fried.

I fried the USB ports on my old Compaq P4 PC this afternoon after a freak accident. I was connecting the USB cable for my external hard drive when a balloon popped up and said something about USB ports not working, then I noticed that my USB-powered mouse couldn't work. That was when I smelt this faint chao da smell.

Oh shit.

Turns out I short-circuited the chipset which controls the USB ports. Which means no more USB connectivity. Luckily, I found a solution over the (what else?) Net - get a PCI card with USB ports! Never knew it existed in the first place. Thankfully it costs below $20, otherwise I'll be wasting the advance CNY pay I received today.

Lesson learnt: Connect all your USB gadgets very carefully! And don't plug them in and out repeatedly like a pair of rabbits in heat - apparently the ports can get fried from the excess, erm, heat.