Thinkpads Forum

Hi

I am overall very happy with build and performance of my T420, main complaint besides the screen resolution is that it did not come with USB3 support. So the other day when I bought a Targus USB3 PCMCIA adaptor I thought I had fixed the missing element. So far I have been wrong. After installing the driver and plugging it in, all was looking ok, WD 1TB 2.5 USB3 HD plugged in and showed up fine in Explorer, copying or moving a small size file (400 MB) worked like a charm... fast and ez... but for most any other size files over 500 MB... it will start to move or copy and then show an error message, and say the HD is no longer available... tried several fixes, reboots etc. but so far no luck... any thots? thanks in advance

It could be a problem with the embedded controller of the PCMCIA card, maybe is faulty?

If the Targus USB 3.0 ExpressCard adapter came with a "USB power cord" that plugs into an existing USB port and then the other end plugs into the Targus card ..... use it to provide the extra power that the external drives need.

According to the specs, USB 2.0 ports provide only 500mA of power.
I do not know what a USB 3.0 port is suppose to provide.
It may be safe to assume that a USB 3.0 external drive needs more power than a USB 2.0 external drive.
The Targus USB 3.0 ExpressCard uses almost 200mA by itself.
I also do not know how many mAmps are available to an ExpressCard, but I do know that the extra USB power cord is required to power my USB 3.0 external drive when it is connected to my USB 3.0 ExpressCard (a different brand of ExpressCard adapter ... not a Targus).