Folks on this board seem to know all the answers, so here goes...

My Asus motherboard's built-in USB ports have croaked, a relatively common problem as I search around various forums. No problem, I bought an IO Gear PCI card with 4 rear ports and one more port on the card. The internal port on the card, however, is not like the pin connections for USB on a motherboard, it is a full-fledged USB connector. I had a 3.5" drive bay insert with a couple of USB ports on it and the cables plugged into the motherboard (those USB ports are now dead).

So what I've been unsuccessfully looking for with countless USB / cable / front panel searches is this:

I would like to buy a 3.5" beige front panel insert with just one USB connection on it that would go back inside my PC and connect to the USB port on the back of the new PCI card. No firewire, no triple or double USB, just one port extending to the card so I can plug my USB stuff into the front panel.

Has anyone seen any devices like this?

Thanks for any help or links you can provide....

Randy

http://www.frontx.com/ if you could do a 5.25" bay. Really overkill for your needs though. Have you considered just getting a USB extention cable and having it end on your desk?

Matthew

Thanks, I looked at that. I don't have 5.25" space left, and I need to get rid of my existing 3.5" USB/Memory card front panel unit anyways since it plugs into the motherboard and is now useless.

I'll keep looking....Thanks, Randy

I have found USB male connectors, that could be grafted onto the cable of an existing front panel faceplate.

-ml

If you just need your card reader to work you can always just cut up a USB cable and solder the wires to the wires of the USB header connector. Shouldn't take more than an hour.

Matthew

I actually thought I had exactly what you wanted, but it turns out I have firewire versions. Then I found where I bought this cable...

Link

That would turn your internal USB port into a motherboard-style USB header. Problem is, you only have one port, so you can only make one header out of it... Lots of card readers use two headers. You could get a cheap usb hub for the inside of your case though.

How about a 3.5" bay USB hub? Looks like you wouldn't need anything else. CompUSA sells them for $19.

Edit: That particular one seems to be USB 1.1, but I bet you could find a USB 2.0 one, too.

Thanks for all the suggestions. When searching for something as common as USB, the right key words help out. Bitt's link to the 3.5" hub was exactly what the doctor ordered...I never thought to search for a hub.

I just placed an order with Amazon for a SIIG brand USB 2.0 hub, so I think I'll be good to go when it arrives.

Thanks again for the help. I knew I could count on board members for some help with my searches....

Randy