Reply to USB B female failure / broken . Need help/advise please!

Hello everybody. The big lurker is back, with a huge issue to solve...

I've been djing with the S4 for almost a year, connecting and disconnecting at least in around 80 gigs and some more at home or at friends' places.

Since day one the usb connection on the s4 was rude, hard to engage/disengage. However i thought it was to add robustness so a good thing all in all. But i've started to have problems with it. Controversially, the most robust usb female connector i've seen, is the first that i see fail. I have never seen a failure of this kind in a usb connector before (and i've had some...)

At the last gigs i've played, i've suffered a lot just to make the computer see the controller. Simply putting the connector in, does not show the device in the computer. I have to slowly pull it back (as if i was disconnecting it) until i find a point where contact is made. But there's no clear rule. Most of the times i don't succeed doing the connection, and when i do, the connector is way too off that it seems a miracle to be able to play like that. Lucky me for using an external sound card, so whenever the controller is accidentally disconnected music does not stop. But it has come to a point that it has to be repaired.

But i am afraid of sending it to NI and having to wait up to 3 months for having it back. I can't stop working!! Neither can't i buy another one. While it is at service, i don't see myself burning cd's to bypass the situation,... I am even considering to make the repair myself to avoid this possibly way too long TAT.

At sight, pins seem to be in place and no wreckage can be observed there. So my suspicion is that the issue may be related to the internal weldings of the connector to the board.

I would like to have the community's advice for the following questions:

- Has anybody had a similar issue? How did you solve it?
- Has anybody tear down the controller and seen how easy/complicated may it be to replace this connector? I consider to get an external one with cable and avoid welding another female to the board, but just welding cables there.
- Any additional advise on this issue?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.