Discussion
It seems that Thunderbolt no longer works on my laptop. That is... annoying. Because it is not that old.
Fortunately, my old "hot spare" laptop still works, so I can get on with my work.
But it looks like I am in the market for a new laptop. I'm not sure that I'd go for a ThinkPad again, which is also annoying because that has been my go-to for a while.
@yuman I reckon that this machine is at least five years old!
@manawyrm @neil i thought I'd killed one of my ports for charging, no amount of EC paperclipping would fix it. Happened to plug it into a new charger I was testing, and it's worked ever since. Was stuck in some half-handshaked state for months presumably that the Anker charger finally snapped it out of
Resetting it via the battery has brought it back, but it is still very flaky - the slightest touch to the cable means that it drops the connection. So I suspect that this is hardware relate :(
Both of the ports. And both have been flickering-y for a while, and dropping out if it so much as nudge the cable. I've swapped cables out, so not that.
It doesn't wholly surprise me that it has finally died.
But I will try this all the same!
@neil haven't read the whole thread but I've literally just bought the only X1 Carbon I could find on eBay that didn't disclose that the USB-C ports were dodgy.
Only to find that the ports were indeed still dodgy, and that this is a pretty common problem. I just spent £145 on having them resoldered, which I probably shouldn't have bothered doing but the repair shop called me while I was very distracted and I just went "yeah that's fine" without really thinking it through.
@neil might not be your issue, of course. But it's common enough on X1 Carbon eBay listings (and YouTube) that I figured looking into the repair would be better than returning and trying to find another laptop this spec that had good ports.
The annoying thing is that the USB-A ports are daughterboarded, USB-C is not, despite being acknowledged as the weaker connector, and (since there is no separate charging port) the ones that are going to be under most stress.
@manawyrm I have switched to my backup laptop, using the same cable and dock and peripherals, and that is working :)
@manawyrm I have rotated both ends, at different times, of two sets of cables!
@manawyrm I will try your reset approach all the same!
@manawyrm X1 Yoga, 6th gen
@neil How about Tuxedo?
European, FOSS.
I suspect - I haven't taken the back off for this purpose - that it might be tricky to replace just those ports / board on my ThinkPad.
@neil which model, which gen? if it's coupla years old, replacing the ports is not feasible, b/c you can swap out the whole board (and maybe upgrade a gen or two) for like $100ish
