x40 bad USB

[tom lightbody]

x40 2382-8RU has USB slots not working: can neither boot from any USB
device, nor read thumb drives. In BIOS USB is enabled; the boot
sequence shows the USB devices, not recognized at boot time.

A USB flylight powers on from either native slot, but not from any of
the ultrabase trio.

tested with XP, linux 2.6.26.2, and freeBSD 7.2: all load drivers,
but no USB function.

my workaround is, a PCMCIA card w/ USB ports--can read thumb drives.

any ideas for a more elegant fix? Anybody else have this problem?

[Phil_123]

A common problem with early X40s, USB short circuit permanently damaged the southbridge's USB functionality. Have the southbridge replaced and add a polyfuse to each USB port.

Newer X40 USB ports are polyfused and don't have this problem.

[guanghua19]

An elegant and easy fix would be buy a working used motherboard and replace the one in your laptop. It is quite cheap to get one on ebay nowadays.

[zmyx]

How long would the X40 or any Thinkpad last after the southbridge being fried fro static electricity?

I don't mind if only my USB stops working. I just worry about the laptop in general. Would this damage spread and cause the system to stop functional at all in the future?

Perhaps somebody here who has this fried USB southbridge problem can share with me how long can the system be used without replacing the chip. I like my x40 and I just don't want to give up on it just yet.

Thanks in advance!

[dwat3r]

Hi,

I am still using an x40 today with fried usb drives. It is still fully operational except bluetooth and usb. I'm currently using linux on it. My father bought it in 2005(!!) so,it is 8 years old. The amazing fact is, that it has the original hard drive in it,operating as good as 8 years ago. IBM computers never die.

[sonos]

Hi,
in these days i've made a fresh reinstall on the IBM ThinkPad X40 Type 2386 of my cousin.
It has both the two USB ports fried...but for the rest is still working fine..!
It's a pity that both USB are fried...because it's a really nice piece of electronics..
If it were mine i'll try to repair it, replacing the motherboard..
sonos.