Notes

Well, we have a working hypothesis about whats going on with this laptop. And, I found a new author.

Here's the hypothesis. In mainframe computer systems, the control program keeps track of various things, like the direct access storage devices, by using a table. Each device (or whatever's being tracked) has some kind of identifying characteristic, but the control program usually just refers to it with a number -- the second entry in the table, for example. Well, the hypothesis is that the PC's control program does the same thing with a) the power source and b) the external hard drive. If it happens that the power source is normally the first thing in the table, but plugging the external hard drive in bumps it down to second, then when I unplug it, the control program may not realize that it's gone -- and when it needs to 'talk' to the power source, it looks in the second slot, not realizing that its in the first now. Cold-starting the PC -- shutting it completely down, bringing it back up -- makes it rebuild that table, and it gets it right. Well, usually.

So, thats the hypothesis. How to fix it, if thats it, is a whole nother question -- though it strongly suggests that maybe I ought not to unplug the external drive without shutting down the laptop, first. And I mean, all the way down -- not just a 'standby'. Rats.

As for the author -- it's J.A.Jance, and the book is Dead Wrong. Its a mystery, set in the modern day Southwest. So far -- about half way through -- its pretty good. Nicely written, entirely plausible.