No issue detected with the motherboard not appearing dead due to USB short circuits.
No issue detected with the motherboard not appearing dead due to USB short circuits.
Hello, I’m experiencing what seems like a major and unexplained problem. Could you tell me if there are any steps I can take to fix this? About two hours ago, I connected an external CD/DVD drive to my PC. The system runs Windows 10 with a MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon AC PSU, AMD Ryzen 5 2600X CPU, NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU, and the case and components are roughly a year old.
I first connected the USB to the front panel’s USB3 port (using a USB-A to USB-B cable). Then I plugged in the power supply—possibly not set to the correct voltage or amperage—and connected an extender that wasn’t directly attached to my PC. As soon as it was powered on, my PC shut down instantly, losing power without any warning. My monitors stayed on, and the server connected to the PSU remained functional.
At first I thought it might be a blown fuse, so I tried a different cable, but that didn’t help. Later I removed the PSU from the server and installed it back into my motherboard/CPU/GPU, but it still worked fine—my fans and HDDs started up normally. I left everything from my old case connected except the 24-pin motherboard connector, which I attached to the server. When I pressed the power button on the server, everything functioned properly.
I tried removing the CMOS battery for 10 minutes and restarting, but it didn’t work. This suggests the PSU is likely fine. Still, I’m confused: if there was a surge, why did my motherboard get damaged while other parts stayed intact? Or if a USB surge occurred, how could that affect the whole board?
Could you help me figure out what might have happened and how to prevent it from happening again? Also, are my NVMe SSDs connected properly and likely to be fine? Thanks for your assistance—I’m heading to a repair shop on Monday but don’t expect a quick fix. You’re welcome, especially since I’m in the UK (240V).
It seems like you were expecting a different setup. Most of these devices work without issues on USB ports or with external 5V power, not 12V. If your motherboard wasn’t built for 12V, that’s likely why it stopped working.
It's tricky to say for sure. You connected 12V into the 5V rail, and SSDs typically run on 5V, so... it’s conceivable the PSU shut down before anything else was affected. I just don’t want to make any assumptions.