Rusty USB connector?

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13 Sep 2009
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Maidstone, Kent
OK, I have never seen this before. I have one of those Belkin Wireless USB adapters with the USB extension/stand. Anyway, yesterday I turned on my computer and I got no connection. So I blindly swapped the connections on the back of my computer. Nothing. Eventually I unplugged the extension and plugged in a standard extension and it worked fine. So I examined the Bekin extension for a broken cable/damaged pins and noticed that the connector had rusted! How does that work?

OK, so I assume the connector is galvanised in some way. So maybe the layer came off when plugging in and out. Even then, metal requires oxygen and moisture to rust, neither of which you find much of in a USB socket! And I know that an electric current can cause rusting, but I thought that was only with copper. Baffled!
 
Just clean it up with a little bit of 1000g sandpaper.
Thats what I did... happened on a cheapo trust webcam that got left in the backroom for ages. Works fine now.
 
Because you were cheap and didn't buy a cable with gold connectors. ;)

To fix oxidsed connectors you don't even need to use sandpaper most of the time. Just pulling it and plugging it back in several times is usually enough to restore the connection. (And don't waste your money on those gold connector cables.)
 
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