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My laptop is raised on on a box, and the USB, power and HDMI cables stick out horizontally and then fall to the desk.

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The USB cables in particular do seem to be coming out of the socket at an angle.

I've been having issues with the USBs recently, connecting and disconnecting, and I'm wondering if this might have something to do with it.

Is this kind of set up likely to damage the USB sockets?

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  • It might just simply loose. Also some thin wires are easily damaged to the connecting portions of the wire (e.g. the area where the wire's wire and the plug / jack connects might be folded) and gravity will not affect in any way significant to the connection.
    – Gideon
    Jan 20, 2016 at 9:01
  • That all looks well bent out of shape to me. See my answer at apple.stackexchange.com/questions/192893/… for some elementary strain-relief on cables - but those look like they need more than that.
    – Tetsujin
    Jan 20, 2016 at 9:12

2 Answers 2

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The power is something I'd be more concerned about, because this will have a heavier object pulling on it and would be more likely to fall out.

Will this break your USB plugs? Unlikely. Is it prone to be accidentally pulled and then causing damage? A little more likely.

Unfortunately, this is a fairly unavoidable situation for the most part unless you can rest the edges of the cables on the box to give it less strain.

If you can't, try getting a bigger box.

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  • Re: the power cable, the transformer is resting on the floor, so it's not pulling it down. Jan 20, 2016 at 9:14
  • Good to know @Testujin provided some nice information in the comments too for good practice/recommendations on what to do.
    – Dandy
    Jan 20, 2016 at 9:14
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The weight of the wires themselves are usually never heavy enough to cause any damage. Whilst your power supply cable does seem to be falling out, it'll be fine providing the transformer is fully on the floor.

The main concern here is not gravity, but in fact accidents, such as pulling a USB device to hard, too fast.

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