The USB ports on my laptop are failing.

[mgdavis]

I'm down to one functioning USB connection out of three ports. It seems like the two that are kaput have become loose in their mounts in the case, they wiggle quite a bit up and down. Is this something I can fix myself? The computer is a HP dv1010us and is only a couple years old. I'd like to take care of it before the last port fails. Anybody got any ideas?

[wmenorr67]

If you feel confident enough to open the case, you could try to see if you can tighten the ports.

[Vodka7]

If you don't feel comfortable opening it up (probably just a screw that needs tightening), you can always buy a USB PCMCIA (not sure if that's the right acornym, but close enough) card for cheap on Newegg.

[JimMarch]

Yup.  A USB PCMCIA card may help - any of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=USB+PCMCIA&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

The better ones also include Firewire400 or even 800.

I have one because my motherboard USB ports are 1.1 spec and I use external hard disks all the time.  The PCMCIA ports I added are USB2 which is about 20x faster than 1.1.

Odds are you're not doing anything with your PCMCIA slot anyhow.  And any good OS (Linux) or even mediocre one (Windows ) will auto-detect the new ports and use them.

[mfree]

Knowing how things are put together, it's likely not a screw but a broken solder connection.

That said, if you can get the board out of the case it should be an easy fix.

[AmbulanceDriver]

My experience with Hewlett-Crappard laptops has not been good...  I was SOOOOO glad I got talked into buying the extended warranty on my first laptop.  It was an HP XT512, and that thing crapped out often enough during that three year period that I was on a first name basis with the repair center people.   Eventually, they finally decided (after I sent the laptop in 3 times in three months for the same problem) to invoke the lemon clause in the extended warranty and replaced it.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to buy an extended warranty on the new laptop (hp dv2000us).  So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it continues to behave itself.....   

[mgdavis]

When I get time I'll crack the case open to take a look. I'm hoping it's not solder. My card slot is housing a remote at the moment, so if I have to I can use the card, I'd rather not have to resort to that if I can fix things. Thanks.