Is It Safe to Use A Sabrent USB 4 Port Hub Where Ethernet Adapter Got Fried?

Not that long ago, there was thunder and my old dell xps 15 9550 was on. My dell xps 15 9550 got the hdmi port fried. It no longer works anymore. Electricity zapped and came out of it.


One of my usb a ports, I have a sabrent 4 port hub connected to give more usb a port hubs. The devices that were connected at the time was a wireless mouse usb, wired keyboard, and a cable matters ethernet adapter for wired internet to it. I then noticed my wired internet stopped working. I then unplugged and plugged it back and the driver seem to show exclamation mark. I could only connect internet by wifi. It wasn't until few days later when I unplugged the cable matters ethernet adapter, I smelled it and there was a fried smell to it. Thus it got fried. I then threw it away as it didn't work anymore and the fried smell.


But besides that, the laptop still functions without any issue.


My question is, is it still safe to use this sabrent usb 4 port hub still or not? All the 4 usb a ports still work including the same one where that cable matters ethernet adapter got fried. I am using it still on my old xps 9550 without any issue.


Now is there any concern with continuing to use it? Now will it be a risk if connecting it to a new dell xps laptop? Should I just toss it away and buy a brand new one? Someone else told me there is almost no risk at all if it still works. All the port hubs light up and work.

I had tested a good working usb flash drive and plugged it into that 4th port in the sabrent usb port hub and it does work.


But should I now be concerned of damage to the usb flash drive? What about when connecting to the new laptop? Since you don't want to cause damage to a new laptop.


This is sabrent usb 4 port hub that is nonpowered if that matters. You just plug it into a usb a port. Is there a way to check my usb flash drive is fine without any issues?

One thing to be aware of is that USB as a system is a dual one - It is capable of carrying both data and power. I would personally be very careful in using a hub that has been involved in a "flash over" incident. you have checked that it is still capable of transmitting data but the power transmission has not been tested.

The question to ask yourself is " is the cost of A replacement hub worth the risk of potentially damaging a new laptop?"

Only you can make this call, there is a potential risk of damage to the new laptop and without specialist test equipment this is difficult to assess - so personally I would replace the Hub to be safe

barman58 said:

One thing to be aware of is that USB as a system is a dual one - It is capable of carrying both data and power. I would personally be very careful in using a hub that has been involved in a "flash over" incident. you have checked that it is still capable of transmitting data but the power transmission has not been tested.

The question to ask yourself is " is the cost of A replacement hub worth the risk of potentially damaging a new laptop?"

Only you can make this call, there is a potential risk of damage to the new laptop and without specialist test equipment this is difficult to assess - so personally I would replace the Hub to be safe

Click to expand...

Yeah - the cost of a new hub is a tiny fraction of a new pc.

With the laptop being zapped by lightning I'm surprised that it still works. I would make a spare system image and back up all important files to an external drive and then not use it on that laptop. The laptop may have capacitors that are on borrowed time.

I'll throw my 2 cents in here and say I learned the hard way about using a hub. I'll never use anything but a powered usb hub ever again. They are some available with ethernet port built in. A non powered hub caused kinds of power delivery problems on my PC when certain devices were plugged in to it. I would think even more so if one uses a laptop. .

Yea the old laptop still works. But the hdmi port doesn't work anymore.

Isn't the issue of a powered hub you need another outlet to install it into? That is why i never considered one and used those plug into usb a port usb port hubs.

You still plug it into a usb port but it also has a power adapter that plugs into an electrical socket.

Modern USB variants are capable of supplying more power to external devices than the older ones so you need to consider the age of the ports you are using when attaching any USB device to the system .

My basic rule is that USB2 is only used for older, data only devices, such as USB sticks, SD card readers, and similar items. I have no issue with powering an external SSD or NVME drive from a USB3 or USB3.1 ports.

I have a powered 3.1 second gen powered hub attached to my Desktop which I use for high draw devices, although any traditional spinner external drives are all units with individual bespoke external power so could be attached to any USB port, although the speed advantage of newer USB standards means that I tend to use the newer faster ports where possible

One thing I am careful with is mobile phones and tablets - Current devices are best charged using a specialist QC3 etc charger, Wired or Wireless, [ Data transfer is better handled using Bluetooth or WiFi ], I have several Mains powered chargers strategically located around my home and car