I fell down and got confused. Willow fixed me. She's gay.

BuffyBot ,'Dirty Girls'


Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


tommyrot - Jan 17, 2011 7:19:38 am PST #15925 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Erin, I dunno. But I'll just throw some thoughts out there....

I'm guessing the USB ports are soldered directly to the motherboard. Assuming that's the case:

  • Some places might tell you the whole motherboard would need to be replaced. That would probably cost too much to be worth it.

  • Maybe the USB ports could be repaired or removed and new ones soldered on. The difficulty of this would depend on how close together everything is on the motherboard. Know anyone who's good at soldering?

So, maybe you'd want to avoid repair places such as Best Buy, and find a small repair shop that's run by a skilled electronics guy?

But it wouldn't hurt to take it to some repair places (or call around) and get estimates.

I did a brief google - this has some suggestions to try first before having major surgery done: [link]


tommyrot - Jan 17, 2011 7:28:20 am PST #15926 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Erin, I just talked to my boss. He thinks it might be very difficult to replace the USB ports, as modern motherboards are assembled by machine and have everything close together (especially on a laptop) and they're not really meant to be repaired by hand. But he can't say for sure without looking at the motherboard.


Strix - Jan 17, 2011 8:07:23 am PST #15927 of 25501
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

AH, buggery fuck! Well, I'll take it in to Microcenter or have one of my geeky friends look at it. Maybe there's an easy fox for one of the ports that I just don't know how to do.

All I need is one...

Thanks, guys.


beth b - Jan 17, 2011 11:06:06 am PST #15928 of 25501
oh joy! Oh Rapture ! I have a brain!

I had the power supply fixed on this computer -- I don't know how different it is to have a usb resodered


DCJensen - Jan 17, 2011 7:02:57 pm PST #15929 of 25501
All is well that ends in pizza.

erin, do you have a card slot?

[link]


Strix - Jan 17, 2011 7:33:11 pm PST #15930 of 25501
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

It doesn't appear to be so, Daniel.


tommyrot - Jan 18, 2011 7:51:35 am PST #15931 of 25501
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Interesting:

Rackspace Takes at The Last Ten Years of Data Storage

eta: Wankers changed the link on me after I posted....


megan walker - Jan 18, 2011 8:19:39 am PST #15932 of 25501
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

So, I had an issue redocking my laptop at work (power cord had been pulled out accidently) and now for some reason my primary montior has been switched from the one on the left to the widescreen on the right. I cannot switch it back via Control Panel/Display. Any other ideas?


Jon B. - Jan 18, 2011 8:56:30 am PST #15933 of 25501
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

Megan -- On my PC, if I right-click on the desktop, one of the context menu options that pops up is "Graphics Properties". If I select that, I can switch which monitor is the primary (among other things).


Liese S. - Jan 18, 2011 9:06:25 am PST #15934 of 25501
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

That was fascinating, tommyrot. We all have such short term memories technologically these days.