don't put any solvent in there, you could damage the plastic "tongue" inside the socket. Just blow it out with compressed air
But, in truth unless you have a very hairy cat or have habit of stuffing dirt in the ports then I really don't think dirt is the problem. USB port contacts are designed to be self-cleaning
Either you have a machine on which both USB ports have bad connections (bad solder joints maybe) or you have a faulty USB controller chip
You say this is a recent purchase. I believe you have a hardware fault, one that you cannot realistically fix unless you strip it down and solder new ports on - and even then if it is the controller chip, then you won't be able to fix it.
What you need to do is simple
Reload the machine to factory settings. If the fault is then still there, take it back and demand either a refund, new machine, or replacement motherboard to be fitted.
If the fault goes away, then the problem was due to an imcompatble USB driver that you've installed (very unlikely)
The battery out supposed fix is one I've read many times, for many supposed problems for where the fault is supposed to be due to "static on the motherboard". All I can say is I've tried it for other faults and its been a waste of time. 750XL may have been lucky, but I believe what he experienced was pure chance
Last edited by Milo Minderbinder; 12th Sep 2012 at 22:17.