X22 won't power external usb cdrom drive?

[scrible88]

the usb port works fine with everything, and I know the cd-rom drive works with other computers. It is a portable usb powered cd-rom. It might have even come with the computer. It was bundled with the refurbished unit.

It works fine with my desktop. The thinkpad detects it in XP and will eject if I right click on the cd-rom drive and click eject. The issues is when I try to play a cd. The cd-drive doesn't start up, it just makes a clicking sound. Again, it spins up fine and works great on any other system.

Any ideas? I'm totally lost and need this thing working.

[SeanM]

Some USB devices draw more power than they should. For desktops, where power isn't a huge deal, this may not pose a problem. For notebooks, where power is a paramount concern, it can cause problems.

If you want to test to see if this is the problem, plug a *powered* USB hub into the thinkpad, and plug the cdrom drive into the powered hub. If it works there. . . your CD drive is drawing too much power. I suspect this is the case.

[scrible88]

Haha, that sucks since it was bundled with the laptop as a factory refurb.

I guessed that was the case too because it works fine with my desktop.

I guess this is the incentive more me to buy an ebay ultrabay dock/drive.