0

So I have a desktop and I was plugging in my phone to move some albums over. Forgot I was plugging it into my usb hub which is notorious for being touchy. And as soon as the metal from the charger contacted my phone port the computer had a stroke.

It turned back on and everything seemed ok on the boot but I noticed I didn't have any mouse. And I didn't just accidently turn the cursor off. I can use ease of access keys for moving the mouse with my keyboard. My netgear a6200 adapter also is acting up. No internet but it is there in my device manager. When I plug it in after unplugging it it will blink both blue and orange lights once then never again. I go to device manager and my mouse has the common error sign with the yellow triangle '!' and get "this device isn't configured properly (code1) please click update driver" well when I click update driver I get an error about data. Can't get the exact error message because I'm at work.

Well I took my laptop that I use for school and tried to download the drivers. And transfer them over. This took my mouse from having the error icon with the '!' to an icon with a '?' and it still doesn't work. The weird thing is; the mouse works on screens such as advanced restart and it also works flawlessly when plugged into my laptop. I haven't tried to move the adapter to the laptop to see what happens but I'm pretty annoyed about this and can't seem to get help anywhere. If anyone could help me do this it would be much appreciated because I have deadlines for classes coming up and it would help to not have to move important documents and programs I need even temporarily

The mouse is a Razer Deathadder 2014

The adapter is a netgear A6200 wireless usb adapter, I have a PCI adapter I have on my server that would work if I needed a replacement

The keyboard is a logitech g105 but that works fine still.

Also, at the time I noticed these issues happening I noticed that the authentication pin I use to log in to my account on the computer just throws me back to an overview of the accounts on my computer as if I hit the back arrow

update: Both devices work on the laptop and I can't even pick up Lan connection on the problem desktop

1 Answer 1

1

It sounds like there was a static electricity discharge from you or the phone into the computer ("as soon as the metal from the charger contacted my phone port the computer had a stroke").

I suggest:

  1. Disconnect the "touchy" USB hub. Move it far away from the computer, somewhere like the trash can.
  2. Backup your computer.
  3. Run chkdsk /r on it, or see CHKDSK - Check a Drive for Errors in Windows 8 if you'd like more information about that process.
  4. See if it works properly now.

If it works, then it was disk corruption caused by static electricity, and the disk check managed to fix it. You may nevertheless need to reinstall the Razer driver if chkdsk could not repair the disk completely. Does logging in with your password work even if the PIN doesn't?

The same static shock could have damaged the USB WiFi adapter - you could test it on the laptop to see if that is the case. Or it could just be the USB port which the WiFi adapter was plugged in to that was damaged - using a different USB port on the desktop would help you to find out.

You say that the mouse works properly on your laptop, so that is undamaged, and the keyboard survived the experience, so it might have been sufficiently far away from a circuit point of view or simply made well enough that it was going to survive anyway.

I would really not try plugging the USB hub into the laptop. (It's in the trash now, along with any mains adapter it might have had, isn't it?)

Are you certain that your computer has a proper connection to ground (a.k.a. earth)? It would not necessarily have prevented the accident, but it is best to be sure. Is the environment around it prone to static electricity shocks? You might be able to do something about that to reduce the chance of it happening again.

Finally, if you find that one or two USB ports on your computer have failed and your motherboard is still in warranty, you may be able to get a replacement.

6
  • Chkdsk didn't do anything to fix it, sadly. They are both "not configured correctly" still. And I can login just fine with my password. Just not my pin. Would you suggest anything else? I've tried to Uninstall both drivers and that didn't work for anything either
    – Kade
    Jan 19, 2015 at 21:40
  • Did the USB WiFi adapter work on the laptop? If not, the adapter is probably broken :( Have you tried uninstalling the device driver for the mouse and plugging it in to a front USB port on the desktop? There is a fair chance that the front USB ports are connected through a different chip to the ones on the back of the motherboard. Jan 19, 2015 at 21:55
  • Yes it actually did work on the laptop. I can switch my keyboard to every port and it works so the ports aren't shot. Here's a riddle. I bridged my connection via ICS from my laptop and windows isn't picking it up at all. Seems odd. I have no front USB ports. They are 3.0 my mobo only supports 2.0
    – Kade
    Jan 19, 2015 at 22:38
  • You can get an adapter that electrically connects internal USB 2.0 ports to USB 3.0 ports - motherboards usually come with one. It will only work at the USB 2.0 speed, but it will work (I'm using one right now). I really don't want to suggest it as I guess from you having a gaming keyboard and mouse that you have a lot of programs installed, and they would need to be reinstalled, but you could try a Windows refresh - n.b. you really want to do a complete backup first if you can. Jan 19, 2015 at 22:47
  • I don't have many programs installed. Just recently upgraded around new years. I have no install disk and refresh was my first idea also
    – Kade
    Jan 19, 2015 at 22:53

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .