Dead USB ports on a laptop - ideas?

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 21 September 2014 06:12:53 Peter Smout did opine
And Gene did reply:
> On 21/09/14 10:31, Karl Auer wrote:
> > 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.
> 
> +1 I agree totally
> 
> > 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.
> 
>   I have performed a successful USB transplant on a PC tower but never
> on a laptop, but the theory cannot be much different the 'u' stands for
> universal after all ;)
> Having said that I spent 3yrs of my life soldering PCB's for a living
> so I am not phased by such things!

Chuckle. ROTFL even. :) Pete, can I get you a towel to dry behind your 
ears? I've had a hot soldering iron in hand since around 1946 or 47.  And 
its made me a good living for 65 of my nearly 80 years.  Yeah, I know, 
that also makes me an old fart.
 
> > 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.
> 
> A visual check in the guts of the machine might prove fruitful if 1
> connector pin is separated from the board you might be able to
> re-solder it into place and resurrect at least 1 port.
> 
> > 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).
> 
> You learn something new everyday! I have never heard of or come across
> these.

Me too!  Even at my age, the day is a total loss if I don't learn 
something. My problem is remembering it correctly next week! :(

My local ethernet is all 100mbit, not fast enough for usb3.0 but I wonder 
if that would be one way to get usb3 compatible for this old ASUS usb2 
equipt motherboard?  My switch has a spare port I hope.
> 
> > 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.
> 
> This is alot easier than it sounds and I run a backup via NFS once a
> week of my critical work, and any other important stuff!
> There are plenty of good tutorials out there and if you get stuck I am
> sure this list will help!
> This requires a reasonable network connection, and if like me, your
> bandwidth is limited by factors beyond your control, (I live in a
> remote part of the UK, and get "upto 1mbs", so I have a cron job set
> for 4am when usage is low and it does not hog my valuable bandwidth
> when we all want to use it!)

Yikes! I must be lucky.  Here in small town USA, population about 7k, I 
get 10mbit from my cable/phone/net service, pretty much 25/7.  About $40 
USD a month.
 
> > Regards, K.
> 
> Pete S


Cheers, Gene Heskett
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