Windows 7: HAF X SHort/Static on front USB Panel

Oh Yeah - And CM's last note regarding the wait time...

CM:



Part Requests take roughly 2 to 7 business days to ship, I have given this to the parts department again though to make sure it goes out today or on Monday.

Respectfully,


Support Specialist
Cooler Master RPBU
4820 Schaefer Ave.
Chino CA, 91710

Hmmm. I don't remember being asked to ship anything back when I filled out the eRMA request. In fact when I called them I was that they would send my part out free of charge, and that I didn't even need to send them the old part, even after I get the new one. And as stated by their response, you don't have to send in anything either.

You can either follow Coolermaster's advice untill your new part arrives....

or, If you're confortable with electrical repairs, do an inspection and try my fix - HAF X SHort/Static on front USB Panel - your own risk of course.

Either way you go, I wouldn't use the front header until some remedy is found or taken. If you really need usb ports, use the ones on the back of the motherboard, or get a USB hub. No need in frying anything.

Good luck.

Ok - I couldn't wait to receive the new I/O board/panel from CM, just had to see if I could troubleshoot in light of not finding any frayed or punctured wires. Do not attept this unless you feel like rolling the dice on frying your MB. I started by using a usb stick freshely removed from another computer, used the "safely remove" feature, touched the metal housing around my front panel usb and BAM, screen went blank, thump coming from my bass unit. Sat there, as usual, in never never land. Powered it off. Extremely frustrated, I popped both covers and began removing front panel connections one by one from the MB. Naturally I started with the USB's, I removed the USB 2.0 from the MB USB header, turned it on, but this time entered the BIOS. I figured, if something is going to get fryed, no sense in crashing the HD and my OS install. Once ASUS bios was up, I tried it again, pulled it out of my laptop, plugged it in and BAM! Pissed doesn't even begin to describe it.

Next was the USB 3.0 (which is routing right out of the water cooling gromets and back into the MB USB 3.0 ports. Fully fresh USB, into the front.... BAM. Firewire, BAM!, LED for front FAN, BAM! I am now looking at the front panel lights/reset/PWR switch/HD light... Ummm Which one to try next. I thouht, when this happens, it closely approximates what happens when you press the reset button. So I pulled the reset wires off of the MB. Got the freshly charged USB and WAIT, no BAM. Nothing. It is still running as I write this. I put 3 different USB drives into mutiple laptops and desktops, and plugged in, nothing. Cannot get it to fail. For me, it looks like there may be something wrong with reset switch or the board to which it is soldered. When I get the new board, the problem shoudl be solved This may not be case for others, Sygnus21 for example, but it worked for me. I can leave the thread open if you guys are interested in finding out if CM's replacement I/O board fixes it and restores my reset function. You guys decide. I don't need my reset button anyway. If I am hard hung in an app, holding the power button down has nearly the same effect as a reset. Just have to turn it back on.

Man you must really be trying to fry your system

That is not the way to go about finding a short!!! That's the short way to frying your system!

I hate to say this but I wouldn't be surprised to hear you coming here later on telling us how you found something fried on your motherboard or some other component

Also be aware that what you did could also corrupt your data on the hard drives.

Good luck

As I said, curiosity got the better of me and I wouldn't recommend anyone else doing it this way. It is working properly now (without the reset button connected). So I guess I lucked out, nothing else on the motherboard seems to be affected, HD audio works fine, USB 2 and 3, light switch for front fan and power button. Ran Prime95 for 3 hours last night to stress the system and 3dMark Vantage twice and so far so good. Thanks everyone for comments and suggestions.

You would think they would have fixed that by now seeing as it looks to be an ongoing issue for close to a year, and not on just one model of case either. The OP here has a CM Storm Scout,

PC reboots if someone walk by

is describing the same problem with the USB and ESATA ports. We didn't get as far as determining exactly what the cause was like 1strail did, but a new front panel from CM fixed for him as well.

You would have also thought they'd be well stocked for this issue..... unless the issue is so bad they can't keep up with demands

Anyways all we have to do now is hold our breaths till Coolermaster sends them out. Let's just hope we don't die from oxygen deprivation

Well my replacement part arrived today... the entire top panel... wires and all.... Wow



Disassembly and further examination of the header reveals Coolermaster's "fix".....



a piece of heavy duty plastic tape seperating the solder joints from the switchs wire bundles.



Inspecting the switch assembly itself shows a little improvement.... unused pins now removed....



So, my assessment? Since I basically did the samething Coolermaster did, protect the wires with a piece of tape/padding there was no need to use what Coolermaster sent me. Oh well.... I now have extra parts

BTW from first phone call to arrival took about ten days. Not too bad.

Peace

Wow that's more parts than I thought they would send out. Overkill to say the least but a nice touch !

Yeah it does like like overkill but they did do some modifications to the switches switches on the top panel. However they probably could have kept a lot of the cables, especially the blue USB 3.0 cables. On the other hand not everyone is a handy man so they have to make sure everything is included just to be safe.

Good on Coolermaster.