Dead USB ports on a laptop - ideas?

Karl Auer kauer at biplane.com.au
Sun Sep 21 09:31:37 UTC 2014


On 20 September 2014 01:22, Phil <phil_lor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> I've been given a third laptop. It's almost new and although the DVD 
> drive works, all of the USB ports have been destroyed. Possibly by 
> forcing the USB plug in upside down. I wonder if replacement USB sockets 
> are available?. A fully functioning laptop would be nice.

This new problem belongs in a new thread, so I've started one. Changing
problems in a thread is a good way for your question to be completely
ignored.

USB ports are usually soldered directly onto the motherboard in laptops;
they are usually not detachable without skilled effort, and definitely
not ATtachable without skilled effort. Such effort usually costs more
than the device is worth. That said, if you are handy with electronics,
you might be able to find a second-hand laptop of the same model with a
dead screen, dead keyboard or whatever and cannibalise the motherboard.
If all you want is the motherboard the price would be way down. Ebay may
be a possibility too.

Obviously check very carefully whether ALL of the USB ports are really
dead - if you have even just one good one, an external hub will get you
going again. "Very carefully" means using simple devices like mice, and
testing with several different devices. Sometimes slight differences
between plugs can be the difference between working and not working. I
have a USB memory stick, for example, that won't work in two of my
laptop's 6 USB ports. Works fine in the other four.

If all of the USB ports are dead, you have few options. You could see if
your laptop has a matching docking station, also sometimes known as a
port extender, but obviously it has to be the kind that connects via
something other than USB :-) Usually only name-brand laptops have this
sort of docking station.

If your "new" laptop is old enough to have a CardBus slot, you can still
get USB-over-CardBus devices. In fact I have one, surplus to
requirements, and I note you have an email address in Oz, so we could
maybe work something out (IF you have a CardBus slot, that is).

There are remote USB units out there that make one or more USB ports
available across the network. Put one of those on the network and see
how you go. Make sure you get one that works with Linux though (I've
never used one under Linux, so no idea how they would go).

If all you want to do is, for example, back up to an external HDD from
time to time, you can just mount the drive on another system, share it
via SMB or NFS, and read/write to it over the network.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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