Hardware: 2014 macbook, nuked macos, clean xubuntu 24.04 installation

I never experienced this with my other notebook, a 2016 model from a Taiwanese vendor, forgot the name.

On the macbook: I plug in the external HDD, xubuntu recognizes and opens the volume, I can use vlc to play video files (mostly mkv, x265) but then, 2 to 5 minutes later, xubuntu reconnects to the HDD, meaning the connection stopped and vlc stops playing the file. Not big files, 250 to 500 MiB, 1080p

It’s impossible to watch a 30 minute show.

This never happened with the 2016 notebook and on this notebook I also installed xubuntu 24.04, so I’m assuming this is a hardware issue.

Is it so? Any way to avoid this?

the macbook is an Intel Core i5-4278U CPU @ 2.60GHz, the other notebook an Intel Core i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz