Now you can buy USB Kill that could fry your PC via USB

Discussion in 'hardware' started by Minimalist, Sep 9, 2016.

  1. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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  2. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Fry the motherboard, or also fry the HDD/SSD?
     
  3. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    It says it depends on hard disk controller...
     
  4. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I killed one of my laptops when I plugged in a dodgy USB MicroSD card reader. It instantly fried my computer, and I presume it needed a new motherboard after that. It wasn't worth getting it fixed as I only paid about $100 for the laptop.
     
  5. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    That's scary.

    I almost run a USB cord from lappy to lappy before checking if that was ok or not. It was not! so had to cancelled the near fatal result.
     
  6. quietman

    quietman Registered Member

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    I read about such devices ( weapons ? ) last year sometime .
    There was much emphasis on the "shock-horror" aspect but very little on technical detail.

    From what I can find right now , it appears to use the power from the USB socket ( 5 Volts @ 500 mA )
    to accumulate an electric charge then release it , and continue repeating the process till the machine is toast.

    Plausible I suppose ....

    I bet the reader didn't cost anything like the 50 bucks that USB Kill costs , and yet achieved the same result :)

    @ EASTER

    That is a definite no-no , although there are specialized USB leads to to this ( eg for migrating all your stuff to a new machine ) .
    You may have had a lucky escape there .
    That few moments spent checking probably saved you much grief ( and money ! )
     
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