10 Dec
2024
10 Dec
'24
5:23 a.m.
On Monday 09 December 2024 11:02:27 E. Liddell via tde-users wrote:
On Mon, 9 Dec 2024 06:19:16 -0800
William Morder via tde-users <users(a)trinitydesktop.org> wrote:
If it's something like a tiny dab of badly-applied solder on a
surface-mount connector somewhere having failed under the stress of
repeated
heating-cooling cycles, it would be hard to spot just by looking. Factory
defects happen, unfortunately.
Do check the contacts inside the port for excessive filth or physical
damage if you haven't already, but it doesn't seem likely that that would
make the port fail with a device already connected to it, unless something
got jostled.
E. Liddell
I keep my laptop and other important stuff much cleaner than my living space.
Regarding the problem in question, the mystery deepens; it has magically just
gone away, or seems to have done.
First I tried booting from live images. I didn't have the standard Debian or
other live discs here, but I did have a couple of homemade live DVDs, one by
Nik and another of unknown provenance. They didn't do much beyond booting up,
didn't actually get into the GUI, etc. So then I went back to my own custom
Devuan OS with TDE installed.
Just for kicks, I tried inserting my flash drive into that problematic third
USB port. This is the one I generally use for bigger SSDs, or even for my
heavy-duty powered 13 port hub, if I need to use several external SSDs. (This
flash drive *is* my complete operating system, as I don't have an internal
hard drive at the moment.)
And bingo, no problem. My system booted up as usual, even though I was booting
the flash drive from that third, formerly non-working, USB port. I tried one
of my SSDs in the second port (which I generally use for the flash drive with
my OS). Again, no problem, the SSD mounted as usual.
Then I shut down, switched back to my usual manner of working, booting from
the flash drive inserted in my second port, and again, everything worked like
normal. Then I tried my SSD in the third port, and again, it mounted
normally, just as if nothing unusal had happened, as though the past few days
never happened at all,
I don't have a clue why it stopped working, even after several reboots, then
just started working normally again. About the only thing I can think is that
it might be wise to switch round my ports, to use them for different things,
rather than maybe overburdening one with heavier activity, then not using it
at all.
My reason for using my ports like this is due to physical configuration: the
unpowered USB hub that I use for my wireless receiver dongle, and for flash
drives, has a kind of odd right angle kink, so that in effect I can only use
it in the front port, or else I will block the other two. And I use the third
or back port for larger SSDs or for my powered USB hub because I am less
likely to jostle the middle port, where my running OS resides, and I don't
want to disturb it.
Thanks for all the suggestions and help. I am not sure if anything actually
worked to correct it, but at any rate I seem back to normal (whatever that
is), at least for now.
Bill