Spontaneously Combusting Usb Lead

[joanne342]

i just hooked up my gp32 to my pc to move some data across and i accidentally used a usb lead for my digital camera (it fit in the socket no problem). i started pc link and it said usb error (sometimes it does that) so i rebooted the pc and it was still saying usb error and i looked at the cable and it was melting with smoke coming out of it. it nearly spontaneously combusted on me. lol.

so if you get a gp32 off ebay or something with no usb cable be careful what replacement lead you use.

 

[Miika]

Well good thing it was just the cable.

 

[joanne342]

i know. i'm glad i didn't walk out of the room while the pc was rebooting. i've got the leads labelled now.

 

[berighteous]

ack! :blink: Is the gp32 ok?

 

[sam fisher]

the USB port shouldn't be able to provide enough current to melt a cable

 

[Squidge]

the USB port shouldn't be able to provide enough current to melt a cable

Depends on the PC's motherboard. The official spec is 500mA and if it the port draws any more, it shuts the power off. However, many PC's allow much more than that, and some external hard drives take advantage of that fact.

As an example, I bought a WD Passport drive for work, and noticed that it was drawing over an amp at one point, and the PC didn't really care about it. Plugged the same drive into a ASUS Terminator, and it failed to start up; I'm assuming that PC shut off the power.

The scary thing is, by melting the cable, the gp32 was using up a lot of current, so are you sure its still ok?

 

[joanne342]

the gp32 seems totally fine. the camera cable's even alright because where it was melting and smoke coming out was the bit with ridges on before it goes wider at the end and i mushed it back into shape while it was still hot and it's working fine with the camera. i don't think i'd use it without keeping an eye on it though.

 

[sam fisher]

so it was the rubber that melted, no the copper? I assumed you were on about the copper

Edit: Ok this seems like Bull. I don't think it's feasible to put that much current through a GP32 as Squidge said. It would disintegrate the traces for goodness sake!

 

[Nova]

Shut up sam, what you say sounds like bull most of the time, too.

Think, why would he make this up?

 

[Fox_]

Yes, I finally got my GP2x! :lol:

Anyway.

Im not using the standard lead, I have the 2mtr one I use for my mp3 player, works without a hassle and hasnt heated up at all or anything...

~Fox

 

[clarky2o2o]

one time i bought a reasonably cheap memory card reader and after 3 months it burnt out :angry: so i bought a new 1 plugged it in and that 1 burnt out too <_< . so im glad i never plugged my gp2x either.

 

[sam fisher]

Shut up sam, what you say sounds like bull most of the time, too.

Think, why would he make this up?

To anyone even with the slightest iota of intelligence it is apparent from this post how little knoledge that brain of yours really does contain. It doesn't matter whether it is likely a random person posting under an anonymous handle with almost complete anonymity on the internet would lie about something because if the event described is physically impossible then it could not of taken place at all.

 

[Rico]

Please don't hijack this thread to insult other members, it's not clever, and it makes you look silly. Especially sam, who opts to insult people's intelligence while simultaneously making a bunch of spelling mistakes.

We don't know the circumstances behind this event - the cable could have somehow been defective, or the motherboard a bit dodgy in this regard - and there is no reason to call bullshit, especially if you don't have an in-depth knowledge of electronics (ahem: sam). Even if it is false we gain nothing from saying so, and everything from discussing it.

 

[joanne342]

it was the bit with ridges near the end that started to warp and smoke was coming out so yes, just the rubber.

if i was going to make something up i'm sure i could have come up with something better than that. people i know who like making stuff up prefer to talk about their ficticious military careers, or i knew this one guy who said he once caught a shark, his dad was a millionaire and he had a "pimped out" car with the loudest soundsystem in the whole of south africa (although he drove a crappy car in the uk).

physically impossible? i didn't say my gp32 started levitating. lol.

i've no idea why it happened. the cable was off a praktica micropix camera, the "world's smallest digital camera" which you can get for £10 in asda although i got mine for £3.50 from a catalogue returns shop so it's not surprising that the lead was cheap and crappy or even defective (though as i say, it works fine with the camera.) the camera only needs a single AAA battery.

and i got my computer six years ago off the notorious eclipse computers based out of coventry who are notorious for selling DOA stuff and doing things like selling reconditioned stuff as new and overclocking your PC without telling you so a dodgy motherboard is definitely not out of the question

 

[P-J]

Could be a short or something? It's difficult to believe that one cable has such drastic differences to another when used with the GP2X. Well, it's strange!

Eclipse aren't so bad anymore. I buy most of my stuff from there (unless I can wait, in which case I order it online) and I haven't had anything bad or DOA from there for a long time now.

 

[joanne342]

my pc has actually been a real workhorse apart from the fact they sent it with a dead mouse, a dead modem (it had squashed flat capacitors when i looked - the mind boggles ) and a fan that sounded like a hoover. i sorted those three out cheaply and easily and other than that it just has a few idiosyncracies like if you open a number of folders in succession they get more and more sluggish until eventually windows explorer crashes. and often if you switch the pc on it doesn't go beep and doesn't do anything but if you switch it off and on again, it gets it the 2nd time.

i'm not that knowledgable about electronics but could it have been a short if the gp32's still working perfectly and my pc's still working the same (i couldn't really call it "normally" ) as it ever did?