Broken Laptop USB Port. Any Suggestions?

I have been given a laptop by a friend which has a broken USB port. The solder to the MB is broken. It is the only one on it and without it functioning I cannot load any new data. I do not have wi-fi or anything posh like that on any of my other PCs even though the laptop does have it. I have tried cabled networking without success because I am a dummy. Is there a solution?

It is a Dell Inspiron C400.

The only fixes I find when searching involve laptops with multiple USBs which is no help.

Is there an adaptor that I can use that might plug into a different kind of port on the laptop and use a hub of some sort? Seems a shame to have it just sitting here unuseable.

Any help would be gratefully recieved. Thanks.

reply to post by nerbot


Does it have a...think its called... PMCA slot.
If so you can buy a card that slot into it that has any number of usb ports on it

reply to post by nerbot


Why don't you just go to Radio Shack and pick up a soldering kit, they're under $15 complete. I've never used one on a computer so there might be reasons you can't do it, other than that it's a pretty simple procedure.

Have you called your local computer repair shops and asked them if they could or would fix it? Without knowing how to de-solder the old port off and solder a new one on, there isn't a whole lot you can do.

Your laptop sounds older, so it should have an express card slot on it, if it does, you can purchase an express card USB hub. They are very inexpensive (around $15) and come in 2-ports or 4-ports.

Here's an example:

www.amazon.com...



Hope that answers your question.

reply to post by nerbot


That's a hard thing to fix, even for someone who solders all the time. Never mind the difficulty and time required to pull the thing apart enough to get at it. And putting them back together is just as difficult.

Get a PCMCIA USB card. (They're now called PC Cards; either way it should be easy enough to find.) You can connect a hub to it and have as many USB ports as you need.

As I recall, wireless networking was not yet built into models of that vintage. You can also get a PCMCIA card for wireless. (You probably have 2 slots for PCMCIA.)

Wired networking is another question. I'm at work and getting ready to get out the door to go home. I'll check back later if you want to figure out how to run the thing on a wired network....

Get or make a crossover cable and connect it to your other PC via Ethernet. Set the IP addresses on the machines to 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3

A crossover cable is a patch cable is pinned as follows

12345678 > 36178245

Google crossover if you want. In 10/100 only pins 123 and 6 are used. 1 and 2 for transmit, 3 and 6 for receive. What you are doing is just flipping the transmit and receive on the other end so the computers can talk.

I've just cut the cable and twisted the pairs together when I was in a pinch before.


Share a folder on the host machine

Then go to your laptop open a explorer window and type //192.168.1.2 or whatever you set the desktop to. You should see the shared folder

Or you can get a pcmcia USB adapter.

WOW you guys are amazing and SO quick. I never expected any replies.

Originally posted by Trublbrwing
Why don't you just go to Radio Shack and pick up a soldering kit, they're under $15 complete. I've never used one on a computer so there might be reasons you can't do it, other than that it's a pretty simple procedure.

lol, have you ever tried to disect a laptop to get to one of these on the MB? I would if I could but I can't.

I think I'll go with the PCMCIA card and check out ebay. I've been searching out what all the connexions are and I know I have one of those.

I love keeping old stuff going and will now feel justified in replacing the battery and being able to load up some goodies. I particularly want to show people some of my digital art and this is just the ticket.

Thanks for all the advice, you're great.

what other ports do you have?

to get your files....go to an internet cafe...attach them to an email... and open them at home!

peace

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
reply to post by nerbot

 

That's a hard thing to fix, even for someone who solders all the time. Never mind the difficulty and time required to pull the thing apart enough to get at it. And putting them back together is just as difficult.

Get a PCMCIA USB card. (They're now called PC Cards; either way it should be easy enough to find.) You can connect a hub to it and have as many USB ports as you need.

As I recall, wireless networking was not yet built into models of that vintage. You can also get a PCMCIA card for wireless. (You probably have 2 slots for PCMCIA.)

Wired networking is another question. I'm at work and getting ready to get out the door to go home. I'll check back later if you want to figure out how to run the thing on a wired network....

I posted above you that he could get a ....PCMA card...my gray matter was telling me pcmcia but another part of the gray matter told me it would not contain CIA

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Get or make a crossover cable .....

I may just try that out for the hell of it because it sounds fun and I will learn something. I have boxes of patch cables. Great stuff.

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Get or make a crossover cable and connect it to your other PC via Ethernet. Set the IP addresses on the machines to 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3

A crossover cable is a patch cable is pinned as follows

12345678 > 36178245

Google crossover if you want. In 10/100 only pins 123 and 6 are used. 1 and 2 for transmit, 3 and 6 for receive. What you are doing is just flipping the transmit and receive on the other end so the computers can talk.

I've just cut the cable and twisted the pairs together when I was in a pinch before.


Share a folder on the host machine

Then go to your laptop open a explorer window and type //192.168.1.2 or whatever you set the desktop to. You should see the shared folder

Or you can get a pcmcia USB adapter.

edit on 27-9-2012 by sicksonezer0 because: (no reason given)

if you do not have a rom drive, this is your only good option other than fixing the port and since it's a laptop the usb port may in fact be a pcm slot so you'll be able to get that fairly cheap but you're going to have to spend a few bucks either way, an ethernet crossover cable or the usb pcm slot.

Originally posted by nerbot

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Get or make a crossover cable .....

I may just try that out for the hell of it because it sounds fun and I will learn something. I have boxes of patch cables. Great stuff.

It's very SLOW!!

Years ago I wanted win95 on my win3 pc and copied it from my other pc using a crossover. it took about 6 hours!!!

I was going to suggest Network Attached Storage, as you can get portable hard drives that are just about small enough to take anywhere. There are even portables designed to look like very small books.
Exchange the data over the network at home, and plug the portable into a USB drive somewhere else.

Alternatively, if you totally trust your government not to invade your privacy, and the fact your data's on someone else's property so they don't need a warrant to do so, use THE CLOUD to store your data.

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Get or make a crossover cable and connect it to your other PC via Ethernet. Set the IP addresses on the machines to 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3

A crossover cable is a patch cable is pinned as follows

12345678 > 36178245

Google crossover if you want. In 10/100 only pins 123 and 6 are used. 1 and 2 for transmit, 3 and 6 for receive. What you are doing is just flipping the transmit and receive on the other end so the computers can talk.

I've just cut the cable and twisted the pairs together when I was in a pinch before.


Share a folder on the host machine

Then go to your laptop open a explorer window and type //192.168.1.2 or whatever you set the desktop to. You should see the shared folder

Or you can get a pcmcia USB adapter.

edit on 27-9-2012 by sicksonezer0 because: (no reason given)

You're just the guy I'm looking for.
Separate issue, I have a PC tower and a laptop, I don't have or intend to purchase a keyboard or monitor for the tower. I want to access all the files on the tower with the laptop, use it as a giant external drive. Any way to do it with a tether so I don't need to network it? The remote desktop thing might be an option but it asks for a "floppy" to load the data on both computers, why is that?

Originally posted by VoidHawk

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
reply to post by nerbot

 

That's a hard thing to fix, even for someone who solders all the time. Never mind the difficulty and time required to pull the thing apart enough to get at it. And putting them back together is just as difficult.

Get a PCMCIA USB card. (They're now called PC Cards; either way it should be easy enough to find.) You can connect a hub to it and have as many USB ports as you need.

As I recall, wireless networking was not yet built into models of that vintage. You can also get a PCMCIA card for wireless. (You probably have 2 slots for PCMCIA.)

Wired networking is another question. I'm at work and getting ready to get out the door to go home. I'll check back later if you want to figure out how to run the thing on a wired network....

I posted above you that he could get a ....PCMA card...my gray matter was telling me pcmcia but another part of the gray matter told me it would not contain CIA

Well, at least you admitted that you couldn't quite remember what it was called.

I think I initially skipped over your post, because I wanted to offer an answer other than soldering--which seemed to be the trend the responses were taking.

I have a couple of old (one really old) laptops that have similar limitations. For one of them I finally had to get on eBay and find an old Zip drive, because there's no other way to get things in and out of it except for the parallel port. (Well, other than the diskette drive--which is no help I can tell you!) Even if I installed a PCMCIA wireless network card, I would have had no way to install the drivers for it without that Zip drive. And, just to think--that laptop was top-o-the-line in its day!

Originally posted by VoidHawk
I posted above you that he could get a ....PCMA card...my gray matter was telling me pcmcia but another part of the gray matter told me it would not contain CIA

PCMCIA is not an easy one, that's why they used to say that it meant "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms".

Originally posted by ArMaP

Originally posted by VoidHawk
I posted above you that he could get a ....PCMA card...my gray matter was telling me pcmcia but another part of the gray matter told me it would not contain CIA

PCMCIA is not an easy one, that's why they used to say that it meant "People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms".

"People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms".
I've never heard that one before.

I've had computers since the days of the zx81 and the spectrum, only ever had one (very old) laptop though, and I found that dumped in a skip Had the same problem as the OP, so I bought a PCMCIA card.

reply to post by nerbot


Here's a thought. Replacement Motherboard. $18.99 on Ebay.

Link

Assembly Guide.
link

Originally posted by Trublbrwing

Originally posted by sicksonezer0
Get or make a crossover cable and connect it to your other PC via Ethernet. Set the IP addresses on the machines to 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.3

A crossover cable is a patch cable is pinned as follows

12345678 > 36178245

Google crossover if you want. In 10/100 only pins 123 and 6 are used. 1 and 2 for transmit, 3 and 6 for receive. What you are doing is just flipping the transmit and receive on the other end so the computers can talk.

I've just cut the cable and twisted the pairs together when I was in a pinch before.


Share a folder on the host machine

Then go to your laptop open a explorer window and type //192.168.1.2 or whatever you set the desktop to. You should see the shared folder

Or you can get a pcmcia USB adapter.

edit on 27-9-2012 by sicksonezer0 because: (no reason given)

You're just the guy I'm looking for.
Separate issue, I have a PC tower and a laptop, I don't have or intend to purchase a keyboard or monitor for the tower. I want to access all the files on the tower with the laptop, use it as a giant external drive. Any way to do it with a tether so I don't need to network it? The remote desktop thing might be an option but it asks for a "floppy" to load the data on both computers, why is that?

i suggest you buy an ide/sata to usb adapter, you'll need to take out the hard drive you want to access files on the weather it's an ide drive or sata drive you can hook it up and access any files you need. this adapter isn't ment for long term connection so if that;s your plan just but an enclosure for the drive, they're pretty cheap but i suggest taking all the files you want to back up then format the drive before using it for data. other than the 2 options i mentioned if you just want to access the laptop files just network the 2 computers it's the cheapest way, free, and you don't need anything to achieve this just be sure the 2 operating systems are comparable in doing this.