pc shuts off when trying to plug in portable ssd

[gingerbee]

well, this is a strange one but I think I know why just not sure what's causing it to happen. So I think when I go to plug in said SSD the USB plug is touching the outside of the USB housing and its grounding out the only thing I cant figure out is why this just started to happen. I have used this SSD many times before with no problems only thing that has changed is that today I formatted said SSD and then I went to plug it in and pc shuts down. I just tried to plug in another USB flash drive and nothing bad happened. any clue anybody ???

oh this pc is one a test bench

 

[moocow]

Not an expert but sounds like there's a short of some kind. Is the portable SSD using a cable or one of those gumstick enclosure with a SSD inside? If it's using a cable, switch cable. If it's an enclosure, crack it open and see if there's anything loose like screws or bits of metal broken off. Also, have you tried booting with the drive attached? The only other case I seen was my USB connector in the front panel was bad and cause some kind of boot issue. Since you're using a test bench, I'm assuming you are plugging directly to the motherboard.

 

[gingerbee]

plugging into the motherboard and yup it has a cable its a type c device on the SSD side and type A USB 3 on the pc side. I don't really know how this thing opens so not sure about opening it and yes pc boots fine with the drive plugged in.

I do have 2 of the same brand SSD just one is 120gb ( problem one ) and one is 500gb so will try different cables and the other SSD thanks

 

[gingerbee]

ok so I have figured it out I have 2 of the same portable SSD one is 120gb other is 500gb. I was transferring data from the 500 to HTPC and I was switching back and forth from the 500gb to the 120gb using the same cable. It seems that when I do this its like the 120 get a slightly higher voltage or something ( USB thinking the 500gb is plugged in) cause if I change back and forth any more then one time using the same cable the 120gb has some sort of charge left in it so if I try to plug it into my workstation it causes the pc to crash ( if I touch the metal just outside of the USB connection with the USB cable )

I think some cap or something on the board gets a little more juice then it should and holds that charge and then dumps it all one shot when touching the outside of the USB connection. I have reproduced this. strange but I won't be sharing cables with them anymore

Thanks all

 

[moocow]

Glad you can reproduce the issue. As for cracking it open, I was referring to one of those "supply your own SSD" type enclosure. So when you swap HDD, you keep the cable plugged into the PC but swap out the other end?

 

[gingerbee]

not normally I don't I just happened to do it this time cause I was moving files around from one SSD to the other

 

[ZZLEE]

I had a simpler beef. I could only run a USB 3 enclosure in USB 2 but today I switched the cable out and now fore some reason it works in USB 3.

 

[moocow]

Possible fake USB 3 cable.

USB 3.0 Slow? How to Spot Fake USB 3.0 Cable

Fake USB 3.0 Cables are selling like cupcakes, but there is a way to spot the fake USB 3.0 Cable

teckbay.com

 

[gingerbee]

pretty sure it a legit cable its the one that came with the SSD. but you never know

edit yup its a real one thanks for that

 

[lowfat]

Does it

A)Blue screen?
B)Hard power off?

If it is grounding out, you'd likely need to flip the power switch on the PSU and wait for the power to completely drain before it would turn on again.

I have a flash drive that causes my MS Surface Pro 3 to BSOD every time. But it works if I have it plugged in before I turn the computer on. That same flash drive works no problem on any other computer.