Cockups and hardware failures

Hello all :)

I'm not completely sure if this the right forum or not :P

I was replugging in all my stuff after the purchase of a new 10way extension lead, I happened to plug the connector of my external hard drive power brick (12V,2A) into my usb hub (5V,2.5A).. buzzing and foul smell followed.. only from the usb hub itself, it would seem.

From now on I'm going to be duct taping the correct power connectors to my external drives etc to prevent this. But is there something else that I can do or buy e.g. some kind of safety cut out device/motherboards/usb hubs that have this kind of protection built in.

Here's the kill stats:
*F* - faulty/not working at all.. as caused by overvolting of the hub.
*OK* - working normally, no faults apparent.

D-Link 4 port Usb hub and power adapter *F*
Apple keyboard *F*
Belkin numeric keypad *F*
Keysonic Wireless keyboard and trackpad Dongle*F*
Motherboard *F* (System won't post, no fans, no error beeps, no lights, no nothing)
CPU - unable to test... New PC arriving soon with different AM3 Socket.
Hard drives inside the PC *OK*
Razer mouse *OK*
Video card, sound card etc *Not able to test till next week*
PSU is a New 400W corsair with all the protection doodads, I would assume it is *OK*

I wonder.. is it worth looking into getting any of these parts fixed.. like only if it would be an easy thing to do.. in total the ram/cpu/motherboard/fried peripherals were worth about £170... not too concerned about that... first time I've ever had hardware fail on me like this.

would it wise to test the video card and sound card that I have in my new PC, if they are now faulty, could they cause similar hardware destruction in my new PC?

Thankies :)

Individual faulty components shouldn't fry the rest of a system unless they are so far gone that they cause a serious short circuit. It looks like all the faulty components are things that could potentially take damage from an overvolted USB hub - i.e. USB peripherals and damage caused to the USB headers from the motherboard. Your other components should, theoretically be fine to use in your new machine, although if you can easily test them in a cheap system that it wouldn't be so much of an issue to fry then that's not a terrible idea. My guess would be that the motherboard has failed because you've managed to blow whichever bits of the voltage regulation handle the 5V line (which really won't have liked suddenly being hooked up to a 12v supply...)

As far as the fried / questionable components go, your best option might be to sell them on ebay as faulty / untested with no guarantee - I've seen stuff go for silly money on there even when it's listed as known to be faulty. With most of those components, repairing is not economically viable...

I'm not sure how relevant this is but I enjoy (wait, thats not the right word) telling this story.

I accidently plugged in the wrong power adaptor to my external DVD-RW drive (why it couldnt draw power from USB I dont know) this caused a surge which happily travelled along the USB cable promptly setting my Thinkpad's motherboard alight.

On the plus side.. the house didnt burn down.

Wrong AC adaptors = bad :(

thanks, scaryjim, I look forward to fetching a few bob on eBay XD
wow, Champman99, definitely I'm sticking with the duct tape for everything.