Chosen Solution
Both my USB ports got burnt out somehow, now not working. What replacement options do I have? Can I connect a USB hub to the Ethernet port, or the MiniDisplay Port, I am running Yosemite 10.10.5 and 8Gb RAM Here are some photos of the logic board. I see no damage, but the USB ports don’t work. Can anyone see any thing? Is there a simple tweak I could do to get them working again?
Update (02/01/2016) I know the usb ports come out with the logic board, but is there any way of replacing them?
Are you sure the USB ports themselves aren’t working? It may be a controller on the board, or the circuit “surrounding” it. You need to trouble shoot those first. If you can determine that nothing is wrong, you then move on to replacing the ports themselves. Won’t be an easy task since they are anchored very strongly and improper technique may damage (burn/flex) the board. Of course you can send it out for repair, but then again you could be spending as much as the cost of a new board or even a used laptop.. after all it is a 5 years old machine, so you need to weigh your options.
Before you burn out another port please tell us what you are hooking up that does this.
More likely you damaged the logic board here Vs the USB ports them selves. This will require deep logic board skill set to diagnose what components burnt and access to the correct part to replace to salvage the logic board.
If you have experience with soldering then you should technically be able to replace, or simply re-solder the ports to regain functionality. Are you having any other issues with the computer besides those? If the damage has gone further into the board than the base of the USB ports then you may need to look into replacing the logic board entirely to really regain the functions. As far as your other question, there isn’t a hub for ethernet or mini display as far as I’m aware. There is for newer computer that have the thunderbolt instead of mini display, but not much more than that unfortunately.
