USB port sparks, PC won't boot.

Swi1ch · 30 Dec 2012 at 18:39

I just plugged in my external harddrive into the usb port on the back of my machine and noticed a few small sparks when I did so. My machine then powered off and tried to reboot, and fails to do so.

It will power on, and remain powered, but i'm getting nothing on my monitor. I can hear the hard drive spin up as normal, and the green LED on the motherboard is lit. My Heatsink fan, GPU fan and case fans are all running fine. It's been so long at this point since I had to troubleshoot a machine I have no idea where to even start.

Edit.

It appears to be back on and functioning. Aside from not using that same USB port/cable again, is there anything else I should be checking/doing that you can think of?

tres_kun · 30 Dec 2012 at 20:40

In that situation you unplug the machine hold the power button for 10sec and plug back to the mains
If you are not hardware orientated do not check the port no reason to you might just mes something
So as you are saying do not use that port again or try to plug something in it but easier to not do so

And the cable might be at fault so dodge it in the future

mranderson · 30 Dec 2012 at 20:48

Sparks are normal. USB ports are powered ;-)

tres_kun · 30 Dec 2012 at 20:51

0.55Amps are hardly sparking power
A short circuit is a valid reason for instant power off

Paladine · 30 Dec 2012 at 21:19

Only time I have ever seen USB port spark is when they were wired onto the Firewire ports on the motherboard by mistake - they blew the board and USB device.

Paladine

Ripshod · 30 Dec 2012 at 21:49

USB ports do fail. One that is plugged often (case front sockets especially). They just wear out and fall apart, or they take some kind of damage. You never had that happen?