My x58 came slightly broken

[p0rtal]

Bought an open box gaming rig off newegg that came with an x58a-gd45 mb and the USB 3.0 interface plug on the motherboard has 1 pin that looks very bent and wobbly. I'm sure if I touched it further it would break right off so I can't plug the 3.0 unit in.

How can I fix this? Otherwise the mb seems just fine, everything works. I know absolutely nothing about, I also know very little about this motherboard and wanted to know if there are other ways of getting usb 3.0 in there? Do all usb 3.0s have to be plugged into this plug? The plug is the blue one right in the center. It was a serious pain in the butt to even get to, as the cable and barely reached it with enough slack. I am running crossfire gpus and there is another pci slot all the way at the bottom. Seems I have 2 pcix16 2.0 slots, 1 pci x16, 3 pci x1, and a single pci.

and this is the exact usb 3.0 unit

I am also having some troubles with my 2nd hdd. My main hard drive is a 64gb ssd that works great, but my 2nd HDD 1tb drive doesn't show any options to be formatted, it says unallocated in the device storage area, no format option when i right click or view any sub menus.

 

[alyoshka]

Ok, The unallocated means the device has not yet been F-Disc-ked LOl... meaning it's still RAW, Unpartitioned space.
That can be overcome by using the Control Panel- Administrative Tools- Computer Management.
In that use the Disc Management tool to create Partitions or one single partition on that 1TB drive.

 

[alyoshka]

As for that wobbly looking pin in the USB3 Header, try using a pair of Pointed Nosed Pliers to straighten it out...... EXTREME CAUTION is a must while doing this...
It's not as difficult as it sounds but for a persons who might have a tough time holding a pair of pliers and using the right amount of force.... it would be quiet an ordeal. Those pins are not that weak, at least not as weak as processor pins, so it's ok, they are made to withstand quiet a bit of force.
It would have been nice if you could have given us a real closeup of the pins in the Header, this pic from the moon really makes it difficult to actually decipher the degree of variation in those pins....

 

[p0rtal]

This was the best shot I could get of it. My cam cant get lower, but you can see on the right side some pins are bent and I am not sure how I can get in there with pliers to make sure it was straight without snapping pictures of it to make sure its right heh. Its too low profile in there and i can hardly get one hand in there to attempt to plug it in, let alone do delicate work like that...mind you the case is a massive phantom full size case and i still dont have room to get at it.

 

[alyoshka]

Yup..... you can rectify those pins using a pair of Nose pliers and straighten them out. Just be sure not to twist them just straighten them. Make sure they are all aligned in a line and look like the socket you're going to connect on it.
You can try by pressing the socket a little onto those pins , it'll leave a mark on the socket and then you can realign them looking at those marks ....

 

[alyoshka]

The ones that are out of place will leave their marks on the socket of the USB3 , touch only those ones and you don't need to use too much of force a little at a time is enough.

 

[p0rtal]

One of them broke off and the other is now more loose than before. I barely touched it, a slight poke and it popped right out and went inside the case somewhere. *sigh

 

[alyoshka]

From here, it looks like 2 pins on the left of the socket, upper line need to be pushed downwards and 2 pins on the right most side of the same line need to be pushed a little upwards to get the alignment right.

 

[alyoshka]

Have you got an old mobo lying around?

 

[p0rtal]

No spare, and to do any work Id have to disassemble the entire desktop and I dont want to do that haha, it was a nightmare to put together so I'll have to deal with it. :-(

I expected as much from an open box unit, not sure if I can get a pci e usb 3.0 unit but when i look at the pci e slots they look backwards compared to what all the pci e usb 3.0 cards look like. Meaning the slot carries a long slot on the right and short one on the left, however the actual cards themselves have the opposite and are impossible to fit it.

so what good is that if they are backwards? lol. There is another blue pci x slot on the motherboard, I am not sure what it is. All I know is there were three blue ones and the top two are taken up by the gpus, which I am assuming are x16 2.0 slots and the lowest a standard x16. Can I just get a replacement x16 usb 3.0 card?

 

[alyoshka]

If you are willing and game, you can always get the whole header replaced at the closest electronics shop around your place.... it shouldn't cost you too much, but it will make the USB3 thing work...
Yes, it will require you to remove the mobo and take it with you to the shop, but they really ought to do a good deal with it.

 

[p0rtal]

Tough choice as the 2.0 ports seem to be faulty as well, transferring 800mb to my solid state hard drive through the 2.0 port tells me it is going to take 2 hours and 40 minutes. Something is wrong, I don't know what. This pc has been an absolute night mare from the start.

 

[alyoshka]

You can get an addon USB3 card.... Lots of good options. Here are a few,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820276015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815118007
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115105
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815256001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815166026
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815133005

 

[p0rtal]

I just ordered the Rosewill heh, hopefully it will actually speed things up. 2.0 ports shouldnt be that slow, something is wrong, Ive a headache and dont want to go into it today lol, ugh, what a day!

 

[alyoshka]

Sorry about the pins breaking..... I can imagine..... just make sure that the left over piece of metal is not hanging around in the case..... might lead to a short later.... not good not good....

 

[p0rtal]

That little piece is super tiny haha the odds of finding it somewhere in that case is slim and none. The case is a Phantom
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067

It has two layers two the case, an inner shell that houses all the components and an outer shell, so its kind of like a case in a slightly smaller case. They are fixed to each other and there are holes all over it to allow cables to flow through nicely. The pin definitely fell right through one of them rofl so ya, little chance of getting that little guy back :[

i did buy the rosewill pci card, next day shipping. How can 2.0 ports go so slowly? I thought they were a vast improvement over standard. My 6 year old pc transfers my music faster. Is this because my mp3 player and cable do not support 2.0? If thats so, speed wont change with a 3.0 port will it?