Hello my fellow EE enthusiasts. I have an issue. I have an old USB hub, which I wanted to use, and don't have an external power supply for. I wanted to be able to run a couple flash drives, charge my phone (0.9 A), and run my HackRF or another software defined radio.
Since I didn't have an external supply for the hub, I bought a USB power supply which supplies 5V 4A.
Today, I plugged that hub into my computer, then plugged in the 4A supply, I noticed that either the yellow/tan square capacitor or the chip under it was smoking. I immediately unplugged everything. NOW, the USB hub still works on other USB ports so I assume the hub is fine.
The only issue is, the USB port on my laptop no longer works! Did I burn out the USB controller or voltage regulator on this specific port or something?
Additionally, how would this happen? There was a load (my phone and USB flash drives) and loads only pull as much current as they need right? Why would the hub start smoking? My next step is to measure the 5V 4A power supply voltage to make sure it's only 5V, which I doubt that's the issue? Anyone have any suggestions on what the issue is, how to prevent this in the future, and how to fix my USB port. I'm going to pull apart my laptop soon and see if I can see any physical damage or bulging capacitors. Which I doubt I'll be able to tell because it's all surface mount stuff that's almost microscopic.
I have various EE tools (oscilloscope, analyzers, etc) and even a USB microscope so I can usually run a few troubleshooting steps and take close up images relatively well.
I disabled the USB ports in device manager and then reenabled them. I also unplugged the computer and removed the battery, and held the power button down while off to discharge any remaining electricity. I was thinking that maybe the computer turned off the USB port because It detected a surge of current or something but that did not work.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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