Broken USB port

[D. Scarlatti]

The little fiber insulator thingie with the prongs's come off.

Am I fuqued? I heard it's all part of the motherboard in a notebook. Ye gods.

[livius drusus]

Oy. It don't sound good, son. What make and model laptop?

[Corona688]

that don't sound good at all. I can't tell precisely what you mean from the description though. Can you give a photo?

Worst case, you can get USB PCMCIA/PC-card expansion cards for laptops.

[D. Scarlatti]

Panasonic Toughbook CF-47. Its HD is about 25% the size of my iPod (which is completely useless at the moment).

Can't do a photo, sorry. You know the little white insulator thing inside the USB port? Broke right off.

I was just reading about the expansion card, but given the size of the protuberance on my Ethernet card, I don't think I'll be able to have them both in the computer at the same time. The two card slots are stacked one on top o' the other.

Probably time for a whole new machine goddamnit, given this one's going on seven years old.

:shakefist:

[ceptimus]

Most of the laptops I've had apart, the USB connector is soldered straight onto the motherboard, but can be changed if you can find a similar connector.

The only place I've ever found the connectors though is from another broken laptop. :(

But what you can do :) is get one of those USB extension leads (that has a USB plug one end and a cable mounted USB socket at the other), cut the cable and then solder the cable to the board so that your laptop has a short 'tail' that you plug your USB stuff into. If you're careful how you route the cable then the laptop still fits in its carrying case okay.

There are only four wires inside a USB connector, so it's easy enough to do if you've any experience of brandishing a soldering iron.

[D. Scarlatti]

[G]et one of those USB extension leads (that has a USB plug one end and a cable mounted USB socket at the other), cut the cable and then solder the cable to the board so that your laptop has a short 'tail' that you plug your USB stuff into.

I have one, and I actually considered that. It came with the USB hub I bought a few months ago when I installed Windows XP :glare: ... but that's a whole 'nother Level of Hell.

Speaking of which, although my CD drive, scanner, and digital camera work through the hub, the iPod would not. I could only get it going when I plugged it directly into the computer, which makes no sense to me.

To be honest I'm not too keen on disassembling the laptop, but thanks for the suggestion. I'm surprised that such a tiny little thing requires such an extensive fix, but maybe I shouldn't be.

[D. Scarlatti]

Another question. I got and installed a USB 2.0 card adapter. Device manager tells me it's working perfectly, and I get the little ding dongs when I insert or remove the card. But when I connect the iPod, nothing but the "battery not charging" icon on the iPod (the battery ran out of juice in the meantime).

Before the computer's USB port broke, I had the iPod working. So my question is, why would the iPod connect to the computer's hardwired USB port, but not to the card adapter's USB ports?

Edit: Is it because I need to run a switching power adapter to the USB card? Duh.

[ceptimus]

I don't have an iPod, but I have some gadgets that try to draw significant power from the USB connector, e.g. modems, and they work on some ports and not others.

I have an external USB hub which works with or without an attached power supply - if I plug 'greedy' devices into it then I have to use the power supply, but other devices work fine without - even when there are five of them connected at once.

[D. Scarlatti]

Thanks again, ceptimus. I'm going on the assumption that the iPod is a "greedy device" and attempting to power the USB card is my next move. This is likely the same reason the iPod wouldn't run off my (unpowered) USB hub, even when the original hardwired USB port was functioning properly.

Now here's a really dumb question: How come this didn't occur to the punk at CompUSA after I described in great detail my circumstances. :P

[D. Scarlatti]

That didn't work either. I got a switchable power adapter from Radio Shack, set it to the recommended voltage and polarity specified by the card's user's guide, and connected it directly to the USB card. At one point the card got so hot it melted part of the plastic casing around my computer's card slots. When I disconnected and removed the card, it had a circular burn mark on the top plate. Nice.

Despite this, the USB card still works. I plugged a Belkin USB hub into the card and ran the power adapter to that. Nothing, but at least the hub didn't melt, or even get warm. Then I connected a CD drive to the Belkin hub, and it works perfectly, although it doesn't need the other power source, since it has its own obviously.

So, 75 bucks later, I'm going back to CompUSA to find someone a bit more knowledgeable than the minimum wage slave I spoke to yesterday. I've done a bit more reading, although I can't find my specific problem addressed online. I'm becoming increasingly suspicious about my own system, since Windows XP has been doing all sorts of weird, disconcerting shit throughout this entire annoying process.

There's a strong possibility I'll return with the cheapest PC I can find.

[Veritas]

I thought all laptops had more than one USB port? (Mine has four - not that that helps you at all...)

Not much I can do except offer my sympathies. These machines are an utter bastard.

There, how useless was my post?

[D. Scarlatti]

Mine has one. It's going on seven years old. It's a great machine and I've never had a single problem with it* but it's getting a bit long in the tooth and has trouble keeping up with all the newfangled crap. I'm not sure why I'm going to all this trouble just so I can keep a glorified Walkman in my pocket, but I get a bit single-minded and obsessive when shit doesn't work properly.

* On the other hand I've had all sorts of problems with peripherals since I installed Windows XP.

[ceptimus]

Bad luck on the burning thing. :( Probably a dumb question, but are you sure the polarity was the right way round?

[D. Scarlatti]

I'm nearly certain. I brought the spec sheet to the Radio Shack guy, who seemed to know what he was talking about. It's a "digital camera power adapter," adjustable between 3 and 7.5 volts (the specs call for 5VDC).

Besides, when I reversed the tip on the power adapter and inserted it into the USB card, the card emitted a tiny spark of disapproval. (Still worked after that with the CD drive, however).

[Corona688]

I thought all laptops had more than one USB port? That'd be really nice. Unfortunately it's not so. I'm also cursed with one-port laptops that don't like hubs.

[Corona688]

What operating system is your laptop running, by the way? Windows 98 barely supports USB anything...

[Veritas]

Mine, Corona? XP, it's all I've ever used. I think the most I've used at once has been three, my mp3 player, a pen drive and an optical mouse.

[Corona688]

I should have specified I was asking Dr. Scarlatti. The age of his laptop suggests it's running Win98.

[Veritas]

Righto. I'll make myself useful in another thread then. :D (I thought you were asking me 'cause D.Scarlatti had already said he was using XP).

[D. Scarlatti]

Yeah, XP. I'm surprised you didn't notice, considering the number of times I've taken its name in vain in this thread.

Anyway, I believe I've solved the problem(s). It seems the iPod's battery was not going to charge through any USB port on my computer at all, so I purchased an AC charger, as part of a dock package that includes some RCA connectors that I can hook to my home stereo. Eighty fucking dollars, I might add. Plus I exchanged the CompUSA-brand USB card for an Adaptec one. I never buy no name crap, and it was little other than the CompUSA dweeb's recommendation that made me do it this time.

Speaking of CompUSA dweebs, it took a sustained interaction among myself and no less than three sales assistants and two tech assistants to get something resembling satisfactory and useful advice. Furthermore, I engaged an additional sales rep in enquiring about purchasing an external 80 gig hard drive, and even he had no idea whether or not it was going to work for me. He hadn't a clue about whether it came with its own power source, and whether or not it was going to require additional DC power alongside the USB connection it runs off.

Technical knowledge plus communication skills appears to be an extremely rare commodity.

In the meantime my own internal giant-size 6 gig hard drive, which this morning had .25 gig available space, now has 1.4 gig available space, thanks to dumping some files and performing a few disk clean-up routines. So I should be in business shortly. What an ordeal!

[Corona688]

Yeah, XP. I'm surprised you didn't notice, considering the number of times I've taken its name in vain in this thread. That's easily explained by the fact that I am a star-nosed mole.