My boss wanted me to check on something odd. We just biult some new systems and he thought the usb ports were bad. He tried to use his san disk usb flash ram in the computers and they din;t detect. He has 3. He tried other devices and they worked. So I checked out 1 of them on 3 different systems and I got no response. Coudl he have somehow zapped them? Other devices did work. The frony usb was off maybe beacuse, the insternal back to front usb cable was reversed. Any thoghts?

They could have been "burned".

There are two possibilities:
1) the device is NOT detected at ALL
2) the device is NOT detected "properly", i.e. the USB bus "senses" a device attached but does not load any driver for it as it cannot identify the said device

Try using this program:
http://www.c1tech.com.tw/Dload/i_disk/UsbIDCheck.zip

And report if the USB bus can see the device (case 2 above), if it cannot (case 1 above), I think that nothing can be done.

In case 2) it just "might" be possible to re-flash the controller with the proper deviceID (PID and VID), or at least it is worth a try.

jaclaz

No detection at all. I was told that a cable on the insode the case was 1 pin off from the mobo to the front usb and that might have zapped them. Is this possable?

Yes, it is well possible.
See here the connections for USB port:
http://www.networktechinc.com/technote.html
Internal -> External
+5 Volts -> Pin 1 -> +5 Volts
- Data -> Pin 2 -> - Data
+Data -> Pin 3 -> +Data
GND -> Pin 4 -> GND

If the internal connector has been shifted like this:
+5 Volts -> Pin 1 -> NOT CONNECTED
- Data -> Pin 2 -> +5 Volts
+Data -> Pin 3 -> - Data
GND -> Pin 4 -> +Data

the key should have gotten NO damage, but if it was shifted like this:

+5 Volts -> Pin 1 -> - Data
- Data -> Pin 2 -> +Data
+Data -> Pin 3 -> GND
GND -> Pin 4 -> NOT CONNECTED

it is quite likely that the key has been "fried"



jaclaz

Would other devices fry to like usb mice?

Cannot say, maybe yes, maybe no.

I remember once I made an error connecting an internal (PS/2) trackball to a notebook.
The chip on the treckball microboard went rapidly hot as hell, but after I (promptly) disconnected it and let it cool down, it worked.
I suspect that mice are less "fragile"....

jaclaz