Controller port pins poor contact

[clavicus]

After much haranguing with a controller port that refused to work, I found the problem was much simpler than expected, in that the pins of the controller are simply no longer making proper contact with the pin sockets in the port. By wiggling the controller plug around I can get things working, but this is less than ideal.

I desoldered the PCB on the back of the ports to have a better look, and it seems that each pin socket has a little bump at the bottom which looks like it is for clamping the pin when inserted. The pin sockets themselves look like they can be removed, as there are a pair of small holes next to each socket that look like they might be for tabs, but before I go and ruin an otherwise fairly functional port, does anyone have any experience with fixing this issue? Do you know how to pull the pin sockets out?

pin_socket2.jpg

pin_socket1.jpg

[clavicus]

I had a good look and nothing seemed out of the ordinary really, so I rubbed a needle through each of the pin sockets and lightly sanded the controller pins and that seems to have fixed the contact issues.

I'm guessing pin 5 (vcc) was the culprit, as I could only see the signals coming from the CPU when I hooked up my logic analyser, suggesting that the IC on the pad wasn't powered.