I have a T430 Levono Thinkpad running Win7. I use a ZTE USB modem (something like this) for my internet connection. I usually keep the modem plugged into the USB drive even when the laptop is shutdown or hibernating. This worked fine on my earlier laptops. But with the Lenovo, my laptop doesn't boot if the modem is in the USB drive. It shows the initial character based screen where it gives the Thinkpad message & BIOS details and then waits. If I pull out the modem, it goes ahead. I have disabled USB as a boot option in my BIOS settings, but even then this happens sometimes (but not all the times). Likewise while resuming from hibernation. The USB modem also has drivers & ISP connection client which getting installed the first time you use it on any machine. I have used multiple laptops (HP, DELL, Acer, Gateway) but never faced this problem before. I have friends who use other Thinkpad models but haven't faced this issue.

Any resolutions, workarounds for this?