[Cialug] OT: USB Issues

[Andrew Denner]

The first question I always look at is how old is the computer and how easy
is it to work on? If it is a pain and older, at some point cutting your
losses may be the best option. I agree with Shane, I would first look at
the output of the power supply. Depending on what tools you have, is the
voltage close to what you expect, are there any visible scorch marks or
parts that don't look right, does anything smell like the magic smoke is
leaking, how clean of a signal is coming out on the oscilloscope?

Also as another aside, if lightning did nibble on the power supply, and you
can replace it, what else did it stress beyond specs that are waiting to
fail? What does running a full diagnostic on the disk's SMART, memory
tests, etc say?

On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 1:02 PM Shane Nehring <shane at ntoast.com> wrote:

> My first instinct would actually be to suspect some damage to the PSU
> (maybe just the 5v supply) or perhaps the MB (assuming the usb is onboard
> the motherboard). It could be the PSU is only slightly damaged and is just
> making a bunch of noise on the 5v lines and that's only adversely impacting
> sensitive usb devices. Failing PSUs can cause all sorts of difficult to
> track down weirdness.
>
> On Fri, Nov 12, 2021 at 12:40 PM Tim Wilson <tim_linux at wilson-home.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi all, this is OT from Linux, but hopefully someone can help.  This is
> > probably TL;DR, but I think details are important.
> >
> > A couple of months ago, an overnight lightning storm struck close to our
> > house.  When I started working the next morning, I could hear a noise
> that
> > sounded like a fan was going out on my gaming PC.  I shut down the PC,
> and
> > the noise went away.  After further investigation, I discovered that the
> > noise was coming from my USB powered speakers.  They get power from a USB
> > port on my PC, but are connected to a monitor so it will get audio from
> > whichever input is selected (home or work).  I plugged the speakers into
> a
> > charge pack, and the noise went away.  This made me think I had larger
> > issues.
> >
> > I had a WD external drive and a USB capture device hooked up.  The drive
> > has issues, I tried plugging it into my laptop and it wasn't
> recognized.  I
> > still need to try the capture device.  It does not work on the gaming PC.
> > Both the mouse and keyboard work.  But plugging an optical drive in, does
> > not seem to work.  The optical drive does work on my laptop, so I'm sure
> > it's fine.
> >
> > This sounds like some part of USB is fried.  No USB-C, but it has USB 3.1
> > ports.  The external drive and capture device were plugged into the top
> USB
> > ports.  I've disconnected those, hoping the others would start working.
> > Are there any tools you would recommend, or any suggestions?
> >
> > TIA!
> > --
> > Tim
> > Required reading: http://bccplease.com/
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