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scope killed 2 computers

brandon7861

Loose Wire
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Nov 28, 2018
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Last week, I was using my USB oscilloscope with my laptop and the laptop suddenly turned off and wouldn't turn back on. Figured the laptop was at fault and went on to other things. Last night, I was using the scope on my desktop computer. Same thing. Now that power cycles before I even get a boot screen. With my Christmas bonus gone the same day I get it, a scope that requires no computer is now on the way. I should have listened when that little voice inside said get a real scope a year ago, it would have saved me two nice computers.

I am assuming the scope killed the USB busses or their supply regulators, so now I need to find a motherboard that can take a 5960x processor. The last time I had to get a motherboard, it was not easy. The hunt begins again. I may not be online when home as much as I have been, at least for a little while.
 

Oh no that's unfortunate. I run current-heavy USB devices on a powered hub, I feel that would fry before the PC but I could be wrong. I hope you get it straightened out.
 
I run current-heavy USB devices on a powered hub
That's what I should have done. My laptop only had one high power port and I probably used the wrong one. As for the desktop, I honestly don't know what the ports were rated for after the first MOBO swap. It always had connectivity issues, the software not recognizing the scope, or seeing it and not connecting to it. I often had to load the program and then plug it in for it to work, and that was not easy.

I am hoping I can find a bad chip on the mobo with the thermal camera, but I am not counting on it. It has acted up like this before and always worked after unplugging the power for a while, but this time I couldn't get it to reboot. I will pull all the ram and battery and hope the issue clears up, but either way, that scope will never get directly plugged into any computer again.
 
Its crazy how far things have come in the past 10 years. My little USB scope draws enough to kill ports and mobos, but the new standalone Rigol DHO924 (not what I bought) with its own screen runs on a USB-C plug.
 
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That would be great if it had 4 more ram slots. I would have to upgrade ram if I wanted to keep my 32GB because mine are only 4 GB each stick, currently using 8 of them. I guess 16GB is more than I will ever use, so I will definitely consider that one.

Thanks for looking that up!
Your welcome, I am computer geek as well with all my other hobbies, lol. If your not gaming 8GB is fine as you likely know. I run 4 slots of 8GB just because I can and its way overkill.
 
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I came home from work, unplugged all USB devices, removed and reinstalled the ram and it actually turned on. 4 of the USB ports are now dead, but it powered up and nothing appeared to get hot inside. No telling if it will stay on though. Today will be the real test.

I am ordering that board today anyhow because this isnt the first issue ive had with it and now im a little short on USB ports.

I carefully spliced into my scopes usb cable to pull out the power leads without removing the shielding from the rest and ran those directly to the 5v output on the power supply inside the computer and it connected without hesitation. I should have done that a long time ago.

Got a call from Siglent today. Apparently, their fraud detection is better than my banks because they put my order on hold simply because my billing and shipping addresses didnt match. I guess credit card thieves like test equipment. Thanks to Siglent for looking out!
 

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