- Jun 30, 2004
- 15,722
- 1,454
- 126
The title says it all. It happened within the course of an hour's time.
My Skylake system was the best I'd ever built. I'm getting older, and am not too keen these days about keeping up with the latest processors and chipsets. This system was purrr-feck, like the SUV of my obsession in the "Garage" forum. The OS is on a Sammy 1TB NVME drive, but most (MOST!) of my data files are on a Crucial 1TB SSD and a 2.5" Seagate HDD.
I had been getting careless about how I used the front USB ports on the system. Right away, let me advise others: Don't use your best computer as a charging station for vaping pens, cell-phones -- tablets. All those things can be charged with the proper adapter from a wall-socket.
So I was managing my digital music library, and consolidating albums under a subdirectory structure so that I could recognize categories of albums on the tiny 2" screen in my SUV MP3 player and Android "dashboard" tablet. Everything was to be dumped onto a Sandisk Cruzer Fit 64GB USB. I had just purchased -- for about $0.99 each -- a good portion of the "Bach Guild" classical music remastered collections or "Big [composer-name] Box" 1TB downloads from Amazon. (Check it out -- you can get Vienna State Opera Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Warsaw and Moscow Radio Orchestras and other offerings, some recorded in the "Golden Age of Stereo" and others later. Mostly -- Ninety-nine cents for things like "The Big Beethoven Box" or "The Big Mozart Box". Sorry to digress.) I was balancing my giant rock-and-roll and jazz collections with the new acquisitions.
Just before the finishing touches on the Cruzer Fit and a backup of its contents and organization, I noticed that I'd left a cannabis vaping pen charging in a USB port, and its green light was signaling a full charge. I thoughtlessly reached over to grab it without grounding myself. I felt a small static discharge from my fingertip. I finished my final copying to the USB drive. All was well. Then, I pulled the Sandisk USB drive from the USB port -- very stiff fit with those little things -- rushed out the garage to evaluate my handiwork. Returned about 20 minutes later -- (I just had to check out the sound quality for "I'm a Man" by Chicago on my new Polk Audio speakers).
Before rushing out to the garage, however, I noticed Windows behaving sort of "redacted". I'd select the "Safely Remove" icon, find the USB drive and click on it, but no message of "You can now safely remove". Instead, clicking on it again, the USB drive would be missing from the list. It seemed strange.
So, resuming with my return from the garage, I put the Cruzer Fit back into the USB port. Nothing. No message about "device recognized". Then, tried to move my mouse. The system was frozen.
I finally shut it down for a reboot. But it would post the BIOS info and list of storage devices, followed by the message "USB Over-voltage detected -- shutting down in 15 seconds".
Followed all the online advice -- unplugged the USB wires between the front-panel USB2 and USB3 ports and the motherboard. Blew out all the cruft in every USB port, front and rear. But boot-up shows "USB Overvoltage . . . 15 seconds". The next step would be to reset the CMOS. After that, I must assume that something like the onboard USB controller has taken a dump. Needs -- at least -- a new motherboard.
Looking ahead, trying to avoid any Windows re-installations, I ran my web-searches to find my ASUS Sabertooth Z170 S motherboard. I'm a little wary: you'd figure a lot of people who'd had that board had also overclocked them. The most promising options would be bundles with a CPU and RAM -- people routinely rebuilding their systems with latest-gen chipset and hardware, selling their "whole enchilada" in a bundle. So, trusting the promises of "fully functional" from a USA seller, I bought a "pre-owned" Sabertooth Z170S -- but not in a bundle.
I also found another ASUS Z170 board which I might have coveted four years ago but thought unnecessary and high-priced: An ATX ASUS Z170-WS -- the "workstation motherboard with many more PCIE lanes. There were six of these, and they were all configured with I7-6700 (non-K) processors and 8GB of RAM. Unlikely that they were ever "stressed" by enthusiasts. So I picked up one of those -- the bundle -- as well.
As for "money" -- I'll get my stimulus money, and it's time to replace two Sandy-Bridge systems used by the fam-damn-ily. So the extra parts are not wasted, and it's about time for me to upgrade the Sandy boxes. More than "about time" -- ten-year-old technology, one running for ten years, the other for six years. So let's not talk about money.
Once I've made the motherboard and CPU swap, I can mail my original Sabertooth to ASUS under RMA. The warranty on the Sabertooth runs out in September, 2021. And -- it's never failed that a refurbished RMA board would come in handy later. Been through that experience twice in the last 15 years.
QUESTION: The Z170-WS board uses the same chipset as the Sabertooth and the same processor options. Would I have any trouble simply replacing the Sabertooth with the WS board? Or shouldn't it boot into Windows without fail, even if some onboard devices need driver updates?
AND -- ANYBODY ELSE GONE THROUGH THIS ORDEAL with their mobos and USB controllers?
Shame -- all because of a recharging vaping pen and static from the carpetl.
Also -- one more -- what are the odds that this could mean a failed PSU? My PSU is a 650W Seasonic Flagship Titanium 80+ Active PFC model -- something like a 10 or 12-year warranty. It just doesn't seem likely to me. The boot-time message refers to USB Overvoltage, the Windows behavior points to a USB malfunction -- and the rest of it with the vaping pen and static charge.
We have a zero tolerance policy for profanity in the tech sub-forums.
Don't do it again.
Iron Woode
Super Moderator
My Skylake system was the best I'd ever built. I'm getting older, and am not too keen these days about keeping up with the latest processors and chipsets. This system was purrr-feck, like the SUV of my obsession in the "Garage" forum. The OS is on a Sammy 1TB NVME drive, but most (MOST!) of my data files are on a Crucial 1TB SSD and a 2.5" Seagate HDD.
I had been getting careless about how I used the front USB ports on the system. Right away, let me advise others: Don't use your best computer as a charging station for vaping pens, cell-phones -- tablets. All those things can be charged with the proper adapter from a wall-socket.
So I was managing my digital music library, and consolidating albums under a subdirectory structure so that I could recognize categories of albums on the tiny 2" screen in my SUV MP3 player and Android "dashboard" tablet. Everything was to be dumped onto a Sandisk Cruzer Fit 64GB USB. I had just purchased -- for about $0.99 each -- a good portion of the "Bach Guild" classical music remastered collections or "Big [composer-name] Box" 1TB downloads from Amazon. (Check it out -- you can get Vienna State Opera Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Warsaw and Moscow Radio Orchestras and other offerings, some recorded in the "Golden Age of Stereo" and others later. Mostly -- Ninety-nine cents for things like "The Big Beethoven Box" or "The Big Mozart Box". Sorry to digress.) I was balancing my giant rock-and-roll and jazz collections with the new acquisitions.
Just before the finishing touches on the Cruzer Fit and a backup of its contents and organization, I noticed that I'd left a cannabis vaping pen charging in a USB port, and its green light was signaling a full charge. I thoughtlessly reached over to grab it without grounding myself. I felt a small static discharge from my fingertip. I finished my final copying to the USB drive. All was well. Then, I pulled the Sandisk USB drive from the USB port -- very stiff fit with those little things -- rushed out the garage to evaluate my handiwork. Returned about 20 minutes later -- (I just had to check out the sound quality for "I'm a Man" by Chicago on my new Polk Audio speakers).
Before rushing out to the garage, however, I noticed Windows behaving sort of "redacted". I'd select the "Safely Remove" icon, find the USB drive and click on it, but no message of "You can now safely remove". Instead, clicking on it again, the USB drive would be missing from the list. It seemed strange.
So, resuming with my return from the garage, I put the Cruzer Fit back into the USB port. Nothing. No message about "device recognized". Then, tried to move my mouse. The system was frozen.
I finally shut it down for a reboot. But it would post the BIOS info and list of storage devices, followed by the message "USB Over-voltage detected -- shutting down in 15 seconds".
Followed all the online advice -- unplugged the USB wires between the front-panel USB2 and USB3 ports and the motherboard. Blew out all the cruft in every USB port, front and rear. But boot-up shows "USB Overvoltage . . . 15 seconds". The next step would be to reset the CMOS. After that, I must assume that something like the onboard USB controller has taken a dump. Needs -- at least -- a new motherboard.
Looking ahead, trying to avoid any Windows re-installations, I ran my web-searches to find my ASUS Sabertooth Z170 S motherboard. I'm a little wary: you'd figure a lot of people who'd had that board had also overclocked them. The most promising options would be bundles with a CPU and RAM -- people routinely rebuilding their systems with latest-gen chipset and hardware, selling their "whole enchilada" in a bundle. So, trusting the promises of "fully functional" from a USA seller, I bought a "pre-owned" Sabertooth Z170S -- but not in a bundle.
I also found another ASUS Z170 board which I might have coveted four years ago but thought unnecessary and high-priced: An ATX ASUS Z170-WS -- the "workstation motherboard with many more PCIE lanes. There were six of these, and they were all configured with I7-6700 (non-K) processors and 8GB of RAM. Unlikely that they were ever "stressed" by enthusiasts. So I picked up one of those -- the bundle -- as well.
As for "money" -- I'll get my stimulus money, and it's time to replace two Sandy-Bridge systems used by the fam-damn-ily. So the extra parts are not wasted, and it's about time for me to upgrade the Sandy boxes. More than "about time" -- ten-year-old technology, one running for ten years, the other for six years. So let's not talk about money.
Once I've made the motherboard and CPU swap, I can mail my original Sabertooth to ASUS under RMA. The warranty on the Sabertooth runs out in September, 2021. And -- it's never failed that a refurbished RMA board would come in handy later. Been through that experience twice in the last 15 years.
QUESTION: The Z170-WS board uses the same chipset as the Sabertooth and the same processor options. Would I have any trouble simply replacing the Sabertooth with the WS board? Or shouldn't it boot into Windows without fail, even if some onboard devices need driver updates?
AND -- ANYBODY ELSE GONE THROUGH THIS ORDEAL with their mobos and USB controllers?
Shame -- all because of a recharging vaping pen and static from the carpetl.
Also -- one more -- what are the odds that this could mean a failed PSU? My PSU is a 650W Seasonic Flagship Titanium 80+ Active PFC model -- something like a 10 or 12-year warranty. It just doesn't seem likely to me. The boot-time message refers to USB Overvoltage, the Windows behavior points to a USB malfunction -- and the rest of it with the vaping pen and static charge.
We have a zero tolerance policy for profanity in the tech sub-forums.
Don't do it again.
Iron Woode
Super Moderator
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