X61 Docking Station USB woes

[simonmason]

I am having a repeated problem with my X61, it's docking station and the USB ports. When USB devices are plugged into the docking station they sometimes work. Most of the time I have to plug them directly into the laptop itself (while it is in the docking station) to get them to work. I just got this machine, I had an X60 with a docking station before and it did exactly the same thing. I have changed the docking station 3 times across the 2 laptops and this has done nothing. I have run system update and downloaded all of the new drivers.

Either there is something wrong with my software configuration - something I carried from the last machine, although I did a clean install in the new machine.

-or-

There is a particular USB device that is causing this problem. I am running some sophisticated hardware - microsoft mouse, and an ibm keyboard.

-or-

There is something wrong with the bios and how it interacts with Windows XP (which I am running).

Has anyone seen anything like this?

[fongj]

The Ultrabase is defective, a common problem discussed here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=23906

Mine has the same problem.