First post, by ultra_code
- Rank
- Oldbie
Hello VOGONS members!
I have a project that I'm thinking on potentially undertaking. You see, I have an Asus P3B-F motherboard that I used in my first retro build, and now and planing to use in another. Since I took ownership of it, I have built up a list of problems I have experienced with it: iffy Primary IDE port, non-working "Power Fan" header, what I think is a "noisy" AGP slot, and finally, the focus of this thread, a I-guess-you-would-call-it PS/2 "hub" whose PS/2 mouse port is dead.
The hub has seen better days, with discoloration/corrosion on the outside of it that I can't remove with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and what seems to be "corrosion" on the "bottom" of the hub, between the hub and the PCB.
This dead mouse port isn't a deal-breaker, since in the past I have found that under MS-DOS mode with the CuteMouse driver that Philscomputerlab includes with his MS-DOS Starter Pack, my PS/2/USB V7 mouse works just fine plugged into the board's USB port (this was the only use case where if the driver wouldn't work with my mouse over USB, it would have been a deal-breaker), but now that I feel like I should start taking more aggressive measures to preserve the retro parts I get (which includes doing some soldering), I think that this would be the perfect and hopefully a relatively "safe" project to complete with my soldering iron and spare time.
Now, the questions. Does anyone know where I could find a replacement hub to swap in? Would I even need to get a replacement; would just heating up the solder points for the hub, or just replacing the solder with new solder do the job? And, finally, for someone with very little soldering experience, is this actually a good idea? 😜
Any help would be appreciated!