T40 docking station USB ports not working properly

[alect]

I am not sure which I have - but my docking station has 4 USb 2.0 ports.

For some reason they do not seem to be working properly. At first I could not even get a USB optical mouse to work. Now it seems ok - after I tried it in the PS2 port which didn't work either.

But my main issue is that I have an external HDD (USBLink) which I use for backups and storing files I don't need to carry with me. I used to use without a problem iwth my R30 with its docking station. Now just got a T40 from work with the new docking station. I loaded the USBLink drivers and software. But here is the kicker - if I have it (the USB form the HDD) plugged directly into one of the 2 USB ports on the actual laptop, it works fine and I can access the HDD. But if I plug it into one of the 4 USB ports on the docking station, it results in the HDD access (read/write) light being on continuously and I cannot access the contents and get a I/O error if I try to view the contents of the HDD. I have not left it accessing like this for too long as I am afraid it will affect the HDD.

Has anyone had a similar problem? Is there something I can do - patch? driver update?

Any other ideas?

Thanks

[sktn77a]

USB hubs and docking stations/port replicators sometimes have this kind of problem - may USB device manufacturers will not warrant their hardware to work through them (only the ports on the computer itself).