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GNUser

Member

Registered: 2017-03-16

Posts: 570  

ExpressCard only works when laptop is on AC power

My T400 ThinkPad did not come with any USB 3.0 ports, so I added one of these cards:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Exp … B00535CMEE

The wrinkle is that the card only works if laptop is on AC power. If laptop is running on battery power and I want to use the card, I need to plug the laptop in, eject the card, and reinsert the card.

I don't mind the above too much. However, because my laptop's battery lasts many hours, sometimes I don't have the AC adapter with me--and can't use the card.

Is the card's inability to function when laptop is on battery power a) due to some kernel/software setting or b) due to laptop's physical inability to provide enough power to the card when running on battery? If it is a software setting trying to "help" me by being frugal with battery power, I'd like to change the setting so that I can use the card when on battery power.

P.S. I'm on ASCII with MATE 1.16.2. I do not use a power manager. Any power settings on this machine are default low-level settings (e.g., kernel settings).

Last edited by GNUser (2018-09-12 19:29:53)

GNUser

Member

Registered: 2017-03-16

Posts: 570  

Re: ExpressCard only works when laptop is on AC power

When on AC power, here is dmesg and lspci output when I plug in the card:

$ dmesg
---snip---
[   38.816383] pci 0000:04:00.0: [1912:0015] type 00 class 0x0c0330
[   38.816469] pci 0000:04:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0x00000000-0x00001fff 64bit]
[   38.816931] pci 0000:04:00.0: PME# supported from D0 D3hot D3cold
[   38.828158] pci 0000:04:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0xe0000000-0xe0001fff 64bit]
[   38.828207] pci 0000:04:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   38.828557] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: Resetting
[   39.872583] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI Host Controller
[   39.872612] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 9
[   39.877934] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: hcc params 0x014051cf hci version 0x100 quirks 0x00000090
[   39.878520] usb usb9: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[   39.878526] usb usb9: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   39.878531] usb usb9: Product: xHCI Host Controller
[   39.878535] usb usb9: Manufacturer: Linux 4.16.2-gnu xhci-hcd
[   39.878539] usb usb9: SerialNumber: 0000:04:00.0
[   39.878986] hub 9-0:1.0: USB hub found
[   39.879013] hub 9-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[   39.879378] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI Host Controller
[   39.879389] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 10
[   39.881478] usb usb10: We don't know the algorithms for LPM for this host, disabling LPM.
[   39.881540] usb usb10: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0003
[   39.881545] usb usb10: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   39.881550] usb usb10: Product: xHCI Host Controller
[   39.881554] usb usb10: Manufacturer: Linux 4.16.2-gnu xhci-hcd
[   39.881558] usb usb10: SerialNumber: 0000:04:00.0
[   39.881832] hub 10-0:1.0: USB hub found
[   39.881844] hub 10-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[   39.959935] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=371341 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8612 LEN=24 
[   39.959968] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=636760 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8610 LEN=24 
[   39.970442] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=371341 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8612 LEN=24 
[   39.970523] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=636760 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8610 LEN=24 

$ lspci
---snip---
04:00.0 USB controller: Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 02)

When on battery power, here is dmesg and lspci output when I plug in the card:

$ dmesg
---snip---
[   30.008572] pci 0000:04:00.0: [1912:0015] type 00 class 0x0c0330
[   30.008658] pci 0000:04:00.0: reg 0x10: [mem 0x00000000-0x00001fff 64bit]
[   30.008948] pci 0000:04:00.0: PME# supported from D0 D3hot D3cold
[   30.020338] pci 0000:04:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0xe0800000-0xe0801fff 64bit]
[   30.020437] pci 0000:04:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   30.021279] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: Resetting
[   31.040665] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI Host Controller
[   31.040694] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 9
[   31.046064] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: hcc params 0x014051cf hci version 0x100 quirks 0x00000090
[   31.046745] usb usb9: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[   31.046751] usb usb9: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   31.046755] usb usb9: Product: xHCI Host Controller
[   31.046760] usb usb9: Manufacturer: Linux 4.16.2-gnu xhci-hcd
[   31.046764] usb usb9: SerialNumber: 0000:04:00.0
[   31.047217] hub 9-0:1.0: USB hub found
[   31.047293] hub 9-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[   31.047723] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: xHCI Host Controller
[   31.047735] xhci_hcd 0000:04:00.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 10
[   31.049579] usb usb10: We don't know the algorithms for LPM for this host, disabling LPM.
[   31.049641] usb usb10: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0003
[   31.049647] usb usb10: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   31.049651] usb usb10: Product: xHCI Host Controller
[   31.049655] usb usb10: Manufacturer: Linux 4.16.2-gnu xhci-hcd
[   31.049659] usb usb10: SerialNumber: 0000:04:00.0
[   31.049932] hub 10-0:1.0: USB hub found
[   31.049993] hub 10-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
[   31.120412] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=470731 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8612 LEN=24 
[   31.120498] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=854431 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8610 LEN=24 
[   31.131125] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=470731 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8612 LEN=24 
[   31.131270] [UFW BLOCK] IN=wlan0 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:7f31:6966:e82c:1811 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=854431 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8610 LEN=24 

$ lspci
---snip---
04:00.0 USB controller: Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720202 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 02)

To my surprise, the outputs seem identical even though the card is functional in the first scenario, nonfunctional in the second scenario.

Does the above prove that inability to use the card while on battery power is a power/hardware limitation rather than a setting/software issue?

Last edited by GNUser (2018-09-12 14:11:46)

mtbvfr

Member

Registered: 2017-07-29

Posts: 67  

Re: ExpressCard only works when laptop is on AC power

Hi GNUser,

Were you able to resolve this issue?

If so, what was the solution?

Was it a problem peculiar to the T400 or to all Lenovo Laptops?

Thanks!

GNUser

Member

Registered: 2017-03-16

Posts: 570  

Re: ExpressCard only works when laptop is on AC power

No resolution. Also, I don't know if this is peculiar to T400 or all laptops.
Note that the ExpressCard came with a power cable, but I don't use it because I don't want to carry around an extra cable.

So here is what I've discovered:

- ExpressCard never works on battery power.

- ExpressCard works if laptop was on AC when it booted and has been on AC continuously up to and including when I use the ExpressCard.

- If laptop was on battery power when it booted and later I switch to AC power, I need to eject and re-insert the ExpressCard in order for it to work.

Hope this helps.

Camtaf

Member

Registered: 2019-11-19

Posts: 436  

Re: ExpressCard only works when laptop is on AC power

the ExpressCard came with a power cable

There's your clue, it needs powering, looks like your laptop battery isn't able to supply enough on its own.