USB Ports

hey, i have a hp desktop pc...and at the front of the cpu there is three usb ports but only one seem to be working, the other two was covered up by a hard plastic so i had to cut thru the plastic to get to it, the thing is, is there anyway i can get these to work? cause i am in need of it...and i have already run driver updates....

If the ports were permanently covered by hard plastic they are almost certainly not even electrically connected to the computer. The motherboard probably does not have any additional headers into which you could plug them either.

The easiest solution to your problem would be to buy a USB hub and plug it into the one functional USB port.

i opened the tower, by the way im using hp pavilion a300n and i recently replaced my motherboard after the capacitors went bad with an ASROCK G31M-S motherboard.

the motherboard has 2 sets of usb pins USB4_5 and USB6_7. on usb6_7 my built in memory card reader is connected along with both sets of cable for the usb ports.

USB4_5 is vacant.

i disconnected the usb cable from the same line with the memory card reader and noticed that the usb cable has 8 pin holes and the connector that connected it had only 5 (4 at the bottom and 1 at the top) also on the motherboard USB4_5 has 9 pins.

what should i do??

i disconnected the usb cable from the memory card reader plug and plug it into empty USB4_5 on motherboard..and tada, 2 extra usb ports. Thanks for replying though