IBM External Enclosure: Failure or User Ignorance?

[ArtShapiro]

Like many of us, I purchased the Chinese IBM 2.5" external enclosure mentioned in this Marketplace Forum link:


http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=37330


I thought it worked fine initially, or at least I don't remember that it didn't. But in recent months it has caused no end of trouble. Most of the time (>95%) it comes up in Device Manger (multiple XP Pro and Vista machines) as a garbage string of characters, but always the same garbage with the same physical drive. I've tried three different drives: my T42's previous stock Fuji 40gig and its replacement 7200RPM Hitachi, plus an old 6 gigger that came originally on my T20. About 5% of the time, after toggling the enclosure on and off or unplugging/plugging the USB cable(s) while the disk is spun up, the disk will be correctly detected and My Computer finally sees the disk.

My obvious hypothesis is simply that there's been an electronic failure in the tiny circuit board inside that enclosure. Presumably I have no recourse or warranty (correct?) But before I jettison the unit and purchase something different (recommendations?) I'll at least solicit the collective wisdom here to see if there's anything I'm missing or might do to get this contraption properly working.

Art

[gator]

Bad luck ... I bought 2 of these enclosure for me and my brother, and both have been working awesome with no issues. You are probably right in guessing that the circuit board is failing.

Of course there is no warranty on this enclosure. I don't have any suggestions for you since I don't know what your budget is ... if you are more specific on how much you want to spend, maybe I can help.

[ArtShapiro]

Appreciate the input. Since we're not talking a Major Expenditure here, I'm not particularly concerned with the price. Obviously the IBM had a pretty good bling quotient, but that aside I'll gravitate to anything that rises over the pack for some reason.

Art