I'm hoping someone can help me because I am at my wit's end and am about to return this laptop.

For years I have been using a very low powered laptop with hardly any memory, slow speed, etc: a Toshiba Satellite with 6 gig hard disk memory. It managed audio editors pretty well though so long as I was removing files and making room for new ones. My M-audio Radium MIDI keyboard worked perfectly. I had no problems with drivers. I just downloaded the most up to date versions and I was off.


Here now is my brand new Lenovo R61E. My first big computer purchase after using the other dinosaur to its limits.

Imagine my frustration though when the same M-audio keyboard does not show up when plugged in. The drivers seem to install just fine. I have tried both a newer version and the older release that was on my former laptop. Nothing... every time I connect the controller I get the message: "USB device not recognized, there may have been a malfunction ETC ETC."

It boggles my mind. I must have tried like 100 times last weekend. I wasted hours talking to the keyboard manufacturer who deferred me to to Lenovo, and then Lenovo technicians said that it was a software issue and not a hardware issue and that they couldn't do anything for me without charging me $99 fee??? They suggested I contact Microsoft since it is a software issue. Well Microsoft gave me the runaround too.

In desperation, today I went to sit down with a Microcenter tech to try and figure things out and the most he could do was tell me I was right... it's not working. Why???

1. I know the M-audio keyboard is not broken because I plug it into the old Toshiba and everything works fine.
2. It can't be a software issue because both laptops are running XP PRO.
3. Can't really be a driver issue because it's the same drivers on both laptops.

Is it hardware??? Is there a conflict in my Lenovo??? The closest I got to success was at one point I got a bubble saying "unkown Usb keyboard" and "new hardware found" or something like that. But then the same error message pops up.

4. Another USB device ( a Dazzle portable drive) works fine.