I built my PC over 6 years ago, and within the first year the front case USB 2.0 connectors haven't been operable due to frying whatever gets plugged into them. This did not appear to happen until after a few months of putting it together. But then I slowly started discovering that anything I would plug into them would die and I even found evidence that the circuit for the Xbox controller I plugged into it had burned.
I never got around to figuring out how to fix this, but I need to now. There's clearly a short somewhere. I have a multimeter that I could use to test voltage levels out, but really I just need to be able to test the port without destroying whatever it is I plug into it (i.e. I would prefer not to burn through cheap flash drives as my troubleshooting process). If I have the proper troubleshooting procedure, I know I can figure this out.
My electrical knowledge/experience level is barely a pulse. I can't even explain the possibilities as to why this type of shortage may be occurring -- if I could do that, I think I could start exploring possibilities to fix this...