Thinkpads Forum

As stated in the subject line of this thread I would appreciate if anyone could comment, preferably based on experience rather than speculation, what is the probability of permanent damaging a T60 if by accident plugging an USB-stick (e.g. a memory-key) into the Ethernet-port of a T60? If having a look at the left side of a T60 we have one USB-port (7) most towards the front and the Ethernet-port (4) more towards the center.

The reason for asking is that a user, who I am supporting, today by accident plugged an USB memory-key into the Ethernet port (while having power on the T60), and now I wonder how likely this mishap is to have caused permanent damage to the T60? In principle it seems possible that the metal-housing of the USB-key may have short-circuited more or all of the Ethernet-connector pins at the bottom, but how robust is the T60 Ethernet-hardware towards such a short-circuit??

I never knew that this is actually physically possible to fit an USB-key in the Ethernet-port, but after removing both AC and the battery of a T60 of my own, I tried this very carefully - and yes, to my big surprise, the USB-key slided fairly easily into the Ethernet-port... now, that's not too clever by the USB-connector designers that this is possible!! Anyway, the user who had this accident didn't have time (or, rather: Patience!) to test the Ethernet-port for damage after this "incidence", and it may be a while before I can get access to this specific T60, so therefore I'd like to hear if any of the many experienced Thinkpad-users browsing this forum has ever had, or heard of, similar accidents, and if so what was the result?

Thanks in advance for any qualified feedback.

Johan

Is it possible? I suppose so, since the stick could potentially short a few of the pins.

I've never heard of it, nor have I experienced it. I've made that mistake probably a couple hundred times at this point (between all the desktops, servers, and laptops that I deal with I'm often plugging in drives without having a good view of the ports and I *never* remember where the Ethernet jack(s) are located...). I figure that if it was gonna happen it would have already happened to me.

But hey, maybe I got lucky. It certainly seems like it could be possible.

Practically zero. Not even likely that a pin was bent. There is no power involved in this situation (I have never heard of a laptop with a Power over Ethernet socket!). Besides, signal voltage of twisted-pair Ethernet is rather low.

I, too, several times fit a USB plug in Ethernet socket.

automobus wrote:Practically zero. Not even likely that a pin was bent. There is no power involved in this situation (I have never heard of a laptop with a Power over Ethernet socket!). Besides, signal voltage of twisted-pair Ethernet is rather low.

I, too, several times fit a USB plug in Ethernet socket.

Wow, thanks a lot for this good news... I am certainly much relieved!

I actually thought about whether PoE was available in T60's (I don't know this?), and in the case yes if it might have some power (voltage) applied to the port, while the port being "idle", but if so I would guess/hope that the source impedance (in/of the T60) would remain sufficiently high to avoid damage if by accidence e.g. short-circuiting some of the Ethernet-lines. Anyway, I guess we would have heard of this problem before here on the forum, if plugging an USB-device into the Ethernet-port would have caused permanent damage to the motherboard... and I never recall having heard/read about this (and Google also didn't find anything by a quick glance), so therefore I asked.

Thanks, again - your prompt and positive news is much appreciated!

Johan

automobus wrote:Practically zero. Not even likely that a pin was bent. There is no power involved in this situation (I have never heard of a laptop with a Power over Ethernet socket!). Besides, signal voltage of twisted-pair Ethernet is rather low..

Well there is *some* difference in electrical potential, but I think we're in agreement: the chance of that tiny, tiny current being the "straw that broke the camel's back" is so close to zero that I wouldn't worry about it.

(Now a live RJ11 phone line, on the other hand... *that* I've heard of, and even observed the effects of...)

i do it all the time... it did not have any problems as the result of my own stupidity.

Heh.

I have consistently been plugging the power cord on the X6x into the RJ11 modem socket (since they are right next to each other and the plug fits pretty snugly), and then have been surprised as to why it wasn't charging.

dr_st wrote:Heh.

I have consistently been plugging the power cord on the X6x into the RJ11 modem socket (since they are right next to each other and the plug fits pretty snugly), and then have been surprised as to why it wasn't charging.

Oh yeah, I've done that one too. "WTF. Is it plugged in to the wall? Yes. Well maybe ACPI's borked, I did upgrade the kernel and apply that patch and... Oh. Right. It needs to be plugged in to the power socket. I knew that."

lead_org wrote:

i do it all the time... it did not have any problems as the result of my own stupidity.

Count yourself lucky that the phone never rang while you were doing that...