What does this broken USB 3.0 motherboard pin do?
I have a broken USB 3.0 header pin on an Asus Maximus XI Hero motherboard. Can anyone tell me what that particular pin does and if it is something I can potentially live without?
1 Answer
Your motherboard manual, which you can download from you motherboard support page shows the following on page 1-16
That it is a ground pin.
There are several other ground pins so chances are it will not compromise the signal integrity or shielding, but there is a slight chance that there might be some slight effects.
It shouldn't prevent USB3 from working. It is not a signal pin which is where things would break completely, but it is used to shield signals from each other which is somewhere that USB3 has had some issues in the past.
You might get some interference, but if the wires in the cable or front panel are connected together then chances are it will have no effect at all.
There does seem to be some confusion as to the necessity or use of this pin as per this Electronics Stackexchange post What to do with USB 3.0 ID pin?
7Therefore it is possible that HP desktops use this pin as cable detect, although I really see no reason for that.
In cables that I have (from eBay), the pin 10 is FLOATING.
So I guess it is up to your particular board what to do with this pin.
