Re:Should you fear your USB cable?
by digi_owl on Monday February 29, 2016 @11:42PM
(#11200828)
At least when it comes to the Chromebook Pixel, it could happen even with a A-to-A cable. Heck i have fried thumbdrives because of a very similar mistake to the one in the cable that fried the pixel.
Basically it had the data and power pins switched, thus feeding high amps where it should not be.
For myself, i managed to crosswire a case port (the supplied wire required me to attach individual pins rather than socket a fixed block).
The only major difference would be the amount of As bouncing around (the Chromebook, hooked up to a dumb wall wart, would get some 2-3As rather than the .5A my thumbdrive got).
Anyways, there also exist a proof of concept "badthumb" out there that is basically a capacitor that will reverse the polarity of the USB connection after having built up a sizable charge. This will likely take out at least the controller, if not more.
Basically it had the data and power pins switched, thus feeding high amps where it should not be.
For myself, i managed to crosswire a case port (the supplied wire required me to attach individual pins rather than socket a fixed block).
The only major difference would be the amount of As bouncing around (the Chromebook, hooked up to a dumb wall wart, would get some 2-3As rather than the .5A my thumbdrive got).
Anyways, there also exist a proof of concept "badthumb" out there that is basically a capacitor that will reverse the polarity of the USB connection after having built up a sizable charge. This will likely take out at least the controller, if not more.