I bought a Lenovo laptop and it did not appear to have enough power to drive an external drive. It had some other problems, so I returned it and the drive. I just wanted to be sure the drive works on the next laptop I buy. Maybe it was a problem with a defective laptop.
Random idea that may work: One of the split cable USB 2.0 ones may work w/ one of the plugs hooked to a USB charger (be sure it can deliver at least 1 Amp)