7 Dec
2024
7 Dec
'24
5:15 p.m.
Sorry to post off-topic, but this one has me stumped. Has anybody else had a
USB port just fail on them?
I have three 3.0 USB ports on my laptop, which is a Lenovo 3.15 Ideapad, still
reasonably new (less than two years). Last night I was moving round files,
and left an external SSD plugged in when I took a nap for a few hours. (It's
a WD MyBook, Easy Store or whatever: I have a lot of these WD drives, all
similar but slightly different.)
A couple hours later, when I got up again, my laptop was almost frozen, could
only manage to get the screensaver to wake up, but couldn't get into my
system at all. The SSD light was blinking; after an hour of trying to wake up
the machine using mouse and keyboard, I gave up, did a hard shut down.
When I restarted, everything worked fine, my SSD doesn't appear to be damaged;
but the third USB port is not working now.
This is kind of crucial for how I work, because I have no working internal
hard drive at the moment; my internal SSD died awhile back, I discussed it
earlier on the list. So at present, I use USB port 1 for a small unpowered
USB hub into which I insert flash drives. USB port 2 is the flash drive on
which my working OS (Devuan Daedalus with most recent TDE stable upgrade),
and then USB port 3 is reserved for those SSD drives. When I get busy, I have
a BIG powered USB hub with enough ports to accomodate the whole neighborhood.
But I don't like to drag it out all the time, for many reasons; mainly
because I try to keep it simple and my desk uncluttered.
I could rearrange, use my powered USB hub to accomodate a new arrangement of
devices, but it seems to me that a USB port ought not to just stop working. I
have tried other SSDs, other connectors, as well as trying flash drives and
other USB gadgets, but nothing works on this USB port.
Is there any way to resurrect my seemingly dead USB port? Or can I replace
parts and put in a new 3.0 USB port, etc.?
Any help will be appreciated. If there are web pages treating this subject, I
haven't found them yet. I don't mind doing my own research, if I know where
to look. I also don't mind spending a little to repair or replace, but would
like to avoid buying yet another new machine so soon.
Bill
7 Dec
7 Dec
5:49 p.m.
On Sat, 7 Dec 2024, William Morder via tde-users wrote:
When I restarted, everything worked fine, my SSD doesn't appear to be
damaged; but the third USB port is not working now.
You did check in the bios to see if it was (somehow) disabled?
Jonesy
--
Marvin L Jones | Marvin | W3DHJ | linux
Pueblo, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | FreeBSD __
38.238N 104.547W | jonz.net | DM78rf | SK
6:10 p.m.
On Saturday 07 December 2024 09:49:34 Marvin Jones via tde-users wrote:
On Sat, 7 Dec 2024, William Morder via tde-users
wrote:
Didn't think of that, but I wonder how it could have been disabled in the bios
if the system was running the whole time. When I woke up after a couple
hours, the SSD was blinking, which I thought meant something was reading the
drive, or something was being written, deleted, added ... but it would seem
that it was just unmounted when the USB port stopped working.
Whenever I reboot, I'll go into the bios and look. I doubt it's possible, if I
never went into the bios myself, but maybe I don't know everything.
Bill
When I restarted, everything worked fine, my SSD
doesn't appear to be
damaged; but the third USB port is not working now.
You did check in the bios to see if it was (somehow) disabled?
Jonesy
9:38 p.m.
On Saturday 07 December 2024 10:10:20 William Morder wrote:
On Saturday 07 December 2024 09:49:34 Marvin Jones via
tde-users wrote:
Oh, I just thought of something. I was wondering if I had done anything
especially different recently (other than moving files around, etc.), and it
occurs to me, yes.
I have an external Logitech keyboard and mouse, with one of those tiny
receiver dongles that I plug into any unpowered Belkin USB 4-port hub.
Otherwise I just use it for flash drives.
However ... I was doing some experiments with my smartphone, and discovered
that I can use my external keyboard and mouse with my phone, which is useful
for sending texts, because I refuse to use autocorrect crap.
Now, I wonder, could my switching the keyboard from my laptop to my phone,
then back to the laptop, have caused something weird to happen?
Bill
On Sat, 7 Dec 2024, William Morder via tde-users
wrote:
Didn't think of that, but I wonder how it could have been disabled in the
bios if the system was running the whole time. When I woke up after a
couple hours, the SSD was blinking, which I thought meant something was
reading the drive, or something was being written, deleted, added ... but
it would seem that it was just unmounted when the USB port stopped working.
Whenever I reboot, I'll go into the bios and look. I doubt it's possible,
if I never went into the bios myself, but maybe I don't know everything.
Bill When I restarted, everything worked fine, my SSD
doesn't appear to be
damaged; but the third USB port is not working now.
You did check in the bios to see if it was (somehow) disabled?
Jonesy 
8 Dec
8 Dec
12:50 p.m.
Anno domini 2024 Sat, 7 Dec 13:38:07 -0800
William Morder via tde-users scripsit:
[...]
Now, I wonder, could my switching the keyboard from my laptop to my phone,
then back to the laptop, have caused something weird to happen?
Other than confusing your personal NSA supervisor? Not that I can think of.
Nik
Bill
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11:01 p.m.
On Sunday 08 December 2024 04:50:17 Dr. Nikolaus Klepp via tde-users wrote:
Anno domini 2024 Sat, 7 Dec 13:38:07 -0800
William Morder via tde-users scripsit:
At least it would give me some pleasure to know that I caused them so much
trouble, to assign me a personal tracker.
Bill
[...]
Now, I wonder, could my switching the keyboard from my laptop to my
phone, then back to the laptop, have caused something weird to happen?
Other than confusing your personal NSA supervisor? Not that I can think of.
Nik
9 Dec
9 Dec
12:44 p.m.
On Sat, 7 Dec 2024 09:15:20 -0800
William Morder via tde-users <users(a)trinitydesktop.org> wrote:
Sorry to post off-topic, but this one has me stumped.
Has anybody else had a
USB port just fail on them?
Well, they're *ports*. They're subject to physical wear and tear. I believe
there are clauses in the standard that say they have to be built so that they can
support a certain minimum number of device insertions and removals before
failure, but it's always possible that you got a dud or someone did a bad
soldering job that failed under stress.
Before you go tearing into your laptop's guts, though, try booting it from a
live CD image just to make absolutely sure that there's nothing "stuck on"
in the installed OS somewhere. I don't see how there could be, but it's a
simple non-invasive test that eliminates the OS layer as a possible culprit.
I assume you've tested the port with other devices to make sure it isn't the
combination of that port and that device that's gone sour. I also assume
you've tested your external drive with other ports on the laptop. (I ask
because I have a USB key that suddenly started refusing to work with my
laptop one day while my desktop shows it as perfectly okay. Still haven't
figured that one out.)
E. Liddell
2:19 p.m.
On Monday 09 December 2024 04:44:11 E. Liddell via tde-users wrote:
On Sat, 7 Dec 2024 09:15:20 -0800
Before you go tearing into your laptop's guts, though, try booting it from
a live CD image just to make absolutely sure that there's nothing "stuck
on" in the installed OS somewhere. I don't see how there could be, but
it's a simple non-invasive test that eliminates the OS layer as a possible
culprit.
I assume you've tested the port with other devices to make sure it isn't
the combination of that port and that device that's gone sour. I also
assume you've tested your external drive with other ports on the laptop.
(I ask because I have a USB key that suddenly started refusing to work with
my laptop one day while my desktop shows it as perfectly okay. Still
haven't figured that one out.)
E. Liddell
That's a good idea. I probably wouldn't have thought to test it with a live
image. And I do have a couple of discs here.
As far as wear-and-tear goes: Actually, I use that port the least of the
three. The middle port I use every day, all the time, because it's where I
insert the flash drive that currently holds my entire OS, since I don't have
an internal hard drive.
The first, or front port, I use for an unpowered USB 4-port hub, which mainly
holds the dongle, or receiver for my wireless keyboard. And then I insert
other flash drives as I need them.
The last, or third port, I reserve just for my big SSD drives, or for a
powered USB 13-port hub, if I intend to spread out and do some time-consuming
work, usually when I am reinstalling packages, or if I am transferring files
to or from backup on one of the larger SSDs.
Otherwise, I try to confine myself just to my laptop, and whatever I can fit
on a collection of flash drives; mainly because this way it's portable, and I
can pack up, come and go quickly. If I have all my gear out, it can take a
while to organize and pack up. I am trying to get myself into good habits.
So it's especially a mystery while that last, or third port, would have
somehow gone bad, as I use is much less often; although, when I do use it, it
maybe gets more wear. Or maybe, because it's open, something could have got
into it ... dust, insects? But I did open up that laptop already, and nothing
appears to be amiss.
Well, later today I will run some tests.
Bill
7:02 p.m.
On Mon, 9 Dec 2024 06:19:16 -0800
William Morder via tde-users <users(a)trinitydesktop.org> wrote:
As far as wear-and-tear goes: Actually, I use that
port the least of the
three. [...]
So it's especially a mystery while that last, or third port, would have
somehow gone bad, as I use is much less often; although, when I do use it, it
maybe gets more wear. Or maybe, because it's open, something could have got
into it ... dust, insects? But I did open up that laptop already, and nothing
appears to be amiss.
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
10 Dec
10 Dec
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
12
days inactive
15
days old
9 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Dr. Nikolaus Klepp -
E. Liddell -
Marvin Jones -
William Morder