came up it was balanced on a sink, as the sink in my bathroom is at a perfect level for browsing while on the throne.

Thoughts? Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

FLEXING the motherboard.
Your throne-sessions caused the Southbridge chip to come intermittently loose.
It will only get worse.
Solution: reballing the SB chip or replace the motherboard.
Most laptops are quite sensitive to flexing, and should be held/positioned properly.

[beer]

Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty careful in handling the thing, since common sense would say that nothing good could happen from handling the machine where it could flex. When I put it on the sink, it's supported pretty good to where I wouldn't think flex would come into play (both left and right sides supported as well as the area under the track pad. I also try to make it sit flat anywhere else I use it. But maybe I messed something up.

Haven't gotten the error message since my original post. Am I tap-dancing in a minefield?

Dumb question time: What is a Southbridge chip? How would one rebail it? What does that mean?

Again, thanks for your reply and your patience.

[RealBlackStuff]

Click on the URLs in my signature, starting with ReflowRepairs. It'll tell you all.