USB Ports not working (Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro OS X Yosemite 10.10.4)

About a year after I purchased my MacBook Pro, the back USB port (next to the Thunderbolt port) stopped working and I wasn't able to connect anything through it.

Over the past few months my other USB port has also stopped working. I noticed the issue when I would record vocals with a Blue Yeti and also a Samson USB microphone, as during the recording the microphone would disconnect. I then noticed that I was not able to plug my iPhone or any other device into the USB port.

The only way that I've gotten it to detect my Blue Yeti is to plug it in then press downward on the plug. Because of this I am afraid that it is not a software issue and rather a hardware issue with the USB port.

I was wondering if there is anything that I can do to check the status of the two USB ports I have to see if maybe there is a software issue that's preventing either of them to work.

I've yet to be able to take it to an Apple Store to have them look at it, and I fear that if it is a hardware issue that it will be costly to fix, or even more cost-efficient to just buy another MacBook Pro, which just isn't in the cards.

I'll post some information about my laptop but if I need to post anything else please let me know!

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,1

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 4 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B2A

SMC Version (system): 1.68f99

Serial Number (system): C1***********V14

Hardware UUID: 05D5A460-CE72-540A-9438-383FE0326AAC

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

Model Name: MacBoo

Thank you,

Branden

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