dell inspiron 8600 NOT compatible! HELP

[PatrickJ]

Hello,

I've been pulling my hair out about this for about a week and a half now, turning to every possible source and getting no answers, everyone reacts to me like I'm speaking chinese. I bought an MBox and a Dell Inspiron 8600 recently(Pentium M 1.5GHz, centrino, 2.0GB memory). On Digidesign's website, it said that the Inspiron 8600 was recommended for MBox. However, phantom power does NOT work. When applied, the MBox goes dead, and I get a USB error message saying "Power Surge On USB Hub Port: The USB hub port has exceeded its power limit". The MBox doesn't have a problem, because I tried it on other computers and it worked properly. It's my laptop, which shouldn't be a problem because it's recommended, but it is a problem. Even that gargantuan thread "Best Laptops for PT LE" has the 8600 in there frequently. Plugging in the AC power adapter doesn't help anything. MBox standard functions DO work, but phantom power does NOT. Since I have concluded it is my laptop's fault, I've called Dell support numerous times trying to explain the whole situation, but MBox and phantom power and everything is all very foreign to them, and the answer usually is "well I don't know what to tell you. Contact the product's manufacturer."

How am I so alone on this issue? Has nobody encountered this problem before? I've posted on here before about this, as well as contacted Digidesign and Dell, as well as the instructor of a Pro Tools course I'm taking currently, and nobody knows what I'm talking about. The answer is always "you'll have to get an external phantom supply" or something along the lines. But I bought this laptop because it was supposed to work - I don't want to lug around another piece of equipment. Can anybody help me, please?

-Patrick.

[guitardom]

have you tried a powered usb hub, yes something to lug around but they are quite small. i have heard of this working.