A few months ago I built a new system as follows:
Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
Crucial V4 256GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GBs 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100)
Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA136611561155775AM3AM2+AM2)
GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC)
I felt like saving a bit of cash on the PSU, so I kept the old Antec TruePower Trio 550W I had in my old PC. It seemed enough and even when I overclocked the CPU quite a bit everything was fine.
Then about 1-2 months ago I bought a small USB hub. The hub has it own power plug. When I connected the hub to a USB port on the backplate, all my USB devices froze and I got some kind of message on the screen about USB hub power surge or exceeding the port limits or something like that. I figured it was just a faulty hub so I left it disconnected on my desk.
Then 2 days ago my wireless USB keyboard/mouse started acting up. I got some kind of message on the screen about USB malfunctioning etc. I tried a few reboots/different ports etc but I couldn't get them to work again. Fortunately, I have a wired USB mouse and wired PS2 keyboard so I connected those and they worked OK but when I shut the PC down to do something else it wouldn't power back up. The lights on the graphics card PCI-E slots were green but pressing the power up button wouldn't do anything.
I tried removing various components, resetting the CMOS etc but nothing worked. Finally, I removed the CMOS battery and disconnected everything from the back of the PC and went for a walk. When I came back, I replaced the CMOS battery and only connected the power cable at the back. Voila - the PC powered up... I then connected all the usual cables (audio, mouse, keyboard etc) and everything was fine.
So, I figured my PSU was dying a slow death and/or just not powerful enough so I bought a new one (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084).
This arrived yesterday and I installed it last night. Everything was working fine. This morning I turned on the PC and needed to print something off. I went under the desk to reconnect the printer USB cable but accidentally connected that "faulty" hub instead! I got the same power surge message as before and the mouse stopped working. I used the keyboard to restart the PC and it rebooted just fine. I then connected the printer cable and printed off what I needed. After that, I shut down the PC and went out for a bit.
When I came back, the PC wouldn't power up. The lights on the graphics card were not on at all. I tried everything as before and nothing helped.
I then replaced the new PSU with the old PSU and the computer powered up immediately. Tried the new PSU again - nothing.
I had a look at the USB hub and I noticed that it has a deformity in the lower part where the power cord goes into it...
So, did the USB hub somehow kill my new PSU? Is it a coincidence? What's going on?!
Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail
Crucial V4 256GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GBs 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100)
Cooler Master Hyper 612S CPU Cooler (Socket LGA136611561155775AM3AM2+AM2)
GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC)
I felt like saving a bit of cash on the PSU, so I kept the old Antec TruePower Trio 550W I had in my old PC. It seemed enough and even when I overclocked the CPU quite a bit everything was fine.
Then about 1-2 months ago I bought a small USB hub. The hub has it own power plug. When I connected the hub to a USB port on the backplate, all my USB devices froze and I got some kind of message on the screen about USB hub power surge or exceeding the port limits or something like that. I figured it was just a faulty hub so I left it disconnected on my desk.
Then 2 days ago my wireless USB keyboard/mouse started acting up. I got some kind of message on the screen about USB malfunctioning etc. I tried a few reboots/different ports etc but I couldn't get them to work again. Fortunately, I have a wired USB mouse and wired PS2 keyboard so I connected those and they worked OK but when I shut the PC down to do something else it wouldn't power back up. The lights on the graphics card PCI-E slots were green but pressing the power up button wouldn't do anything.
I tried removing various components, resetting the CMOS etc but nothing worked. Finally, I removed the CMOS battery and disconnected everything from the back of the PC and went for a walk. When I came back, I replaced the CMOS battery and only connected the power cable at the back. Voila - the PC powered up... I then connected all the usual cables (audio, mouse, keyboard etc) and everything was fine.
So, I figured my PSU was dying a slow death and/or just not powerful enough so I bought a new one (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-118-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084).
This arrived yesterday and I installed it last night. Everything was working fine. This morning I turned on the PC and needed to print something off. I went under the desk to reconnect the printer USB cable but accidentally connected that "faulty" hub instead! I got the same power surge message as before and the mouse stopped working. I used the keyboard to restart the PC and it rebooted just fine. I then connected the printer cable and printed off what I needed. After that, I shut down the PC and went out for a bit.
When I came back, the PC wouldn't power up. The lights on the graphics card were not on at all. I tried everything as before and nothing helped.
I then replaced the new PSU with the old PSU and the computer powered up immediately. Tried the new PSU again - nothing.
I had a look at the USB hub and I noticed that it has a deformity in the lower part where the power cord goes into it...
So, did the USB hub somehow kill my new PSU? Is it a coincidence? What's going on?!
