Damaged USB ports on laptop

freakyogre

I have an Acer laptop and over the years, 2 of the 3 USB ports have been damaged (one totally my fault, I used to lower the laptop to the floor by the lead connecting me to the internet )

The second ones seems to have only happened in the last couple of days as on Friday night my connection kept going every few minutes (I connect via a dongle). I've since put it on a flat surface and it's been fine, but if I knock the dongle slightly, it disconnects.

Is there any way of repairing/replacing these? If not, is there anything I can do to improve them a bit? The only one working fully now is at the front of the laptop which isn't really practical when you're using it.

pcombo

I wouldn't advise opening the laptop as there abit fiddly inside and you still wouldn't be able to fix. I would probably contact acer and get them to sort it rather than local pc repair shop.

closed

Haven't you got a wireless router and internal wireless, or are you using a mobile dongle now?

joeypesci

Depends how much the local shop and acer charge. See if you can get the maintenance manual for it like you can for HP laptops. They are complicated but following the manual it gets easier. However, for the USB fault, they'll need to be soldered back onto the board if they've come loose. That's not easy and may not fix it. The whole mobo will need replacing really so Acer maybe cheaper. Or it might end up being cheaper to buy a new laptop.

Lil306

Repairing laptops is an iffy job due to the soldered connections.

There's two options I could suggest

FIRST (and cheapest)
You COULD get a USB powered hub, which may offer some assistance. Asda sell a good cheap one for a £5, it's USB 2.0 compatible and I've had no problems with mine and actually bought another. It turns 1 into 4 ports so you can increase the flexibility on your laptop

SECOND (more expensive)
Look around on eBay for people selling your model as spares or repairs, you could get lucky and get one for maybe £20-30, it's then just a case of open up the laptop and swap the components (N.B the CPUs are normally fixed, so the new M/B will have it's own CPU)

THIRD option is taking it to manufacturer / independant repair. I would advise against it because it will cost you more than buying a replacement second hand one. There's a lot of risk for not much gain

freakyogre

Thanks for the quick replies.

pcombo wrote: »

I wouldn't advise opening the laptop as there abit fiddly inside and you still wouldn't be able to fix. I would probably contact acer and get them to sort it rather than local pc repair shop.

I might drop them an email just to find out a rough price, it's about 4-5 years old now, so depending on the price it may not be worth it.

closed wrote: »

Haven't you got a wireless router and internal wireless, or are you using a mobile dongle now?

I'm using a mobile dongle and have been for almost a year.

joeypesci wrote: »

Depends how much the local shop and acer charge. See if you can get the maintenance manual for it like you can for HP laptops. They are complicated but following the manual it gets easier. However, for the USB fault, they'll need to be soldered back onto the board if they've come loose. That's not easy and may not fix it. The whole mobo will need replacing really so Acer maybe cheaper. Or it might end up being cheaper to buy a new laptop.

I'll have a look, but don't think i'd try it myself. My dad will be looking at it shortly anyway as i've ordered some more memory for it, but he didn't seem keen on trying to fix the ports as like you said, it's not easy. Everything else works fine and it's been working all day today on a flat surface, so i'll just have to carry on like that if need be. I can't justify a new laptop as have a pc as well which I really should use more!

closed

If you have a card slot, you could always buy a usb card for it, or change to adsl.

freakyogre

Lil306 wrote: »

Repairing laptops is an iffy job due to the soldered connections.

There's two options I could suggest

FIRST (and cheapest)
You COULD get a USB powered hub, which may offer some assistance. Asda sell a good cheap one for a £5, it's USB 2.0 compatible and I've had no problems with mine and actually bought another. It turns 1 into 4 ports so you can increase the flexibility on your laptop

Do these just plug in to the USB port? Sorry to sound a bit stupid, I think I know what you mean and assume I could put it in the functioning port at the front, then put the dongle in to that instead?

Lil306

freakyogre wrote: »

Do these just plug in to the USB port? Sorry to sound a bit stupid, I think I know what you mean and assume I could put it in the functioning port at the front, then put the dongle in to that instead?

Yep, if you look at the picture I've attached to this post. The small lead on the left of the Hub, goes into your spare USB port of the laptop. It is then self powered from your laptop and it lights up green, you then plug in a USB device into anyone of the 4-ports and it will install any drivers required.

BTW, the lead as you can see is VERY small. If you are worried about this you can buy a 1m extension lead and just plug it into your laptop and the extension part connects to the hub. You then continue with a the same method

freakyogre

Lil306 wrote: »

Yep, if you look at the picture I've attached to this post. The small lead on the left of the Hub, goes into your spare USB port of the laptop. It is then self powered from your laptop and it lights up green, you then plug in a USB device into anyone of the 4-ports and it will install any drivers required.

BTW, the lead as you can see is VERY small. If you are worried about this you can buy a 1m extension lead and just plug it into your laptop and the extension part connects to the hub. You then continue with a the same method

That's what I was thinking of, thanks My dad has one for various different things.

The dongle was supplied with an extension lead, but I tend to leave it plugged into my pc when I use it there as saves crawling around each time! That seems to be the best solution, i'll have a look for one.

Thanks again.

freakyogre

closed wrote: »

If you have a card slot, you could always buy a usb card for it, or change to adsl.

I don't think it has, just had a poke round, but it seems to be lacking!

I don't have a phone line here so i'm a bit limited in how I can connect, so the dongle works well for me.