[Mr. Lim]

Originally Posted by Chris_Elston

We are not having a problem with static, but rather the port itself needs to be mounted to the board more firmly. What I saw was there are only two plastic post that are through holes to the bottom side of the board. When you insert the cat5 cable repeatedly, you seem to cause stress on these anchor posts. When these anchor posts give or break loose, your in trouble because then the connections in the back tip up and break off the pads on the surface mount.

We've also run into physical port damage through daily wear-and-tear as well. We've had traces lifted as well as the plastic posts wear and release from the board, leaving the connector to essentially float on the leads alone. Eventually the leads bend or lift the traces off the board.

Beyond connecting and disconnecting cables from the DS once or twice a day, there hasn't been any unusual or unreasonable stress on the connectors.

Curious to know if others are also encountering physical wear and tear issues with the DS ethernet ports? Some early indicators are the port having more freedom of movement in the up/down direction - or when you insert a cable, the entire port seems to flex backwards and upwards a bit.