USB Problems? check your cables...
Nov. 3rd, 2010 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acroyearI had a hard drive (Seagate FreeAgent Desk 500) that was shorting out - I plug it into my netbook and the whole thing (netbook itself) power-crashes to nothing. I plug it into my work mac and it pops up a dialog that it was drawing too much power. I was worried the whole enclosure was dead (and the youtube video for opening the damn thing to pull the drive out wasn't encouraging...). that it needed power was scary because, well, it is actually powered by an external AC adapter - it should never have been pulling from the USB system in the first place.
Well, it turns out it wasn't the drive or the box. It was the cable. Somehow the leads on the mini-usb end had gotten damaged or bent, and were thus drawing power and sending it to straight to ground. Most USB cards don't like doing that.
So if you have something saying it's drawing power or shorting out, try swapping cables (and trying the thing on other equipment) before you go swapping devices. :)
Well, it turns out it wasn't the drive or the box. It was the cable. Somehow the leads on the mini-usb end had gotten damaged or bent, and were thus drawing power and sending it to straight to ground. Most USB cards don't like doing that.
So if you have something saying it's drawing power or shorting out, try swapping cables (and trying the thing on other equipment) before you go swapping devices. :)
