Is it really necessary to replace the motherboard over a bad USB?

Hi, so I have a Lenovo Thinkpad W520 and all 3 of the USB ports on it are defective and I'm hoping to get some advice on what my options are. The rear USB broke a while ago and I just worked around it since I didn't have time to fix it then; it has a slightly different problem that several of the little teeth that hold the plug in broke off and now the devices just fall out. So that one's legitimately broken and needs to be replaced. The real problem are that the double side USB's have a very faulty connection that will only recognize my devices if I position them in the socket just right and they only work under my linux partition. I suspect that when they started malfunctioning the driver in windows got corrupted and I've been unable to fix it. However, under device manager they are listed as working properly (but with driver issues) and I'm not totally sure what to make of that. I really think it must be a defective connection with the motherboard and not an easier to fix software issue but I'm not 100% sure on that.
I asked a different advice board and they said I needed to replace the whole motherboard and it'd be really expensive. However, on youtube they have several how-to videos on just replacing the defective USB ports and that makes more sense to me than tossing out an otherwise perfectly functioning motherboard.

Anyone have any thoughts/advice about this? This isn't really about the cost of getting it repaired professionally, but more that I'd really like to learn how to fix this myself. I know that probably means I'm going to have to learn how to solder and am running the risk of totally messing up my machine, but it just doesn't seem THAT hard to do.

 

It all depends, if the USB ports are on a daughter board, you could just replace that small board. If they are on the motherboard, it will require decent soldering skills and disassembling the notebook. Is is still under warranty?

 

RMA may or may not cover this, depending on your accidental coverage (if any). Yes, you can certainly resolder the ports themselves, but you not only need the tools, you also need the know how (how-to videos are available, but nothing compensates for experience).

If the ports show up in device manager, and the problem is getting the device(s) in "just right", then that is definitely a problem with the pins in the port, or the connection to the board itself. Not sure how much components cost, but they will be cheaper than a whole new board.