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Google engineer finds USB Type-C cable that’s so bad it fried his Chromebook

arstechnica.co.uk

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Re: Google engineer finds USB Type-C cable that’s so bad it fried his Chromebook

#2

Post by Sami_Lehtinen »

Sounds strange. AFAIK USB shouldn't get fried without external power source. So the Chromebook was bad, not the cable? Down votes? Did I misunderstand something? Just comment with reference that I'm wrong and I'm very happy. Why bother building 'USB Killer' if simple paper clip would fry the motherboard?

Re: Google engineer finds USB Type-C cable that’s so bad it fried his Chromebook

#3

Post by mkuhn »

Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #2

Sounds strange. AFAIK USB shouldn't get fried without external power source. So the Chromebook was bad, not the cable? Down votes? Did I misunderstand something? Just comment with reference that I'm wrong and I'm very happy. Why bother building 'USB Killer' if simple paper clip would fry the motherboard?

He tried to charge a Chromebook Pixel with the cable. At least that is how I read the article...

Re: Google engineer finds USB Type-C cable that’s so bad it fried his Chromebook

#4

Post by skj »

Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #2

Sounds strange. AFAIK USB shouldn't get fried without external power source. So the Chromebook was bad, not the cable? Down votes? Did I misunderstand something? Just comment with reference that I'm wrong and I'm very happy. Why bother building 'USB Killer' if simple paper clip would fry the motherboard?

The external power source was presumably a wall outlet, since he was testing its ability to charge.

Re: Google engineer finds USB Type-C cable that’s so bad it fried his Chromebook

#7

Post by maxerickson »

[deleted] wrote: post #6
uptown wrote: post #5

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11021665

[deleted]

The provided link is to an HN discussion from yesterday of this same story (not the same article, but Benson Leung announcing the dangerous cable).

Re: Google engineer finds USB Type-C cable that’s so bad it fried his Chromebook

#8

Post by mjlee »

Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #2

Sounds strange. AFAIK USB shouldn't get fried without external power source. So the Chromebook was bad, not the cable? Down votes? Did I misunderstand something? Just comment with reference that I'm wrong and I'm very happy. Why bother building 'USB Killer' if simple paper clip would fry the motherboard?

More details here:

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2XDBFUD9CTN2R/ref=cm_cr_rdp_p...

The source was a "1st party Apple 12W iPad charger"

Re: Google engineer finds USB Type-C cable that’s so bad it fried his Chromebook

#10

Post by josteink »

Does anyone else find it concerning that our new and best technology is so fragile that even the slightest fezz-up in what should be a passive signal-cable can cause our otherwise state of the art equipment to fry itself?

Is reliability, durability and robustness nowhere to be found in any single spec for our new standards?

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