They absolutely can become loose, especially if you plug cables in and out of them repeatedly. I just replaced my PC and the old one had a couple of USB ports that I regularly plugged different devices into (external hard drives, thumb drives, joysticks, gamepads, iPods, GPSs, Kindles, tablets, etc.) and it got to the point where I could barely count on being able to make a working connection. On my new PC, I decided to have enough USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports to be able to plug everything in and leave it plugged in. This meant adding two USB expansion cards plus getting an external 7-port, switched USB 3.0 hub. If I have a device I don't always want connected and turned on, I have it connected via that hub and I turn on and off the individual port on it. If your PC has multiple USB ports and one of them is getting loose, you might want to consider an external USB hub connected to one of the remaining "good" ports and plug your devices into it. At only 10 or 15 dollars or so, it might be cheaper than trying to get an existing port repaired.
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