Author Topic: Replacing USB Ports On Laptop (Read 3206 times)

kevinho · « **on:** March 19, 2006, 13:11 »

My laptop fell when the usb modem was plugged into one of the ports on the back (there are two together) and now they do not function at all. I cant get the cable connector into one of them and the other is dead.

I have another USB port on the side of the laptop and this worked briefly but now it refuses to recognise any device that i plug into it. I have reinstalled the modem driver etc.

Does anybody have any advice on how ican go about replacing the 2 usb ports on the back (where i could get the part is it easy to replace etc) and hopefully resolving the problem of my devices not being recognised (mainly my ADSL modem) on the side port.

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 2450

Thanks for any advice

sam · « **Reply #1 on:** March 19, 2006, 13:41 »

are you under waranty at all?? or have a service agreement?

kevinho · « **Reply #2 on:** March 19, 2006, 13:50 »

No. Warranty expired and probably wouldnt cover this incident and no didnt take a service agreement as it was far too expensive. Have house insurance that would cover accidental damage but a £75 excess which seems a bit much for just replacing 2 usb ports.

I'm just stuck at the moment for where to get a replacement port. Surely they wouldnt cost too much.

sam · « **Reply #3 on:** March 19, 2006, 13:52 »

i dont think it is easily possible to do on your own... maybe someone else has an idea, might be worth popping into your local computer shop (i.e. not PC World :-) ) - unless anyone else has a better idea (which is probably quite feasible). BTW has anything else gone wrong with the laptop since this?

kevinho · « **Reply #4 on:** March 19, 2006, 14:00 »

No nothing else has gone wrong at all it works fine apart from this.

sam · « **Reply #5 on:** March 19, 2006, 14:07 »

.. so the other port definetly worked after the incident, how long for .. was it literally till you turned off the machine?

Sandra · « **Reply #6 on:** March 19, 2006, 14:20 »

Your best bet is to buy a PCI 2 or 4 USB port cards.
Theyre readily avaliable and around a tenner or less

Oops didnt realise it was a laptop

It would have to be a USB card bus, still not over expensive.

kevinho · « **Reply #7 on:** March 19, 2006, 14:20 »

Initially it didnt work. I ran a full scandisk the day after re-instaaled the modem drivers and then it worked again for about 14 hours and then it failed. I had an excessive bandwidth warning once and then it has just been device not recognised after uninstalling and re installing the modem drivers. Now i cant even install the modem drivers succesfully.

I'm in the process of backing up all my files on it at the moment. Then i will try again and see what happens.

I will definately need to replace the the 2 USB ports on the back though.

kevinho · « **Reply #8 on:** March 19, 2006, 14:29 »

Sorry if i sound daft Sandra but how would i know what was compatible with my laptop and how would i fit them?

Sandra · « **Reply #9 on:** March 19, 2006, 14:36 »

Have a look at this :

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=60611

I assume that you have a PCMCIA port as most laptops do.
They also do 2 port versions.

Some PCMCIA cards are thinner than others, cant think of the names for them at the moment, but they are fairly universal, ( I think its something highly technical like Type 1 and Type 11

)
You can fit two of the type 1 in the slot or one Type 11.

Edited t add, it looks like the ones from Ebuyer may need an external power supply

More of them here :

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=UFNQcm9kdWN0U2VhcmNoUmVzdWx0cw%3D%3D&mfr_uid=-1&cat_uid=35&keywords=pcmcia+usb&order_col=sell_price&order=ASC&show=stock&Submit=filter

I have an unbranded USB 2 Type 11 cardbus that is powered from the pcmcia slot and seems to work ok but I notice that it too has a power adaptor jack :?

kevinho · « **Reply #10 on:** March 19, 2006, 14:55 »

I was looking at this one

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=17340732975&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=62233

From the manual "The computer is equipped with a pc card expansion slot that can accomodate two 5mm Type II cards. Any PC card that meets the industry standards (manufactured by toshiba or other vendor) can be installed. The slot supports 16-bit PC cards, including PC card 16's multifunction card and cardbus PC cards.

Card bus supports the new standard of 32-bit PC cards. The bus provides superior perfomance for the greater demands of multimedia data transmission."

Ok well thanks for that information Sandra i never knew that they did these card things

My remaining question is do you think that something has been damaged and therefore would not allow any kind of other USB port card or whatever to work as the other USB port is on the side of the laptop and had nothing plugged into it when the laptop fell. It failed to work after a period of working normally?

I hope this makes sense to you. Thanks for your help.

Sandra · « **Reply #11 on:** March 19, 2006, 15:08 »

Laptops are quite fragile things.
I have been repairing an Advent laptop for the last week or so, with limited success.
The power adaptor socket had broken away from the motherboard.
I have had it in pieces 5 times trying to fix it.
Parts seem to be impossible to obtain, as the people who can get hold of them seem to want to charge a fortune for fitting them

I have repaired the socket itself, theres was a small switching contact inside it that had broken off, soldered it back on the mobo and superglued it in place to try and stop it breaking away again.
For some reason the power plug isnt a brilliant connection even after all my attempts and I have to wedge the plug at a certain angle to get it working properly

At least it does work now but its not as good as it should be.

I think that possibly you have got a broken connection on your USB ports similar to the way the power socket had broken away on this laptop.

Anything that has to be repeatably plugged in and unplugged from a laptop is susceptible to breaking the small connections that they seem to have to the mobo

I think that one that you have found should work fine.
I dont think that the damage possibly caused to the other ports would affect the PCMCIA one

The one I use is for an old laptop that doesnt even have a USB port, so all the work is done by the cardbus and the drivers independantly of the onboard USB controller

kevinho · « **Reply #12 on:** March 19, 2006, 15:18 »

Wonderful.

Thanks ever so much Sandra, I'll let you know how i get on

kevinho · « **Reply #13 on:** March 20, 2006, 08:45 »

Well I reinstalled the modem drivers and plugged the modem into the undamaged port and it worked for a while then stopped working.

The power light on the modem remains on but there is no connection light showing at all after a period. Then when i unplug usb and re insert it the device is not recognised and i have to go through uninstalling and reinstalling the modem drivers again. Then it will work for a while and repeat the above.

Any ideas?

Sandra · « **Reply #14 on:** March 20, 2006, 12:49 »

Have a look in the power management settings.
Untick the "Allow the pc to turn this device off" part.
I think that may be a power saving feature, especially as its a laptop.