I have a laptop, an HP Pavilion dv5030us (dv5000 series). The left-side USBchannel, which has two ports, seems to be entirely dead, except if I plug in a powered USB hub. If I plug in a powered USB hub into either of the ports, then the other port becomes alive as well. On the right side there is only one port where I normally plug in my hub, so I am not surprised it is working (for a long time it has been not providing its own power to devices, thought it was just normal for that port). Now this problem has extended to the left side ports, and I am not sure if my only option (if I want this truly fixed) is to replace the entire motherboard. If not, I'm wondering if there is any soldering work I can get done that would fix the problem.
is it still under warranty? it appears you have lost the +5 volts side to the usb ports which is why the powered usb hub works & not ordinary usb devices. a fuse might be blown on the board accounting for no power.
Okay, I'm going to have someone I know who is good at soldering have a close look (also an Electrical Engineer). He'll be able to tell burn marks and such, and see whether it is fixable. If I can't fix this without a new mobo, I'm selling this laptop as is.
I talked to someone and my only solution (without looking at the board and without replacing the motherboard) is this:
Use a thin-gauge wire (breadboard-style wires) to take power from any chip that draws +5 v or more, use a transistor in between to control the voltage and then send that to the USB circuit. That should turn them on again. This is very risky and I risk destroying the board (while doing this installation or in the future). So instead I am going to just sell it as it is.
The cause of this: I was using a IDE->USB adaptor that uses a molex connector for outside power. I reversed the molex connector (cheap rubber kind, easy to reverse), and the laptop shut off. For some reason that night the USB ports still worked after powering the laptop back on; next day, dead.
