USB connectors going out on my Laptop.

[jdraughn]

Hi all.

I have a Asus G74 laptop I have had for 2 or 3 years.  http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-G74SX-A1-17-3-Inch-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B00542SUD8 I use my laptop at work everyday to work on my electronics projects on the side, so over the course of time, I have worn out  at least 1 of the ports. One of the other ports I accidentally destroyed a week after buying my laptop when it felt out of my backpack (It was a little bigger then my old one and I didn't realize it). I had a mouse dongle in the port and the dongle took the brunt of the force. It broke the dongle in half and the little plastic connector in the middle of the USB port. It really sucked because it took me down from 3 to 2 ports. With a mouse dongle in one port that left 1 port. Plugging and unplugging the hub over and over again, every day for the last few years has caused the port to glitch if I barely move the cable while it's plugged in.

I was wondering if it would be doable to desolder the old ports and put in new ones. I think i my soldering skills are up to the task but I am worried about the board being multiple layers and causing some kind of irreversible damage.

I paid 1300.00 for the notebook and it still works great for everything I do. I really can't afford to go spend another 1300.00 again. I have to have a gaming laptop because I use it as my main system and I like to play games sometimes.

I don't know if I should retire it as a media center PC and get a new laptop or chance ruining it by trying to put new connectors on.

What do you guys think?

[andtfoot]

I recently replaced a HDMI port on a laptop, which would be similar.

I found the hardest part was actually obtaining the connector. In my case it was some weirdo midplane through-hole thing that didn't seem available to the general public. I ended up buying a spare/dead motherboard from overseas and doing a transplant. It's probably worth taking a look to see if you can actually get the connector first.

For the actual soldering process itself, I ended up using a hot air rework gun (Yihua/Atten 858D). It was a bit of a balancing act between melting the solder and melting the connector itself. I found warming up the general area first helped a bit, as well as using a decent sized nozzle. I concentrated most of the heat on the shield pins, as I figured the casing and ground planes would soak up a fair amount of heat.
Having a practice run on the spare motherboard helped as well, so maybe find a scrapped motherboard of any type and try unsoldering/resoldering various parts.

[tec5c]

It'd be best if you could post up some photos of the damage so we (/you, if you haven't already) can inspect the PCB.

I say it's likely to be possible, just depends on the damage done.

[Rasz]

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=G74SX+USB+Board&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=G74SX++USB+Board&_sacat=0

like others said:
1 open up laptop, make pictures of the damage
most likely you destroyed ports on the separate pcb, no point soldering anything, $15 + whatever shipping and you are set

2 if its the port next to usb 3.0 one hot air is a must, if you dont have one go to nearest hackerspace and use theirs on an open day

[jdraughn]

Thanks for the tips guys. I will go ahead and take pics of the motherboard so I can see if replacement ports are easily available. I hate to do it before I'm ready because I don't want to take it apart twice. They are just USB 2.0 ports - the USB 3.0 port I usually leave the mouse receiver in since I don't have any USB 3.0 peripherals anyway.

BTW - I do have a hot air rework station. Thanks again.

[Rasz]

left side ports are on the separate pcb - if those are the ones you damaged just order ebay board I linked

[jdraughn]

left side ports are on the separate pcb - if those are the ones you damaged just order ebay board I linked

Thanks Rasz, I went ahead and ordered one of those boards - The left side ports were the ones giving me the most trouble.  Thanks much.  Now if only I could get a replacement "F" key, the little nub is worn smooth making it hard to tell where the home keys are unless I look down.

[Len]

Now if only I could get a replacement "F" key, the little nub is worn smooth making it hard to tell where the home keys are unless I look down.

How about putting a little dot of epoxy on the key?

[edit] What words were you typing with "F" that made it wear more than the "J" key?

[WBB]

If you are regularly plugging in the same device (a hub for more ports) you might try squeezing the shield on the plug a bit. Could tighten the fit enough to alleviate the problem.

[Monkeh]

left side ports are on the separate pcb - if those are the ones you damaged just order ebay board I linked

Thanks Rasz, I went ahead and ordered one of those boards - The left side ports were the ones giving me the most trouble.  Thanks much.  Now if only I could get a replacement "F" key, the little nub is worn smooth making it hard to tell where the home keys are unless I look down.

Replacement keyboards are usually cheap. Just watch out for the ones which don't come with the reinforcement bars in the wide keys. Horrible to try and type on those.

Second hand is probably a safer bet than 'new'.