Another reason why USB sucks. (Please help thread)

Ok. So USB totally sucks.

I took some totally rad pictures, and wanted to upload them and I get my camera and plug the usb cable into the camera, then into the computer.

and...

My computer completely shuts down, instantly.

And so I go to turn it back on, and tap the power button a few times, and nothing.

Can anyone please tell me how to fix this, and tell me I didn't blow out some component with a USB cable?

(I think it might be a motherboard problem because of the USBness of it, so I posted it in this thread)

Update:

Called Asus (I have an P4P800-e dlx), and they said I had a short in my system. They reccomended takeing out the motherboard, connect ATX, and 4pin aux power, speaker, and power switch. Then to power it up, and it should say no cpu installed audiably. I took it out (placed it on the Anti-static bag it came with), took off all the components, and plugged in said hardware. I plugged in the PSU, and the green LED came on like normal, and I the power switch. Blammo, the fans came on... for a second. Then turned off. I then saw a tiny puff of smoke from the southbridge.

So... I'm on hold with Asus... again... for the 4th time.

Stupid USB!

DId the smoke puff come out of the southbridge when you plugged the cable in again? or did it just puff out when you followed the instructions that ASUS specified? I couldn't make this conclusion from your last post.

Also, another thing to look at would be the cable your using to connect the camera. Does it have little strain relief boots on both ends? If so, i would bend those boots slightly before plugging it into anything to make sure you don't have any cracks in the shielding. I can't tell you how many times that has been the cause of a short in the system.


~ Gos

The smoke came off when I did the troubleshooting steps supplied by Asus.

The USB cable is the one that came with the camera. Standard USB connector into computer, and a proprietary standard into the camera. What do you mean by "strain relief boots"?

Had the USB cable been used before? Or that particular USB slot?

You're misplacing your anger toword USB when it should be directed at ASUS or at whoever *ahem* didn't have their mobo porperly grounded. If you saw a puff of smoke come from the SouthBridge, you're likely done. I think USB is a great thing although I prefer FireWire.

I reckon he means this:



I've heard of this a few times, my friend plugged in a USB hard drive and it crashed his PC everytime.
Sorry, not sure how he fixed it thought, it was a while back.

I plugged in an external hard drive via USB a few months ago and I heard a static shock. The computer froze and wouldn't restart. My motherboard was fried. It killed my video card too.

VooDooMelon hit the nail on the head, thats what i'm talking about.


They're there to relieve strain from the end of the cable during normal use, that is typically the most sensitive area of a cable. If theres a crack or a short in a cable, 9 times out of 10 it will be there.


~ Gos

I've used the cable countless times in the same slot, as well as my father uses it on his G5, and nothing happens. There are no visible cracks in that part of the cable.

How could my motherboard be improberly gounded? I have an Antec p160WF and I'm not sure what you mean.

Update: Shipped the motherboard out to Asus on Sunday

When I have the my laptop cooler (which is powered by USB) turned up all the way it will kill the laptop without warning. Everything is fine then BZZTT! It always restarts just fine. I think the cooler was just pulling to much power, so this probably doesnt relate to your problem very well.

I'd be interested to see what ASUS makes of the mobo, it would make more sense if the computer just shut down or rebooted, but smoke puff?

Good thing it's already going to RMA.


~ Gos

Ok- Heres the run down.

1. I plug proprietary cable into camera. Camera is still powered off, and never powers on during the whole ordeal.
2. I plug other end (standard USB) into computer. This cable and this USB slot has been used before multiple times on multiple computers (5 computers to be exact).
3. The instant the USB cable goes into the computer, the whole system shuts down, and refueses to boot afterwards.

Troubleshooting advice from Asus. (After I had been told for the 2nd time to clear CMOS.)
1. Take motherboard compeltely out of system, and set it on a card board box (or something, the tech said, so I used an Anti-static bag).
2. Plug in 20Pin ATX, 4Pin aux, powered speakers, and a power switch.
3. Boot system, should hear an audible "No CPU installed" Message. At this point, when I booted the system, the entire system booted for half a second, then shorted out and powered off. I know this because the PSU fan came on, then poof, off. A small wisp of smoke came off of the southbridge chip's vacinity.

Hope that clears it up, when I was writing up the first posts, I was really worked up, because I didn't want to RMA the board again.

After I told the RMA tech that a wisp of smoke came off, she had me send it right to a tech named "Kyle" in So.Cal. instead of to their Kentucky plant, like the last RMA I did with Asus. I also shipped with FedEx instead of UPS, and it cost $8 with a box, instead of $17 or so with UPS, granted it was to Kentucky, but still... shouldn't cost over twice as much.

If your camera has a camera card then I would invest in a card reader.

Please keep us updated on what happens next, I know it's helped me to decide to never plug my digital camera into the computer again, might be a little extreme, but no one wants to be without a main board.

I'm really sorry this had to happen to you, hopefully you have a system to fall back on in the mean time while your waiting for your mobo to get back.


~ Gos

is your CPU and RAM okay?

So does the camera still work?

I can't tell if the CPU / RAM are ok until I get my mobo back, as it's the only one I have that supports DDR and has enough voltage control for my pressy, (i have 2 crappy dells, but they are 845 chipset i think, oh and a ton of other random computers, but all are dual Slot 1 or dual slot 2).

The camera is fine. It wasn't even turned on when the fiasco happened.

Maybe it was a short circuit?
Some of the Dell X50vs have been known to do the same thing.
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=59230

All seems O.k.

I got a new board from Asus today. On the invoice under problem it says: "ONE OF THE CHIPS BURNED UP". My CPU, RAM, Video card, RAID 0 array, and CD drives are all just as i left them. Just to make sure this doesnt happen again, I didn't plug in the front USB ports, because that's which one I plugged into.

Heres a picture of the cable that i used.