“Benson Leung, the Google engineer who moonlights as a tester of dodgy USB Type-C cables, has sadly performed his last act of tech vigilantism — at least for now,” Sebastian Anthony reports for Ars Technika. “When testing a Surjtech 3M USB A-to-C cable, the cable was so bad that it fried his Chromebook Pixel laptop and two USB PD (power delivery) analyses.”
“At the time of publishing, it looks like the Surjtech cable has already been removed from Amazon,” Anthony reports. “Basically, as soon as the cable was plugged in and turned on, it completely fried the Vbus line on the Twinkie USB PD analyser. ‘This is permanent damage. I tried resetting the Twinkie analyzer and having the firmware reflashed, but it continues to exhibit this failure,’ Leung wrote.”
Anthony reports, “Not only did the cable kill the analyzer, though, but it also fried both USB Type-C ports on Leung’s Chromebook Pixel.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Of the cables Leung tested before the frying incident, Anker’s USB-C cables consistently rated highly and they only cost US$9.99 for a 3-footer.