USB connector pin broken on Motherboard

unreal_reality

unreal_reality

unreal_reality

Associate
Joined
24 Jan 2024
Posts
2
Location
London, UK
Hi all. My first post here. Trying to build my first PC and have hit a hitch. Purchased second hand MB (Asus B75M-PLUS) and PSU. I managed to get the USB 3 connector pins bent on the MB and when straightening out one of them broke:

PXL-20240124-211906639-mh.jpg


if I reference the broken pin back to the manual, I can see it's the one that's marked as GND:

Asus-B75-M-PLUS-extract.png


I don't know how crucial this broken pin is, but I have powered up the PC and realise none of the USB ports are outputting any power and I'm not talking about just the USB 3.0 ports - I mean all the USB ports (even the ones on the MB itself)!

Do you think the broken pin is the culprit? (or there's some other fault with the second-hand MB/PSU?) If so, can I salvage the MB or it's not easy? My soldering skills are pretty rubbish.

Any advice and tips are much appreciated.

Many thanks
 
Probe around with multimeter to see if voltage is getting to any of the usb ports. Trace back to voltage source. Could be the board shorted and blown out a smd polyfuse for the use ports, iv changed those which is easy enough to do.
Can use multimeter in continuity mode and check the fuses.
 
unreal_reality said:
I don't know how crucial this broken pin is, but I have powered up the PC and realise none of the USB ports are outputting any power and I'm not talking about just the USB 3.0 ports - I mean all the USB ports (even the ones on the MB itself)!
Click to expand...
Iirc it is not uncommon for boards from this time to occasionally require a restart before the usb is recognised, so I wouldn't assume that the culprit is the header.
 
unreal_reality said:
And by restart do you literally mean on/off? Because I've already done that few times, and that hasn't fixed the issue.
Click to expand...
Yes. I have a board from that era and about 50% of the time it would boot into the Windows login with no USB working. It was a common issue and I'm not sure if it got fixed (the board is retired to a box now). Which version of Windows are you using?
 
There's not much chance that snapped off pin would prevent all your USB from working, unless the snapped off pin is now stuck to your motherboard somewhere shorting out some pins, or when you bent the pins over if they were touching and you booted the board? Did you try to insert the connector upside down or something?
 
Its unlikely this broken pin is the issue - but I must say you bent a lot of them :) I do hate this connector, its very essy to bent. It could be though that it shorted and blown the smd. Take it apart, clean and try again - if its broken its unlikely to be worth repaorong unfortunately
 
Armageus said:
1706199907642.png

Where is this connector going?

(According to the Manual and pinout diagram you've linked there isn't a fan header there, and that looks like a fan cable?)
Click to expand...

Yes, this is the header for a POST speaker. There's no way a speaker is on the other end of those very thick cables, which also only requires two cables anyway, red & black usually.
 
It might be a overlooked question but did you ask the previous owner if the board you bought was fully working, to have all usb's not working is odd, unless you have plugged cables where they arn't meant to go which is causing shorts, i would build the pc out of the case, just have the motherboard cpu, cooler, ram, gpu ssd/hdd and psu hooked up.

If everything works including the rear m/b usb's great, start rebuilding into the case and pay close attention to where cables and i/o should install to, if in doubt ask here and we can help guide you, with regard to the broken usb 3 headder, if a ground pin is broken then i would say that particular headder is dead, i wouldn't plug anything back into it.

You can buy cables which convert usb3 to usb 2, but check your motherboard has enough usb2 internal headers beforehand, that way you can still use front usb abit at slower transfer rates.
 
wookiee87 said:
It might be a overlooked question but did you ask the previous owner if the board you bought was fully working, to have all usb's not working is odd, unless you have plugged cables where they arn't meant to go which is causing shorts, i would build the pc out of the case, just have the motherboard cpu, cooler, ram, gpu ssd/hdd and psu hooked up.
Click to expand...

I think asking the previous owner that is a bit premature, given the OP has bent / snapped the USB3 connector and connected what looks like an FDD power connector on to the POST speaker and put 12v & 5v up it.. I'm surprised it powers on at all
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom