Re: USB ports not responding
On Sat, 1 Sep 2007, Rickard Lindberg wrote:
Hi,
I have a problem with my USB ports. It seems like I can't use them at all.
Here is what happened:
I am running a laptop (Thinkpad X40) and I wanted to connect more than two
USB-devices at the same time. Since the computer only has got 2 ports I
bought a USB-hub. Everything worked fine except for my portable hard drive.
I tried to connect it to different ports on the hub, and while I was doing
that, the computer reported an error saying that the USB-devices tried to
consume to much power. The computer then hung and after reboot I could no
longer use the USB-ports. I was using Windows XP at the time, but now I have
switched to Debian Etch. I seem to have the same problem under Debian.
You don't mention if the external drive has its own power. It is possible
that a fault in the drive caused the excessive power consumption.
I'm not sure if this problem is hardware or software related. Do you think
that my USB-ports might have become physically damaged? Is there any way in
Debian to debug the USB-ports to see what is going on?
It is quite likely that the USB ports and/or drive are toast. You can get
PCMCIA USB cards, but they too have limited power. Most external USB
drives have their own power blocks for use with low power USB ports, and
there are powered hubs (with hefty power blocks).
I'm not sure if this mailing list is the correct place for this post, but I
don't know where else to ask. If you know anything I would be happy if you
could help or just point me to another location where I can find out some
more.
--
George N. White III <aa056@chebucto.ns.ca>
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