This is what idiots do

FoxEye · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:47

Idiots like me, that is.

Having just wired up my front usb ports in reverse pin order (wrong way round), I've just fried £150 worth of colour calibration hardware

It's now an unknown device in all computers I've tired it on.

I'm guessing there's nothing I can do but buy another, although I wish it could be repaired the likelihood is nobody actually repairs stuff these days. It had no warranty as it was bought 2nd hand (and I fried it through my own negligence anyhow).

Anyway, don't wire up your front USB ports wrong people

saintdefender · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:52

Happens to the best of us, I'm sure you have learned from it though!

Hyburnate · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:54

I'm not sure how you can put them in the wrong way round :S

Ak!ta · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:55

How can you connect them the wrong way round ?

Jay794 · 10 Sep 2011 at 13:57

They only fit one way don't they?

FoxEye · 10 Sep 2011 at 14:02

Hyburnate said:
I'm not sure how you can put them in the wrong way round :S

Ak!ta said:
How can you connect them the wrong way round ?

Jay794 said:
They only fit one way don't they?

You can wire them up the wrong way round to the motherboard connector. There are 4 pins on the wire from the case, and four pins on the mobo connector, and there is no indication on the motherboard itself which is pin 1. Should have checked the manual, but who honestly does that?

Emphacy · 10 Sep 2011 at 14:04

so your case didn't use a solid block connector? As these only go in one way, they have a solid pin to stop you forcing it in the wrong way.

I'm assuming your USB front panel connectors were separate pins? That's tough luck mate, always check you've done it properly!

Explosivo · 10 Sep 2011 at 14:08

FoxEye said:
Should have checked the manual, but who honestly does that?

people that don't want to fry their hardware

Purgatory · 10 Sep 2011 at 17:25

What's a manual ? :confused:

Bad luck mate, happens to the best of us. I have had usb motherboard connectors land one line off the correct pins and cause posting problems. Fiddly buggers sometimes to get into a tight case. Always double check all connectons before powering on and if needs be use a small torch in the tight dark areas.

You could try opening up the broken test gear and look for a surface mounted fuse and test if it has blown, most usb devices have them.

Jokester · 10 Sep 2011 at 17:27

Yeah this is a major design flaw of USB, as a lot of cases come with individual USB connectors (so you can plug 2 into each header on a MB).

mothermachine · 10 Sep 2011 at 18:34

Kind of feeds into my other thread about mobo jumpers being a right mahoosive pain in the posterior... these things need to be standardized and slammed inside a simple master jumper that deals with all of the case switches, usb connectors and other bits. just one nice simple jumper cable that plugs into the mobo in one place, one way around.