Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

As anybody new to computer building will tell you getting as much help as possible is crucial.  I know as well as anyone that when you are dealing with hundreds of dollars worth of hardware you do not want it to go wrong.  Fortunately there are products out there to help you, and the newest of which is the USBcheck which checks your wiring for USB ports.

At first glance this may not seem like a very obvious thing to go wrong, but you would be surprised at how much damage a wrongly wired USB port can do.  Let’s look at what USBcheck actually is.  It is a small USB device that sits in a normal USB port with a red and green LED situated at the end which will indicate whether it is working or not.

Wrongly wired USB ports like those you may have on the front of your case can, in fact, do a surprisingly large amount of damage through the motherboard.  The problem is that there is no “standard” connection for USB ports to the motherboard, meaning that it is very easy to put the wrong wire onto the wrong bit.

The worst case scenario is that you put the 5V wire where the ground should be: this can result in not only damage to the USB device, but also to the motherboard. This is not something you want to get wrong, so this is where the USBcheck fits in.

It is fairly easy to understand: if the green LED is on, you are fine.  If you see nothing, then you need to check the wiring.  Red means your polarity is reversed and you need to sort it out.  This couldn’t really be more user-friendly which is perfect considering that it is really aimed at those who are not 100% of what they are doing.  It works with USB 1.0 and 2.0 ports and only needs the motherboard on to work.

Product [USBCheck]