usb port sparking?

[dusty550]

Someone i know has a usb port, that when he plugs his usb hub (with one device in it) it sparks, then windows says that it had a power surge, (it was just a small little one, VERY small spark). The motheboard and Case manual was confusing, because it only had instructions for how to plug a certant kind in and not the front usb ports.

[mander]

As far as I am aware, there is only one kind of usb plug. The easiest way to solve this problem is to make sure the machine is off when plugging in "anything". Power surges can and do happen if you suddenly plug something in that requires power from the system. Not turning off the computer beforehand is a good way to burn out the motherboard and possibly more things.

[Dr.Dan]

mander, the whole idea of USB is that it's 'hot swapable'... meaning that you don't need to shut down the system to plug in or unplug anything.

If the USB hub is self powered (as it should be), then I'd say there's a problem with it.
You should never see a spark when plugging any USB device.

What happens if he plugs in the hub without anything on it already? What is the one device that is plugged into it? Does it do it if you just plug this one device in it? What about other devices?

[dusty550]

The one device was just a USB logitech joystick.

[mander]

What you could do is plug the hub in with nothing plugged into it. If you get the spark, try just plugging the joystick in by itself. If no spark, then you know its an issue with the hub. If it sparks with both then you have a usb issue.

[x86/Z80asm]

That is definitely weird, perhaps the plug from the hub is damaged because most USB ports on PC's can supply well over 500mA which should be enough to drive about 4 medium powered devices. The only reason I can think of this happening is because the power and GND lines are being shorted (plug possibly is damaged).