I have 2 USB ports, one shorted out and the other is a bit temper-mental. Is this something I can switch out myself or do I need to take it to the geek squad?
How can I change/replace my USB ports on my laptop?
You cannot change them or replace them without taking the entire thing apart and soldering some new one's on which is near impossible to do.
If one of the usb ports is still working you can try a usb hub. That will give you more usb ports. the hub will have 4 or more ports. It basically converts 1 to 4.
Other then that all you can do is get a pc card with usb ports. There are many. Here is an example of one: http://www.inventorysource.com/images/dh鈥?/a>
How can I change/replace my USB ports on my laptop?
the geek squad doesnt know as much about computers as best buy advertises. its very expensive to replace or fix a usb port in a laptop so your best bet is to spend about $20 for a usb hub and use it with your usb port that works. there are also pc cards that have a usb port on them that you slide in to the slot where a network card usually goes.
geek squad.
It's not something a user could do.
If it was a desktop pc you could add a new USB card, but its not that easy with laptops.
There are also PCMCIA or Express card USB ports available, depending on how old your laptop is.
as they are fixed to the motherboard they will probably just want to replace the motherboard which wont be cheap - the easier option is if your laptop has a PCMCIA slot purchase a PCMCIA USB card
it is very difficult.
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