USB not initializing at startup

[Corwin111]

I doubt anyone would be able to diagnose this by description, but I'm really just posting it to complain about my own stupidity and the unfairness of the universe.

 

So after a routine cleaning of my PC, I accidentally mangled two of the pins on the internal USB 3.0 front panel connector on my z97 Gryphon motherboard. I can only guess that this is what caused the issue, but I really can't think of anything else.

 

The issue itself started happening after this incident. Every time I turn on my PC, there is a chance that NONE of the machine's  USB devices would initialize at startup, not just the USB 3.0 ports - any of them - front, back, doesn't matter. There are no particular USB-related POST errors, just errors that mouse and keyboard were not detected (naturally). Windows starts fine, but there are no functioning USB ports and no functioning USB devices. Turning off the computer from the power button is my only option at this point.

 

 - After turning it back on, everything usually starts up properly and I have use of my PC again.

 - Restarting the computer from windows results in the same USB issue 100% of the time. I can reproduce it every time after a restart, even if the USBs had worked before the restart. Only shutting down and cold booting seems to bring the USBs back up.

 

 

- Since it is most probably a hardware problem, and most probably the result of me ruining my 20 pin internal USB socket, I first checked it. none of the bent pins appear to be touching or shorting out. the two that were most bent were in a pretty bad shape so straightening them out was not an option. They just snapped off. So there are currently no visible indications of pins shorting out. The issue still persists.

 

 - On the off chance that it may be a software bug, I of course reset bios several times. The issue is still reproducible.

 

 - There does not seem to be any option to disable front-panel USB 3.0 in general, unfortunately, only specific USB ports. I disabled the USB ports related to the offending socket in BIOS, which also had no effect.

 

 

 

The computer is functional most of the time and the issue can be worked around pretty consistently.  It is just really annoying and means that every time I need a restart, I am guaranteed to lose my USBs, so I have to shut down and boot up to get them again. 

 

At this point I am wondering if it is worth it to give the mobo to a repair shop to solder a new internal USB 3.0 socket to it, as it seems to be the most likely culprit. Or is it? What do you guys think?