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Static electricity and dead USB ports
A few months ago, I had a temporary USB keyboard plugged into one of the front USB ports on my T7400. I sat down at my desk and as soon as I touched the keyboard felt a major discharge of static electricity. The keyboard had illuminated keys which immediately went dark, and no key or button on the keyboard produced visible input of any kind in any app. The mouse worked just fine. Hoping the problem might be temporary, I plugged the keyboard into the other front USB port. Same issue. No input from the keyboard produced any on-screen results. I grabbed a working flash drive and plugged it into both front USB ports, with no recognition from Windows that anything had been inserted. I moved that flash drive to one of the rear USB ports and Windows recognized it immediately. Being a slow learner, I plugged the keyboard into that same rear USB port. No response from Windows. I removed the keyboard and plugged the flash drive back in. No response by Windows.
By this point it was clear that not only did I have a dead keyboard, but the damage was so bad it fried any USB port it got plugged into. So now I am down to 4 rear USB ports and no front ones. That's a major hassle because my computer is situated such that access to the rear panel is major pain in the butt, and the rear USB ports are already full. I've located a "T7400 / T7500 Front I/O Panel (#P148J 0P148J)" online, but here is my question: are the non-working USB ports dead because of damage to the port itself, or is the damage more likely to be at the motherboard level? If the later, then replacing the front IO panel will be a waste of time and money. If the former, the ability to plug a USB device into the front of my computer would be a major improvement to my overall quality of life.
Thoughts?
speedstep
9 Legend
9 Legend
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47K Posts
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May 24th, 2022 07:00
@PH-Graphics
Antistatic Mat would be advised.
Bertech-Chair-Ground Mat B01M8KI4P0
Front USB on most dells is painless. You use flex bay port on motherboard and pass the connections to the front via USB Hub that mounts in a front bay on the case.
DUAL USB3 3.5 floppy bay B088LLW8P2
Kingwin USB 5.25 bay B01K0RPTN0
You will need an expansion slot for USB3
Internal-20Pin-Adapter B088CTF6R1
mazzinia_
4 Operator
4 Operator
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1.1K Posts
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May 24th, 2022 14:00
Likely you fried the relative ports on the motherboard, but given that the i/o panel has some discrete components, could be you are lucky enough to have it taken the fall instead. Bottom line, no way to know for sure without trying
bradthetechnut
6 Professor
6 Professor
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8.4K Posts
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May 26th, 2022 18:00
I wonder if the keyboard itself had a short. I wouldn't try it again in case it's killing USB ports.
Before replacing any parts, check Device Manager and see the USB's (listed as Universal Serial Bus). Even if there's no yellow triangles, click one on the top of the USB tree. Then, at the top of the window, click on update hardware. One has to find the icon that gives the side bubble, "Update Hardware/Scan for hardware changes" (if I remember right), when the arrow is placed on it. It might not work with nothing plugged into the ports, so try it with a good keyboard plugged and/or a flash drive.
Also, the static electricity you felt could have been a power surge. I've never had a static electricity spark from a keyboard.