PC randomly shuts down and restarts when anything is plugged into front USB port?

Draeger · 2 Mar 2010 at 20:48

As above. If I plug anything into the front USB port on my desktop system whether that be a USB pen drive, iPhone cable etc it will shut down and restart. However it only does it maybe 2 out of 5 times. Very random.

The cables or pen drives don't even need to be actually "plugged in", as soon as contact is made between the metal of both parts, it shuts down and restarts.

Any ideas?. PSU is a Coolermaster Realpower 520W if that makes any odds. I have 3 SATA HD's, a SATA DVDRW drive, 4Gb Geil DDR2 RAM and a Palit Nvidia 9800GTX+ GPU all running under an overclocked E6300 sat on an Asus P5K. It's all housed in a Chieftec Black Dragon case. 2 80mm case fans at the front, one on the side window and two at the rear.

Fatboy · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:03

Draeger said:
As above. If I plug anything into the front USB port on my desktop system whether that be a USB pen drive, iPhone cable etc it will shut down and restart. However it only does it maybe 2 out of 5 times. Very random.

The cables or pen drives don't even need to be actually "plugged in", as soon as contact is made between the metal of both parts, it shuts down and restarts.

Any ideas?. PSU is a Coolermaster Realpower 520W if that makes any odds. I have 3 SATA HD's, a SATA DVDRW drive, 4Gb Geil DDR2 RAM and a Palit Nvidia 9800GTX+ GPU all running under an overclocked E6300 sat on an Asus P5K. It's all housed in a Chieftec Black Dragon case. 2 80mm case fans at the front, one on the side window and two at the rear.

You could have attached the USB ports incorrectly to the USB header on your motherboard.

RichIbizaSport · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:21

Probably as above, but I generally thought usb headers had one pin blocked, so you can;t possibly put it in wrong.

Are the pins are definitely not bent. I know when I was playing with a usb slot I manage to bend a pin, restarted the pc as soon as I plugged anything in. Obviously shorting.

chipps101 · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:23

has it always done this or has it just started happening ? is it doing it with both front usb's if you have two ?

Draeger · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:31

Hi folks,

It didn't happen before, no. Only just started happening. And yeah, it only does it with the front USB ports, the rears are fine.

Will check the mobo for bent pins.

Randomface74 · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:33

put some tape over the port?

chipps101 · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:38

if its doing it with both the front ports its unlikely to be a damaged connector i think.
try connecting the ports to a different header on the motherboard if you have one spare.

Draeger · 2 Mar 2010 at 21:42

chipps101 said:
try connecting the ports to a different header on the motherboard if you have one spare.

Will do.

billysielu said:
put some tape over the port?

I don't follow?. :confused:

AtaRo · 2 Mar 2010 at 23:07

Draeger said:
Will do.

I don't follow?.

so that you can't use the port.
try checking the pins inside the usb port for bent/misaligned pins.
if some of the pins short to ground when inserting usb devices then it may do just that.

Draeger · 2 Mar 2010 at 23:13

I'd prefer to have the front ports working properly to be honest. Bit of a pain having to rummage around at the back of it to plug anything in. Will check for bent pins.

edscdk · 3 Mar 2010 at 10:27

check the port is not broken some times the plastic inside the ports gets broken and the pins can touch rebooting the pc... its its broken a bit it could be the pins only touch some times..