[SOLVED] [T410s] Boot with an USB port on ExpressCard

[WarMachine]

Hello,

I'm the happy owner of a T410s (pics on imgur) that I received today (35ᵗʰ machine of my collection ! ). It was a bargain, as it's in pretty good condition and a low price (90 €, knowing that these machines here in France are pretty expensive – 200 € or more – and pretty rare). At this price, the other machines are usually smashed, but mine is not. Three screws were missing (I had some to complete), the lid of the DVD player was missing too (I had another DVD player), the unit came with an hard disk, I replaced it with an SSD. And I replaced the two 2 GB sticks of RAM by two 4 GB sticks. There is a little hole on the palmrest (interesting to know I have exactly the same thing on my T400s, seems that the owners like to use screws too long for the laptop, what a pity…), but honestly, it's not so visible, and I think it can be repaired easily.

The "big" problem is the USB. The ports are not physically damaged, but none of the three are functionning (the normal one, the Always Charging one, and the combo USB/e-SATA one). USB is active in the BIOS, of course. But whatever USB key I plug, it's never seen by the laptop. The man who sold me the laptop announced that the USB was not functionning correctly, so I knew I would have some problems with it. Not a very big deal, since I already have an OS on the SSD I put in the machine, and everything works fine (don't like this method, but for now, that will do).

I think I will replace the motherboard as soon as I find one not too expensive and, if I do that, the whole expense will be under the cost of a laptop fully operational here in the country. But I wondered if, otherwise, I could put an USB ExpressCard 34 in the computer and boot from it.

I would buy an ECUSB3S11 from Startech.com: https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/ecusb3s11

Do you think it would be possible?

Thank you !

W.

[JBUK]

I have got a couple of these USB 3 adapters : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141339028955 ... GTR=1#shId
and have found they are the good fit and although they are not the fastest adapter they perform reliably and are a lot cheaper than the Startech. However you won't boot from USB using it I am afraid. You might find you can boot from USB in a dock otherwise its boot from CD/DVD or a new mobo.

[WarMachine]

Hello JBUK !

Thank you for your quick answer. I reply from the T410s and I already love the keyboard (an NMB one, my preferred ! ).

I was afraid that it may not work as intended. I tought too that the ExpressCard was perhaps managed by the USB Bus, and if it's true, the risk is great that the card won't be recognized at all. But I did a quick research and it seems that the ExpressCard is managed by the PCIe bus on this machine.

The dock station is a GREAT idea ! I was in a bit of stress yesterday and I didn't think about it right away. I don't have one at the moment, but I doubt it will be difficult to find and buy one (and I'm pretty sure it will be cheap, fingers crossed ! ). It will be one more (I already have 5 for the other laptops). I may not have enough space to stock all that !

The machine, as I said, is in a relatively great shape, but I doubt it was well maintained (I rarely see machines that age perfectly clean). Not a big deal, as I clean them myself and I love that. Perhaps the USB will be up again after that. I doubt it, but there always is a little hope. Wait and see.

The goal remains nonetheless to buy a "new" motherboard, and I'll try to find one with an i5-560M, or why not with an i5-580M (if I'm lucky ! ).

Have a good day,
Take care !

W.

PS : Hummmm, I said five docks, but in fact it's more than that. One for my X20 and X24, one for my T23s (that I can use too on the X), one for the Thinkpad 600, one for the X31, an Ultrabase X6 too, and I must, if I remember well, have three more for various T more recent than the T23s !

[dr_st]

USB 3.0 ExpressCards are PCIe-based; they should work, but will probably not be bootable, unless they have their own boot ROM integrated and the BIOS knows how to read it. So far I haven't seen any that are like that.

USB 2.0 ExpressCards are essentially just USB hubs. They will connect to the laptop's USB controller and will be bootable. The dock is similar, as it also has a USB hub.

However, if your laptop's USB controller itself is damaged, then none of these solutions may prove effective.

[WarMachine]

Hello dr_st,

Thanks for your explanations.

I'm afraid none of these solutions work too, because whatever I plug, it's likely gonna use the USB bus of the laptop.
So, I bought a new motherboard. A little less than forty euros, from Germany, fully functionnal, with an i5-560M (the 580M I found was from United States, 75 €, and I would have had to pay taxes too – for a total of ca. 140 €). Too expensive.
And the difference isn't enormous between the 560 and the 580. It's all in the head ! It seems that my friend can give me a dock for this laptop. We'll see what's happening.

I will update this topic when I receive the motherboard and I will tell if the installation has gone right. I've already disassembled my T400s (my colleague sold it to me because of heat problems, so I had to disassemble it) to clean it, to replace the thermal stones by real thermal paste ! I put Conductonaut and since then, I have never had one problem with this laptop. I will do the same with the T410s (and I think it will be even more useful, because the Arrandale are not known to be cold little CPUs) !

Good night and take care too !

W.

[WarMachine]

Hello !

I haven't received the motherboard yet, but it will surely be quick, the delivery is scheduled on the next week (between may, the 14ᵗʰ and may, the 19ᵗʰ). I'm impatient !

Well, I got a dock today (absolutely new, still in his box and not even opened yet !). The boot on USB isn't possible. We feared that the bus in the laptop would control the ports on the dock and it seems it's in fact like that.

Not a real problem, but good to know. And I have now a dock for my T400s, my T410, my T410s, my T420, my T420s and my two X220 (pfiew ! ).

Have a good day and take care !

W.

[WarMachine]

Hello,

New motherboard received, laptop disassembled, cleaned and reassembled with it, everything is fine. There was a little piece of metal of one of the slots that was bent so the upper RAM was moving a little more than the other one, but i fixed the problem. I can now boot from the USB. I installed Windows without problem after fixing this little piece of metal. The machine wasn't too dirty, I would have expected worse from a 2010 piece of hardware. Just a little dirt in the fan and the thermal paste was not in great shape. I put a drop of C.A. glue in the little hole of the palmrest. I'll need to put something black on it to hide the glue and everything will be perfectly OK !

W.

[dr_st]

Congrats! Glad you got it all sorted out.

[karotlopj]

USB 3.0 ExpressCards are PCIe-based; they should work, but will probably not be bootable, unless they have their own boot ROM integrated and the BIOS knows how to read it. So far I haven't seen any that are like that.

Excuse me for butting in... it's just that many years ago I was able to boot my old 600 from a PCMCIA card, and I don't how that worked but it did. Would this have been something built into the BIOS of that machine? Are no other ThinkPads able to boot from PCMCIA?

[dr_st]

I think it has to be built into the BIOS, yes. It was not uncommon to support PCMCIA booting in that era, since this was before USB.

[WarMachine]

Hello,

I took a look in the BIOS of my Thinkpad 600E and I confirm: PCMCIA is listed in the boot options.



W.