T60 - USB & Speakers Malfunctioning Intermittently

[PhoenixWing]

Hello,

I have a Thinkpad T60 model 2008-4AU, and I have been having problems with my USB ports and speakers. Namely, they sometimes cease to function and all I get are the following errors from my Linux kernel if I plug in/have something plugged in:

Code: Select all

[ 1000.734114] hub 1-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
[ 1000.938005] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 2 reset error -110
[ 1000.938028] hub 1-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
[ 1001.142077] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 2 reset error -110
[ 1001.142089] hub 1-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
[ 1001.346089] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 2 reset error -110
[ 1001.346101] hub 1-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
[ 1001.550097] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: port 2 reset error -110
[ 1001.550161] hub 1-0:1.0: hub_port_status failed (err = -32)
[ 1001.550168] hub 1-0:1.0: Cannot enable port 2.  Maybe the USB cable is bad?

Sometimes it takes a couple minutes for this to happen, other times it could be hours, and sometimes they die right at boot. Restarting the machine does nothing (Even the BIOS hangs, takes anywhere from 1-5 power-ons for it to actually go to GRUB). Just leaving it off for a few days causes the USB ports to occasionally come back to life. The speakers just emit static and cause any program that uses sound to lag really badly when the USB ports fail too.

What could be causing this to happen? I know that it is not my OS as this happens under any OS (Windows/BSD/OpenSolaris/Linux) that I have tried.

Thanks in advance

[PhoenixWing]

My apologies for raising such an old thread from the depths, but *finally* got this sorted out and thought I'd share the fix. In contrast to my beliefs of it being the Southbridge needing a reflow, it was actually the Northbridge. So if you are a person from the future with the same problem as me, reflow the Northbridge first, and then try the Southbridge. That should be the ticket.