It was posted before by Aranel (here)

Its still not easy, but its far easier than straight on the board, try buying a new 5 pin microusb port from ebay or something, cause most likely your old port has already lost a leg or 2.

I didn't quit. I loved it there. Wish I still was.

I have read that it can be done but would advice you proceed with caution. My usb port was faulty and I took it to two diferent phone repair shops and neither could fix it. I guess some get more badly damaged than others. So there is the very real risk that you will not be able to get it fixed if you buy it. Even Nokia do not fix it, they just give a replacement N900.

You could also do what I did which was get a spare battery and charge with an external charger. And for file transfers with pc use WinSCP. But then you must make sure you do not risk any mods, etc that could brick your device. I was constantly modding and eventually I ended up with a bricked device with no way to flash since I had no working usb port.

A lot of the failures are very catastrophic-- the copper material (lands or pads) is removed from the PCB (printed circuit board) and there's little or nothing to repair.

New copper CAN be deposited but it's not a job for amateurs.

Texrat, do you think any OC'ing N900 users will get denied warranty work for their broken USB connectors? That would be haX.

If the OC is easily detectable, yes, very likely to be declined.

well that one linked thread seemed to indicate alternate points for the USB +/-, gnd, data or whatever, so even if the pads are toast you can connect some small wires and epoxy a new microusb adapter onto it. I wouldn't say this is difficult compared to some of the stuff I've done...
Wii
PS2

PS2 was my friend's work, it didn't boot, but the Wii I did and was fine. Anyways, my point is that I have no experience with soldering and I can do that so I'm laughing at you guys afraid of the microusb! I would not attempt this without practicing on something else though, it's too easy to drop a glob of solder onto the wrong spot. You need to have some flux, solder sucker, and desoldering braid for sure. Also a sharp tip on the soldering iron helps. You should just get a new one for $6 for dealextreme or somewhere if you don't have one of those. Just make sure you get the right voltage for your country if you buy it from there! You can also get a cleaning pad or cleaning ball for pretty damn cheap...

Oh, you might want to try buying one of these and see if it comes apart easy (looks like it would) so you can get a microUSB connector for $2.50 while you're at it.

I have training in PCB design and assembly, along with decades of experience, and I'm not laughing at them for it. It's easy to screw up and not to be taken lightly.

well in my opinion, the only 2 soldering related things you can screw up are:

1) overheating a component by soldering for too much continuous time
2) getting solder somewhere it shouldn't be, therefore causing a short or bridge

It's very easy to make those mistakes, 2-3 seconds is enough heat to damage some components, but usually you will be lucky and it won't happen. If you use some flux the solder will flow and stick where it's supposed to with no effort!
This doesn't avoid the problem of dripping solder somewhere, or using too much and having it flow somewhere it shouldn't. Just use a very small amount of solder, and clean the tip off on a wet sponge or paper towel and you should be fine. If you make a mess, the solder sucker and desoldering braid will save you usually.

Of course, opening the thing in the first place is another problem, you can loose parts or damage it with static or damage the case or other parts while assembling / disassembling it. Or you can just knock the whole thing onto the floor if you're clumsy. Just be really careful, and try to keep a steady hand. Don't burn yourself, your house, and don't poke your eye out with the iron... lol.

My usbport is still working after 9 months, but if I ever have to go for the cable soulution, I would use a standard usb jack in stead of the nokia micro jack...

Or are there reasons not to do that?

paai