This is so simple, I’m almost embarrassed to put it out as a hack. I took a Sharpie and I made a big giant visible BLACK MARK on the side that had to face me when the cord is slotted correctly. I repeated this for every USB cable I use with my computer. Now? It just works like buttah baby. Bonus: I have lots of USB cables for various things (camera, iRiver, iPod, PDA, etc). I stuck a little label on each one and threw them in a wall-mounted basket so I don’t have to fish around and try to find the right one by the “attempt to plug it in” method. Stupid hack or maybe just something to ease a pain point: you decide.
