If the USB power connections were short circuited, what would happen?

[Leros]

A few years ago I plugged in my mp3 player into my computer via a USB cable. The whole computer shutdown. The PSU, CPU, and RAM were all killed. This got me thinking.

If a destructive person created a USB device that simply short circuits the power wires, would it cause any harm to a computer?

NOTE: I am in no way planning on destroying any computers, I am merely curious about the potential. I'm just thinking of a scenario where some crazy person with their destructive USB device goes around a computer lab and quickly kills all of the computers.

 

[E equals MC2]

you just got lucked out. sorry.

 

[Gibson486]

That would certianly kill the usb product and possibly the port also, but i'd imagine it would not be beough to kill the whole motherboard.

 

[sandorski]

Bad things would happen.

 

[Quasmo]

I had one of the ports on the front of my computer short circuit. The pins got bent, and windows recognized it as f-ing up. Didn't do anything to my PC though.

 

[Howard]

The current flow would be much higher than spec.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Howard
The current flow would be much higher than spec.

Of course, but what would the extent of the damage be? Are motherboards capable of isolating the problem or would the whole computer get taken down?

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: Howard
The current flow would be much higher than spec.

Of course, but what would the extent of the damage be? Are motherboards capable of isolating the problem or would the whole computer get taken down?

Like I said, I don't think it would do more than just damage the port and the device. The device should have some sort of short circuit protection if it is not junk.

 

[Freshgeardude]

lol you people are funny.

When Shorting out a Mobo the mobo or PSU should sense the short circuit and ether turn off the computer immediately or the mobo will send out a message and windows will say Short circuit on power hub. that is all that would happen

What were you mobo and psu manufacture

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: freshgeardude
lol you people are funny.

When Shorting out a Mobo the mobo or PSU should sense the short circuit and ether turn off the computer immediately or the mobo will send out a message and windows will say Short circuit on power hub. that is all that would happen

What were you mobo and psu manufacture

I wouldn't be so sure. I've got a scorched Onboard USB out that windows didn't make a peep about.

 

[RU482]

don't most USB ports have current limit protection nowdays?

 

[duragezic]

My roommate had a Xbox controller that had something go wrong with it. Might've just been the cable even. So another roommate tried fixing something with it and I guess it smoked when he tried it on the Xbox (I wasn't there). But it looked fine still, and I'm not sure if it even smoked anything. So I got the controller and took it apart to try and see if I could visually see anything wrong. Didn't, so I tried plugging it into my computer. As soon as I did, there was a balloon window saying something like the USB device had too high of voltage so it would not be enabled/powered. Whew. That was plugged into my 2005FPW's side USB ports. Good thing it stopped it from hosing the ports or worse... because they still work fine afterwards.

 

[Beller0ph1]

I had a USB device melt the southbridge of a motherboard on a computer I worked on once. It was nutz.

 

[armstrda]

it all depends on what brand it is. Most boards (really the USB controller) has an over-current protection circuit. Windows may or may not pop up a warning that says that a USB device is pulling too much current. Either way, unless you have a really crappy MoBo, then it should have over current protection.

 

[Krazy4Real]

I remember a few years ago I wired a rear expansion usb port wrong. I plugged in a usb flash card reader and it fried the reader and the usb port. I replaced the usb rear expansion ports, wired it correctly, and exchanged the flash card reader. Everything worked fine.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Beller0ph1
I had a USB device melt the southbridge of a motherboard on a computer I worked on once. It was nutz.

I had something like that happen too. Somehow I managed to bork up a USB port enough that it fried the mobo.

 

[Dessert Tears]

I shorted power to ground on a PCI USB card - I didn't pay close attention to the pin specs and connected 1 case-front port correctly and the other backwards. Sparks sprayed off two SMD resistors on the card until I hit off on the power supply. The resistors burned out open. IIRC, the ports on the back of the card seemed to be unaffected, but I replaced the card soon.

 

[KrillBee]

wow, talk about vandalism to the nth degree!

colleges should be wary of pissed off students, lol