I have a dell xps 15 9520. Last week or so, I had water spill all over my desk. My laptop is connected to 2 external monitors via usb-c to displayport and hdmi to dvi cable. The usb-c port on my laptop... has a Dell supplied 2 in 1 Dell 20A adapter that has an hdmi port and a usb-a port. So that hdmi port is connected by hdmi to dvi cable to my asus monitor. The usb-a port i plugged in the sabrent usb a 4 port hub to give it more usb a ports since this laptop has 0 usb-a ports. The 1st usb-a port is wireless mouse dongle. The 2nd usb-a port I use wired keyboard. I normally leave the 3rd and 4th usb a port empty. I normally use one of the ports with a cable matters ethernet adapter for wired internet but having issues with it so not using it. And I would use the last usb-a port for a usb flash drive sometimes etc.
The thunderbolt 4 port is used for usb-c to displayport for my main 32' 4k monitor. The 2nd thunderbolt 4 port is for my dell charger.
Now when I spilled water over my desk, the water touched the sabrent usb a 4 port hub. I took bounty towel and tried to wipe it as quick as I could. I don't believe any water touched my laptop though. Now a bit after this, I turned off my laptop for few hours. Also when this occurred, there didn't seem to be any issues at all. But I am pretty sure water went into the holes of the sabrent usb a 4 port hub especially the 3rd and 4th ports since those were empty etc. The 1st 2 usb-a ports was plugged in with wireless mouse dongle and wired keyboard so most likely water didn't get in there that much? So far no issue at all with the 1st 2 usb-a ports with the wireless mouse dongle and wired keyboard.
My question is... are there any safety precautions I could take before attempting to plug something into the 3rd or 4th usb a port? Such that if i plug in a cable matters ethernet cable or usb flash drive... it not only could cause damage to it... but it could cause damage to the Dell 20A 2 in 1 Adapter which it is connected to... but also my main dell xps laptop? I heard you could short your laptop this way?
The thing is earlier in the week, I had a usb error message showing in device manager and I am not sure if that is because of my sabrent 4 port hub or if it could be my 24' asus monitor. My asus monitor has been acting up a lot as one of the buttons seem to be stuck. But now that usb error message is no longer there. This is the message it showed below but not there anymore. I thought it was the sabrent 4 port hub because it says bad usb but is it possible its the usb a ports on my asus monitor which I never use?
It's under Universal Serial Bus Controllers and shows as
Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)
Does anyone have any advice on what I could do to test my sabrent 4 port usb a hub safely in this situation? Is it safe plugging in a flash drive into either the 3rd or 4th port? Should i plug this sabrent 4 port hub into another laptop and then plug in a flash drive to test? Do I need to use a hair dryer and blow the sabrent 4 port hub to remove any possible water that still remains? The main thing here is I do not want to risk damage to my main dell xps 15 9520 system. At the moment I am only using the 1st 2 usb-a ports without any issue. However, I would like to also use the 3rd and possibly the 4th usb-a port as well but am concerned if connecting something to it could possibly short the port hub and then the Dell 20A 2 in 1 Adapter and finally the laptop itself?
The thunderbolt 4 port is used for usb-c to displayport for my main 32' 4k monitor. The 2nd thunderbolt 4 port is for my dell charger.
Now when I spilled water over my desk, the water touched the sabrent usb a 4 port hub. I took bounty towel and tried to wipe it as quick as I could. I don't believe any water touched my laptop though. Now a bit after this, I turned off my laptop for few hours. Also when this occurred, there didn't seem to be any issues at all. But I am pretty sure water went into the holes of the sabrent usb a 4 port hub especially the 3rd and 4th ports since those were empty etc. The 1st 2 usb-a ports was plugged in with wireless mouse dongle and wired keyboard so most likely water didn't get in there that much? So far no issue at all with the 1st 2 usb-a ports with the wireless mouse dongle and wired keyboard.
My question is... are there any safety precautions I could take before attempting to plug something into the 3rd or 4th usb a port? Such that if i plug in a cable matters ethernet cable or usb flash drive... it not only could cause damage to it... but it could cause damage to the Dell 20A 2 in 1 Adapter which it is connected to... but also my main dell xps laptop? I heard you could short your laptop this way?
The thing is earlier in the week, I had a usb error message showing in device manager and I am not sure if that is because of my sabrent 4 port hub or if it could be my 24' asus monitor. My asus monitor has been acting up a lot as one of the buttons seem to be stuck. But now that usb error message is no longer there. This is the message it showed below but not there anymore. I thought it was the sabrent 4 port hub because it says bad usb but is it possible its the usb a ports on my asus monitor which I never use?
It's under Universal Serial Bus Controllers and shows as
Unknown USB Device (Device Descriptor Request Failed)
Does anyone have any advice on what I could do to test my sabrent 4 port usb a hub safely in this situation? Is it safe plugging in a flash drive into either the 3rd or 4th port? Should i plug this sabrent 4 port hub into another laptop and then plug in a flash drive to test? Do I need to use a hair dryer and blow the sabrent 4 port hub to remove any possible water that still remains? The main thing here is I do not want to risk damage to my main dell xps 15 9520 system. At the moment I am only using the 1st 2 usb-a ports without any issue. However, I would like to also use the 3rd and possibly the 4th usb-a port as well but am concerned if connecting something to it could possibly short the port hub and then the Dell 20A 2 in 1 Adapter and finally the laptop itself?
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 11 Pro