I'm trying to connect a desktop PC to an IBM Thinkpad 'i' Series 1440
laptop.  The laptop has 192 ram and a Celeron 300 (I think) Both machines
are running W98SE.

The problem is this:

The PC recognises the USB cable as soon as it's plugged in and throws up a
wizard which accepts the floppy-based driver.

But the laptop doesn't even blink when I connect the USB cable to it's
single port - it doesn't acknowledge the connection at all.

All I could think to do was to check Device Manager for USB conflicts (none)
and the BIOS to see if the USB configuration is set as enabled (it is)

The only other issue which might perhaps be relevant is the battery level -
perhaps the USB port is disabled when the power level is down, as is the
case with this machine, which has a fairly feeble battery.

However, I would have thought that plugging into the mains power would have
solved that problem - but it doesn't.

The USB cable gadget says it has 'Full compliance with USB spec. 1.1.'  And,
I've used it before to connect a Toshiba laptop with the same PC without
problem.

Can anyone suggest what might be wrong here?

FOOTNOTE:  I've just plugged a USB mouse into the laptop USB port,
and DID get a response, although I was unable to get the 'USB Human
Interface Device' set up, for some reason. It kept asking me to reboot after
the install, but on rebooting, the mouse was inactive again.  Until I
wiggled it, when the wizard sprang into life and kicked off the whole
process again, etc etc.

However, plugging in the USB link cable again has absolutely no effect,
wiggle or no.

Perhaps I can work a connection between the PC and laptop with a serial
or parallel cable.  Can anyone tell me how this works? I have a variety of
Laplink-type software
so I probably have the application covered.

TIA

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
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