Here's an interesting problem. My laptop is not turning on / charging the battery unless there is something plugged into a USB port (in this case the external hard drive). My charger is fine, I've tried it on another laptop. At the moment I have a IDE hard drive being powered by my desktop with a USB cable attached so it can be used as a external HD. At this very moment, I've taken the battery out of the laptop and have it running on external power. If I take the USB cable out of the laptop . . . . the laptop will die. :\

There is little in common. My guess is you will not be able to fix it. Laptops have a very complex power scheme. It is only my guess that somehow that system has failed big time. Guess at this point it couldn't hurt to do a bios update no matter what the reason unless you don't mind doing what you are doing. I guess it could be possible that some path like ground is being made somehow by the device or by cold joint in motherboard. Playing to the angels Les Paul (1915-2009)