A friend of mine has an Acer Aspire laptop, and the USB
ports are "worn out". He says the contacts are either
broken or bent.

He would like to take the laptop apart and either repair the
ports or replace them.

He has a couple of junk laptops, and has already removed
two good USB sockets from them, but he says they don't
appear to mount the same way as on the Acer motherboard.
So I suspect it's going to be tough to find the right
replacements unless we can somehow figure out the right
Mouser (or whatever) part to order.

An alternative would be to attempt to repair the existing
sockets by replacing just the contacts.

Anyone have experience with this kind of repair, or have
suggestions?

In news:_qSlj.33949$Ft5.25178@newsfe15.lga,
Peabody typed on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:08:57 -0600:
> A friend of mine has an Acer Aspire laptop, and the USB
> ports are "worn out". He says the contacts are either
> broken or bent.
>
> He would like to take the laptop apart and either repair the
> ports or replace them.
>
> He has a couple of junk laptops, and has already removed
> two good USB sockets from them, but he says they don't
> appear to mount the same way as on the Acer motherboard.
> So I suspect it's going to be tough to find the right
> replacements unless we can somehow figure out the right
> Mouser (or whatever) part to order.
>
> An alternative would be to attempt to repair the existing
> sockets by replacing just the contacts.
>
> Anyone have experience with this kind of repair, or have
> suggestions?

Well there are a few places in the states that repairs motherboards in
laptops. I am sure they know where to get them. Maybe asking one of them
might help. Here is one I found by Googling.

http://absoluteraleigh.com/

I plug and unplug things from my USB ports all of the time. I never had
a problem yet, but always wondered if this could happen to me someday.

Another thought is they sell PC Card (PCMCIA) USB cards. That might be
an option too. I should probably get one myself. As 5 USB ports isn't
enough for me.

--
Bill
email: change kom to com

I do agree with Bill, the best way is to get a USB PCMCIA card ... if
you want to dismantle the laptop and do your own installation of USB
ports - that's kinda risky.

Best Regards
Gary Hendricks
http://www.best-laptop-guide.com

Peabody;504475 Wrote:
> A friend of mine has an Acer Aspire laptop, and the USB
> ports are "worn out". He says the contacts are either
> broken or bent.
>
> He would like to take the laptop apart and either repair the
> ports or replace them.
>
> He has a couple of junk laptops, and has already removed
> two good USB sockets from them, but he says they don't
> appear to mount the same way as on the Acer motherboard.
> So I suspect it's going to be tough to find the right
> replacements unless we can somehow figure out the right
> Mouser (or whatever) part to order.
>
> An alternative would be to attempt to repair the existing
> sockets by replacing just the contacts.
>
> Anyone have experience with this kind of repair, or have
> suggestions?

You might want to give a shout out to 'Odd Hat' (http://oddhat.com) -
this guy has a ton of military surplus laptops... A literal TON, if I
had not have seen it with my own 2 eyes I wouldn't believe it. He sold
me a new (used) screen for my acer for $20. I bet he could find you a
replacement board for you and you wouldn't have to do any soldering or
anything.