My USB cable... overheated??

[alkemyst]

it's probably a bad wire in the port itself.

did you try ever to plug something in wrong? either way though I would replace the ports and reconnect everything then try...it sounds like that is where the problem lies.

When I was in gateway country the other weekend three people were in line, all had bad usb ports.

Gateway said thats a new motherboard at $350. jeesh

I almost wanted to tell the people I can fix it for a lot cheaper but they were all as_es....

 

[KF]

>...but they aren't very small at all in my opinion. They are about the same size as the pins on an RJ45 connector,
> and they are much larger than modern traces on circuit boards.

You are right, in comparison to a lot of things, they aren't small. In comparison to how accurately and how steadily I can hold my hand while looking at a meter, they are. It's not impossible by any means. Difficult. If they were out in the open, I could handle it easier. Since you do things that are much more difficult on a daily basis, it seems easy.

A couple of years ago, I decided to work out a mod on socket seven mobo (to get multipliers over 3.5). I had to use a magnifying glass on a stand to make sure I had my probe on the trace when I was tracing it out. Unbelievable. I marked out the trace as I went along so I wouldn't jump a trace. Just eyeballing it, I couldn't hold my eye on the right trace. Yes they look small, but when you try to do something with them, they seem smaller. In the old days, I would have scraped a bit of the coating off the trace and soldered a wire on to it. I didn't have the nerve to do it with this size. Instead I traced to solder pads and plated-through holes.

Yes, using a paperclip is more for sockets that have individual holes.

Actually I wonder why they made the USB plug so big. I suppose they'll phase them out in a couple of years.

Things used to be bigger. Did you every see an 8" floppy drive?
.

 

[KF]

> Would that mean the case manufacturer mislabeled (and miscolored) those wires?
> Or is it more likely the motherboard diagram is wrong?
The guess is that the wires at the USB socket end were attached in the wrong place. They are mislabled in the sense that they don't really go where the labels say they do.

Manuals being wrong is not that unusual. Usually there are labels directly on the mobo also. Usually they are correct, although difficult to see or interpret. What happens is they constantly revise the mobo, but seldom change or fix the manual. The fact that the manuals diagram is exactly what you would expect argues against it being wrong.

What is the model of your mobo? Usually if there is a wrong label, word gets around.