Hi All - a bit of a longshot, but you never know...

We had a fairly impressing lightning storm a week or so ago. Just as the storm approached, and I was thinking of taking some sort of 'precautions' ...
there was a small white 'flash' near the back of my main PC.

I know about the serious effects lighting can have, and decided to shut everything down until the storm had passed. When I got back up and running,
it seems as though one of the rear USB ports on my motherboard has blown.
It was connected to a DAC and then my audio at the time of the supposed
strike (I guess it could be coincidence that this failed as a storm was approaching... hmm).

I am quite impressed that only this went, and that everything else seems
to be working fine. But I was wondering about the possibility of repair.
I'm not likely to start replacing BGA chips or anything, but do USB ports tend to
have surge protection components or similar fitted? I might be up for
taking a look at that if so. I have some spare ports round the front of the
PC but would prefer to keep using the rear ones if possible.

Thanks, J^n

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jkn wrote:

I was wondering about the possibility of repair.
I'm not likely to start replacing BGA chips or anything, but do USB ports tend to
have surge protection components or similar fitted? I might be up for
taking a look at that if so. I have some spare ports round the front of the PC but would prefer to keep using the rear ones if possible.

Cheaper to add a hub to another rear port? Or check motherboard for any
unused USB header pins and wire up a port to that on a PCI bracket?

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On Monday, September 4, 2023 at 9:09:00 AM UTC+1, Andy Burns wrote:

jkn wrote:

I was wondering about the possibility of repair.
I'm not likely to start replacing BGA chips or anything, but do USB ports tend to
have surge protection components or similar fitted? I might be up for taking a look at that if so. I have some spare ports round the front of the
PC but would prefer to keep using the rear ones if possible.

Cheaper to add a hub to another rear port? Or check motherboard for any unused USB header pins and wire up a port to that on a PCI bracket?

Hi Andy - I'd thought of the first one (maybe, but I'd prefer not), but your second idea is a good one - I'll take a look at my M/B manual.

Thanks, J^n

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jkn <jkn_gg@nicorp.f9.co.uk> wrote:

I am quite impressed that only this went, and that everything else seems
to be working fine. But I was wondering about the possibility of repair.
I'm not likely to start replacing BGA chips or anything, but do USB ports tend to
have surge protection components or similar fitted? I might be up for
taking a look at that if so. I have some spare ports round the front of the PC but would prefer to keep using the rear ones if possible.

There is often a TVS diode or similar between the data lines and ground. I suppose if it had failed short circuit that would stop the port working:

https://www.littelfuse.com/technical-resources/application-designs/circuits/usb2-port.aspx
https://www.mouser.co.uk/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/

Just removing it would be a test to see if it fixes the problem, although
that would leave the port unprotected from being zapped by static so better
to replace it.

Theo

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On Monday, September 4, 2023 at 12:18:39 PM UTC+1, Theo wrote:

jkn <jkn...@nicorp.f9.co.uk> wrote:

I am quite impressed that only this went, and that everything else seems to be working fine. But I was wondering about the possibility of repair. I'm not likely to start replacing BGA chips or anything, but do USB ports tend to
have surge protection components or similar fitted? I might be up for taking a look at that if so. I have some spare ports round the front of the
PC but would prefer to keep using the rear ones if possible.

There is often a TVS diode or similar between the data lines and ground. I suppose if it had failed short circuit that would stop the port working:

https://www.littelfuse.com/technical-resources/application-designs/circuits/usb2-port.aspx
https://www.mouser.co.uk/applications/usb30_circuit_protection/

Just removing it would be a test to see if it fixes the problem, although that would leave the port unprotected from being zapped by static so better to replace it.

Thanks Theo, that was sort of thing I was interested in.

I will probably take Andy's approach first - I think I have at least some spare USB ports on
a 9-way motherboard heard, and do a visual in this sort of area why I have things apart.

Regards, J^n

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* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Mon, 04 Sep 2023 00:40:26 -0700, jkn wrote:

Hi All - a bit of a longshot, but you never know...

We had a fairly impressing lightning storm a week or so ago. Just as the storm approached, and I was thinking of taking some sort of
'precautions' ...
there was a small white 'flash' near the back of my main PC.

I know about the serious effects lighting can have, and decided to shut everything down until the storm had passed. When I got back up and
running,
it seems as though one of the rear USB ports on my motherboard has
blown.
It was connected to a DAC and then my audio at the time of the supposed strike (I guess it could be coincidence that this failed as a storm was approaching... hmm).

I am quite impressed that only this went, and that everything else seems
to be working fine. But I was wondering about the possibility of repair.
I'm not likely to start replacing BGA chips or anything, but do USB
ports tend to have surge protection components or similar fitted? I
might be up for taking a look at that if so. I have some spare ports
round the front of the PC but would prefer to keep using the rear ones
if possible.

Thanks, J^n

If you have any spare slots then USB boards are not that expensive.
[Or at least were not when I last bought one which was a while back.]

Cheers


Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 10 x64

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