Repair of Acer laptop USB sockets?

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?

 

Check for bad solder joints. That would be my first suspiscion. I've never
seen a USB port "wear out", but I've seen them broken many times.

Mike

 

I agree ! In every case that I've seen physical damage has been the
cause of failure. Also it seems that every laptop manufacturer has
their own variation. Most often it seems that the connecting pins that
go into the circuit board have a different arrangement.

If you are lucky you can salvage good ones that will fit perfectly.
Then you have the problem of broken internal traces when you pull the
plating out of the holes.

Good luck.