Possible for damaged iPhone USB cable to ruin whole USB bus?

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I recently discovered my iPhone cable housing was cut open and wires were exposed. This explains some very strange and alarming behavior with my Mac Pro (iPhone not getting a charge, other USB devices shutting down, even got a USB power overload warning from the OS).

Now I've replaced the cable, and things work mostly well, but sometimes my USB devices act a little oddly. Is it possible this destroyed cable blew something out on the logic board or USB bus? What should I do?
 

Raz0rEdge

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If the exposed wires somehow created a short or something and that somehow damaged the protection circuits around the USB port on the logic board that could explain the behavior. But the protection circuits are usually pretty resilient to handle these kinds of issues.

Also, the fact that the USB does work, but behaves oddly at times indicates that the protection circuits and the USB system itself is most likely working OK..

Do describe what "oddly" means as far as the devices (which devices specifically?) are concerned?
 
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Disclaimer - without actually seeing the cable these are all just guesses

Depending on what broke - you very well could have destroyed the entire bus. What it sounds like was a Power/Ground short -> hence the overload warning. You do that enough and it will cause all kinds of problems. If it was a PG short - then you could have damaged a power chip on the bus. If you have something that is repeatable - I'd recommend taking your machine into an Apple Store and have them take a look at it.

Edit - too slow
 
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USB audio interface yielding crackly audio suddenly. USB MIDI device stops working (but still appears in the list of connected USB devices).

This might have to be a process of elimination type thing. Maybe the USB 4-port hub got fried. Since moving a couple things to the Mac Pro's built-in USB ports, they are working OK. I would like to think it's more likely the cheap Belkin hub got fried rather than the Mac.
 

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USB audio interface yielding crackly audio suddenly. USB MIDI device stops working (but still appears in the list of connected USB devices).

This might have to be a process of elimination type thing. Maybe the USB 4-port hub got fried. Since moving a couple things to the Mac Pro's built-in USB ports, they are working OK. I would like to think it's more likely the cheap Belkin hub got fried rather than the Mac.

Yes, do isolate the problem specifically to the Mac Pro or anything else you have in line..unless you buy a very pricey hub, most of them are designed/developed using minimal and cheap electronics that will fail if you look at them the wrong way.

The USB ports on the Mac's Logic Board, on the other hand, should have enough protection around it to isolate the bus from wire issues that can readily happen.

If plugging into the Mac is making the devices behave properly, then replace the USB hub or just continue with plugging the devices directly into the Mac..
 
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Thanks, glad to hear the Mac has safeguards against this kind of thing. I was really freaking out for a bit there. Devices plugged directly into the Mac are still working perfectly. Looks like the ruined iPhone cable (plugged into the front of the Mac BTW) somehow ruined the Belkin hub.
 

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