Dead USB ports on a laptop - ideas?

John R. Sowden jsowden at americansentry.net
Sun Sep 21 20:38:49 UTC 2014


On 09/21/2014 07:37 AM, Gene Heskett wrote:
> 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
>
When you mentioned all of the USBs were not working on the laptop, consider:
there is 5 volts at each usb conn., check for voltage.  if they all are 
not working, there may be something on one of the connectors shorting 
the 5v and grnd.  the laptop probably has a regulator between its raw dc 
and the usb power, so a short will bring down the regulator (current 
limiting.  finding the short might fix the problem altogether.

It might also be a bad regulator.  Look for it (x volts in, 0 volts 
out), and possibly replace it with a 7805 (5v, 1 amp) for less than a 
dollar.

John





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