[#1]

Question

There are two USB ports on left side of W701.  One says eSATA + "USB icon," another says, ss + "USB icon"  What does "ss" stands for?  Would you please help? 

A reason that I ask is that when I plug in a Lenovo Mini Wireless Keyboard (N5901) transceiver in the port, the computer will hang at BIOS screen.  The transceiver on other USB ports boots fine.

Answer

ss for SuperSpeed USB, or USB 3.0.

USB 3.0 devices go up to 5Gbps (vs 480Mbps for USB 2.0 devices).

There must a compatibility problem with the wireless keyboard, although USB 3.0 is supposed to be backward compatible.   There is also a Yellow USB port - these are powered USB which can supply up to 10 watts of power for charging phones, MP3 players and other devices when the laptop is off, but connected to an AC source.

Just to add a quick note for the yellow usb - this function may ship disabled in the BIOS and if it is not working as expected on your laptop, check the BIOS settings.