I snagged the USB and the plastic part inside off the female side broke off, would there be a way to replace it.
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I snagged the USB and the plastic part inside off the female side broke off, would there be a way to replace it.
Possibly,if its on a panel of your case you could probably buy a replacement,or you could mod one to fit.What did the USB break on?More info would be helpful,maybe a pic aswell.
Most probably will be of annoyance to replace, I've toyed with the idea of just gluing it in place but that wont work I don't think.
Check if you can get replacement parts for your case
The usb and audio jacks are mounted onto a small pcb that's normally screwed into the bezel on most cases.
If you're good enough with a soldering iron you can desolder and remove the usb unit from the pcb and get a replacement to solder in (usb connectors are pretty standardised)
if you don't trust yourself with a soldering iron, then you might be able to get a replacement pcb, depends on the case manufacture.
coolermaster has a parts shop http://www.coolermaster.nl/shop/
Other major brands do as well, and if not it's still worth contacting them because they still may well help you out or at least be able to point you in the right direction.
One thing I will warn you about, on a USB the middle two connections are data the outer two are power, +5v and earth
On most motherboards they are constantly live, so if the now bare exposed metal +5v connector wire gets bent and touches the other wire connectors or the metal outer casing of the usb port it will short.
If this happens the 2nd usb slot will also stop working (because they are both connected to the same usb header on the motherboard) and there is a chance that the usb header on the motherboard will burn out and become non-functional.
I've had this happen at work a couple of times, so whenever I spot a damaged usb port like this I have to get my needle nosed pliers out and rip the exposed connectors out.
Mainly because people will just jam their usb sticks in there any old way bending the exposed connectors and shorting it out.
Indeed, I met some PCs through work where people shorted the front USB sockets. Soldering may be possible and requiring to disconnect the PCB first.