Skip to main content
Home Forums 68kMLA Confusing Cube — #5
Post #5 by BeniD82
Source Forum68kMLA
CategoryTroubleshooting
Post DateFri, 23 Sep 2011 - 03:49
Original URLhttps://68kmla.org/bb/threads/confusing-cube.23596/
Post
Hey There!

My Cube has the tendency to shut off if I move it around. I found out that in my case this is caused by USB connectors on the bottom of the cube. The connectors are in terrible shape (they look VERY ABUSED, bent/broken pins, warped houing - yeah, it's ugly) so when you move the cube, anything plugged into the connectors (especially the Cube-specific Harman Kardon speakers) will cause a short which will shutdown the cube if it's running, and also won't allow me to start it back up. Wiggling on the connector will usually fix it (may take a a few nudges but it will boot up again).

Like I said, as long as I won't touch/move/pull/tug on the plugged in USB devices she's purring like a kitten, but boy if you move her ... she definitively doesn't like to be moved }:) I'll have the conectors replaced by a professional sooner or later (my soldering skills aren't *that* great) because it's definitively a pain dealing with faulty USB connectors on the Cube, especially when considering that USB really is the *only* way of adding additional functionality to the system (other than FireWire, but honestly other than hard disks or camcorders/webcams I haven't seen FireWire being used for anything else).

If I were you I'd turn the Cube upside-down and inspect the USB connectors to see if there are any broken or bent pins. Specifically look for any pins touching the metal housing because like I said this will cause a short which will not allow the Cube to boot; it will appear as if your Cube had a bad PSU or bad logic board, no startup bong, video, etc. In my case, once I get my connectors fixed I'll just plug in a self-powered hub into the connectors so I won't have to worry about any more wear and tear on the box because USB is so heavily used on this machine.

Hope this helps!

~~ BeniD82

mp.ls