Found a weird fix for random USB port failures on a batch of Dell OptiPlex 3080s

Had a client with 15 of these desktops where the front USB ports would just stop working after a few months (the back ones were fine). The usual driver reinstall or BIOS update didn't stick. On a hunch, I opened one up and found the tiny internal cable from the front panel board to the motherboard was barely seated. Pushing it in firmly fixed that one, so I re-seated every single cable on all 15 machines. That was six months ago, and not one has come back with the issue. Has anyone else seen this specific cable creep on these models, or was I just lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy67411d ago

Sounds like you got lucky and wasted a lot of time. Those cables are designed to stay put, and a whole batch being loose from the factory is a huge stretch. More likely you just reset something by powering down and opening the case, and the real fix was the power cycle. Those machines probably would have been fine if you just left them alone, and now you've introduced risk by messing with other connections that were fine.

verab2811d ago

So you never reseat cables to check?