Hi all. I need to ask the clever computer people on here a question about my broken computer ! The comp is about a year old and is still working BUT all the ports including the one you can pop that card thingy into. Now i have been told that once they have broken they cant be mended so i cant use any usb leads with computer, Is this correct ? is my comp a right off !:irked:
Computer ports
- Thread starter lilly
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rouge
Well-Known Member
I've just asked my husband - a computer geek - and he says they can't be mended as they're part of the mother board (whatever that is! :lol
so you'd have to replace the mother board. Hope that helps.
so you'd have to replace the mother board. Hope that helps.
Ruth Mills
Well-Known Member
Quick question - where are the ports/card reader that are broken? Are they on the front by the floppy drive/CD drive? Or are they on the back by where you plug the keyboard, mouse, monitor in, etc?
If it's the card reader/USB connections on the front that are broken, then it should be cheap and easy to replace them with a new unit - they normally fit into a 3.5 inch drive bay (just like a floppy drive would) and connect to the motherboard via a cable.
If it's the USB connections on the back that are broken, then there's also a chance that there are some pins on the motherboard (the big circuit board inside the computer) for connecting external USB devices (such as the card reader that I've described above that would fit into a 3.5 inch drive bay), so you could buy one of those to use instead of the ones on the back.
Alternatively, if there are no pins for connecting an external USB device on the motherboard, then it may be possible to buy a PCI card with USB connections on - this would fit on a PCI slot on the motherboard, assuming that you have a free one on your computer. The PCI slots are normally used for adding things like sound cards, TV cards, etc.
Am I right in thinking that the connections for your keyboard, monitor and mouse all work OK?
If it's the card reader/USB connections on the front that are broken, then it should be cheap and easy to replace them with a new unit - they normally fit into a 3.5 inch drive bay (just like a floppy drive would) and connect to the motherboard via a cable.
If it's the USB connections on the back that are broken, then there's also a chance that there are some pins on the motherboard (the big circuit board inside the computer) for connecting external USB devices (such as the card reader that I've described above that would fit into a 3.5 inch drive bay), so you could buy one of those to use instead of the ones on the back.
Alternatively, if there are no pins for connecting an external USB device on the motherboard, then it may be possible to buy a PCI card with USB connections on - this would fit on a PCI slot on the motherboard, assuming that you have a free one on your computer. The PCI slots are normally used for adding things like sound cards, TV cards, etc.
Am I right in thinking that the connections for your keyboard, monitor and mouse all work OK?
oh flipping eck, that sounds complicated ! Its a laptop does that make a difference ??? The ports are at the back the CD thingy is on the right and the card thingy is on the left, the comp works well BUT obviously we cant use anything that needs a usb cable ?
Ruth Mills
Well-Known Member
Ouch - yes - that makes a huge difference! My description above described what to do on a standard desktop or tower PC.
If it's a laptop, then it would probably need specialist help to be able to fix it; everything is so much more compact and squashed together inside a laptop; the port connections are most likely soldered on directly to the motherboard, and there are no PCI slots either.
Ah thanks for taking the time to reply Ruth, I think the burning smell when the last port went might be telling me its connected to the motheroard ! x
Ruth Mills
Well-Known Member
Hmm, it's not an IBM Thinkpad is it? Only a friend's dad had one, and there was a design fault with it where too much current could flow through the USB port upon resuming from hibernate when something like an external drive was connected to it, and could blow the USB port... so was wondering if that was what might have happened to yours too???
Mines a Toshiba ?
Ruth Mills
Well-Known Member
So's mine! Is it still under guarantee? I reckon you'd be best having it looked at by Toshiba...
