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[–] 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

You can short-circuit basically anything with exposed contacts and a paper clip. This isn't specific to Chromebooks.

Pretty much any device with a USB port can be catastrophically short-circuited, because most USB ports are capable of supplying some amount of power. You can even buy "USB Killers", which look like a thumb drive but will fry the internals of whatever they get plugged into.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago

    IIRC USB killers work because they're sustained high voltage. USB ports can often deal with a static discharge or over current, but a sustained 200 volts will let the magic smoke out.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I guess I just assumed there was some way to protect against it but I don't know anything about electronics.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    They do make special shielding for USB and other ports, but most manufacturers don't use them because generally people aren't going to stick foreign objects into their computer for internet points.

    Often times, those "public chargers" you sometimes see in airports and such have that shielding installed on the ports (though you should never use public USB ports to charge your devices, for a dozen other reasons).

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