My son's laptop has taken alot of pain in his school over the last few months and he and his buddies have succeeded in breaking both USB ports. I've opened the box, unsoldered the USB ports, replaced them by new components but no joy - the ports seem dead. If I assume that the insertion of LEGO pieces, etc. in USB ports has rendered them unsalvageable, do I have any other options for restoring USB access to the laptop? The laptop has an ethernet port, a HDMI port and an SD/MMC port. I've trawled the web for a magic adadpter, i.e; ethernet=USB, HDMI=USB or SD/MMC=USB but to no avail. Lots of options for going the other way though. Does anyone have any ideas on the feasibility of an ethernet=USB cable? Ethernet doesn't seem to have +5V or GND so I can run a cable from the motherboard that could provide those. Amazing how many functions of a laptop just disappear when you have no USB ports.