Repairing MJ dongle

longhair · Post by **longhair** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:48 am

Was 4,500 miles across the continent in Newfoundland when my wife "removed" MJ from my laptop -- only the USB peg stayed in the computer.

Back on the pacific coast now and am attempting to line up the four wires from a "soft" USB connector (I lost the one MJ provided) and by just touching (soldering is going to be a real pain) the contacts (Black, Green, White & Red -- from the left when looking at the gaping MJ USB gap) the blue light goes on.

Now, there was a posting that said MJ would send a new dongle and not bill if the old one came back in a week or so, but when I called, MJ tech support said I had to buy a new one. The unit doesn't fare as well on laptops which are always being bounced around and the unit is always being plugged in and yanked out. I hesitate just to buy another ($40 US), as I still feel burned at having bought a five-year plan for over $100 and having the MJ folk cut the price soon after to $59 or $69 or whatever.

Hopefully the "fixed" MJ will be more flexible -- I just need to make sure I get someone to give it a good solid solder, if that can be done. (The little claws from the USB peg broke off, so the connections have to be applied to these ultra tiny dots that are just a hair apart from each other.)

Any advice as to whether I am on the right track or not would be appreciated.

Also, in general, my experience using the laptop plugged in directly (not always possible when in airports and travelling) is that the MJ works way better than when used wireless no matter how strong the signal.

stroths · Post by **stroths** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 7:37 am

My mother in law broke the usb connector off hers recently. I popped the plastic casing off and soldered a USB cable onto the contacts. I then covered the contacts with hot glue which also helped secure the cable to the MJ. It works fine now and there are no worries about breaking that piece off again.

If you go this route, just make sure you are connecting the points in the right order. If you completely reverse them, it shouldn't fry the jack (didn't with me at least), but it won't power up.