J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Bill in Co
writes:
[]
I may try that next, but I'm not expecting much. Coincentally or not,
this is the same laptop that I lost the double USB port in a few days
ago (which is located in the same area as the hot spot), and was never
able to resurrect (via any device manager uninstalls and reinstalls,
etc). That double USB port was apparently damaged at the hardware
level, which I still find hard to believe.

The obvious question: was the hotspot in evidence before the USB port
failed? If so, it seems not inconceivable that it could be related: the
heat fried a chip, or (though I think this would require _great_ heat)
desoldered something. Or could have just been the final factor that
would separate a minuscule crack that had developed, or something.

Can you get a thermometer into the port? (Maybe a meat/oven one? Though
don't short anything.)

I don't know whether it was hot before, or that could have answered it. :-)
I don't have such a thermometer, but I can tell you this much: if you leave
your finger inside that metal port for about 5-10 seconds, you will need to
pull it out. :-) Paul seemed to be suggesting that might be around 65C.
I just looked this up on the Internet, and according to one article, it says
60C (for up to 5 seconds). I'm not sure if anything inside the laptop is
supposed to run that hot, but maybe it could (it does have a NVIDIA graphics
chip, afterall). Oh, and I did check it out with the battery removed, but
got the same result.