Lenovo T500 and W500 broken USB

I am thinking about buying a Thinkpad T500 or W500 and saw several posts online about this broken USB port problem.

Does this apply to all T500 and W500 models, or is there a better charge fabricated after date X?

If this problem is widespread I would rather stick to and old T61p which still has similar performance.

Do you have an idea?

 

I don't know the cutoff date, but I think that models later in the production run had stronger ports.

FWIW, my T500(made pretty early in the production run) hasn't had a problem with its ports. I'm pretty sure if you're stressing them(using fat sticks that push other USB devices out of the way or generally being rough with plugging/unplugging them) they'll break, but if you're relatively easy on them you shouldn't have too much of an issue. I've used mine with external mice and charging phones/MP3 players/external HDDs) for years and never had an issue, but I'm not hard on it.

 

Many bulkier/heavier machines get a "bad USB" rep because people just tend to yank the cords/drives/whatnots out, and with a 15" unit that can easily explode in one's face.

I've used a first-generation (actually a pre-production) W500 as a daily driver for full six months, carried it to presentations and many other places and have never had an issue of any kind with its USB ports, and trust me when I tell you that a *lot* of stuff was plugged and unplugged from it...

Several T400/500 and R400/500 went through my hands since those days, not a single problem of the aforementioned nature.

I'm not implying that the problem doesn't exist, or that the folks who were complaining about these ports were careless fools, one and all.

All I'm saying is that if you buy a healthy machine and treat it with basic respect it is not likely to develop a problem.

Happy shopping.

 

The failure of certain R400, R500, T400, T500 and W500 batches were attributed to the plastics they used. The T61 and R61 had similar layout, and the failure with USB port was far less common, i don't think people whom uses the T61/R61 had a different usage style to those whom uses T400/T500/R400/R500/W500.