Need powered USB - options?

[G_75]

The 2 main hi-speed USB ports at the back of my laptop are broken - the little plastic thing became unglued or just fell out. This happened a while ago and since then just been using the 2 ports on the side for everything along with a cheap 4-slot hub but this is awkward when you need more slots and either there isn't enough power or some hard drives and devices can't work together(I've played around with various combinations).

So I'm wondering if I can get the main ports repaired, or I read somewhere that there's an internal card I can get but I'm not sure what my options are..
The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6400 - here are the specs:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/notebooks/inspn_6400/pd.aspx?refid=inspn_6400&cs=28&s=dfb

If I buy a good quality external powered hub does this expect to be plugged into one of the ports at the back or would it work just as well plugged into a side port?

Thanks for any help...

 

[hang-the-9]

A USB hub does not care where it's plugged in, the side ports should be as good as the rear ones.

You can get an ExpressCard USB card like (example only, you can find some with 4 ports also): http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=expresscard+usb&hl=en&prmd=ivnsu&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=18101850787523936923&ei=MipcTf6zHYKglAe-oYTkCQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CH4Q8wIwAQ#