plugin in ipod restarts comp and kills charger bottom part

an ipod i have for a while caused my computer to restart one day recently. after which i noticed that the bottom of the ipod had gotten quite warm, and thereafter windows recognized that a usb was attempted to be used but said it wasn't working(or something). yet the ipod still turned on and all seemed to function on screen, but was nearly dead. since i couldn't charge it since the bottom connector seemed broken.
my father passed down a same model ipod and cord, which worked fine. however, just now i plugged it into my computer from the wall jack adapter it was plugged into. after that my computer restarted, as before and the ipod bottom was hot again. i cant say that it was just an old/bad ipod last time with this happening again.

i imagined that this would mean that my power somewhere, my usb connections, or the 4 slot usb hub that is connected to one of those is bad. i don't know if the is any way to check those connections, because if something is bad then a new/repaired ipod wont matter.
sadly i cant recall which connection i used, and if it was the same on both accounts or not. yet i think that it may have been one o the front usb jacks. perhaps something could be broken or miss wired there, especialy when i put in a new motherboard in about a month ago.

i am hoping that there are some signs in some part of my story that will make sense to someone to help trouble shooting. as nothing is safe as long as a connector or something might cause shorts or something.
thanks.

 

Will either ipod charge using the wall adapter?

Do other USB items function properly in the port?

Personally, I suspect you plugged your USB header plug into a Firewire connector on the motherboard. It's hard to tell the difference at a glance. This is what I would check first.

 

This is one of those troubleshooting sessions that's really hard to diagnose over the internet.

Let me try to condense this down,correct where necessary.

You have a 'desktop' computer,connected is a 4 way 'powered?' USB hub.

You connected an Ipod to the USB hub which became hot and the computer restarted.

Tried a different ipod and 'cable?' ,the same thing happen.

Well first its normal for the ipod to get slightly warm when the battery is charging,if it gets too hot it sounds like the hub is damaged.If it shorts out the battery and could damage computers USB power circuit but this is rare as they have good current overload protection,this is the most likely cause of the restart.

Get rid of the hub and try connecting directly to the computer,if your Ipod doesn't charge the battery may have become damaged,try connecting your ipod usb cable without connecting it to a computer to see if it gets warm,try with your dads cable,then try connecting it to another computer.

Other than that you'll need to get a testmeter on the USB and cables to check for shorts.

EDIT sorry JP you posted just before me

 

i am not sure if that firewire comment is anything that would have caused a short or something, but the wall charger thing does not seem to work no. and i plugged a camera into the two front slots and it didn't respond, while the usb hub that is plugged into the back of my computer did yield a connection.

so it still seems to suggest that the front usb's may be screwed up or broken, and the ipods are probably now broken as far as the charging bottom portion of them. it happened to both of them that it got very warm on the bottom, and the computer restarted immediately. after the connection on the bottom seemed loose/wiggling.

so i was imagining that somehow a issue with those front usb's, if it was those ones i used... then somehow that caused a short, or a bad connection to the usb from the motherboard... and since it would have been trying to charge the ipod, maybe the computer restarted because of bad flow of power or something....

*edit: to rikky as well, i have tried both ipods and both cables on both ipods. neither ipod gets hot when a cable(either) is plugged in but not attached to a usb or wall jack. also, the wall jack converter at best makes the ipod turn on and say" very lo batter please wait". after some time it goes to the black apple screen, and then to the normal white menu. all appears normal, but the battery in the top right is nearly completely empty and doesn't appear with the moving green lightning bolt for charging. so something in the ipod(as far as i can reason) is no longer working past the point of mearly recognizing that it is trying to be charged or that there is a usb(or whatever) cable in it.
i dont know what else can be done really.

 

Since Firewire and USB supply power through different pins on their respective plugs, it would short circuit and damage anything you plug into it. Open your case and check to see if the header wire from the front USB port is not connected to a IEEE1394 (Firewire) header connector on your motherboard. They both have the same header plug and can be confused easily.

 

i did initially have some things put on wrong on the motherboard until i had a friend help me. but what i sort of meant to ask was if the firewire was anything that was like usb's on the back of my computer that may both look alike. because i have tried both ipods, both cords, etc on all the available usb's as well as the wall jack charger. to no real result.
for some reason the ipod saw it fit to toy with me, as i was cycling through some of the usb's and at one point the ipod went into grey and black mode... and there was actually a lightning bolt in the top right and looked like it was charging. yet after a while it went away. then in another usb, it went to full color and showed the battery centered on the screen and green with lightning bolt. only after a while to cut to the screen that said please wait very low power.

so i cant say exactly what may be wrong with the ipod, but the usb's on the front of my computer seem as though they are the only ones that are broken. after the testing with the camera and usb before. so unless firewire is a port that looks exactly like a normal usb on the back of my computer, i have at least tested all parts in all different ports without success.

 

Forget about the ports on the outside. You have to look inside the case to see. The external Firewire and USB ports are different but the connectors on the motherboard itself look the same. If the header for your front USB ports is plugged into a motherboard connector for Firewire, it will fry any USB device you plug into it. Have your friend or someone else who knows PCs open up your PC case and make sure that the front USB port is plugged into a USB connector on the motherboard instead of a Firewire connector

 

i think the answer might be to never use those front jacks again, and look for a better brain with memory so i can recall not to attach a device to something that kills twice...
i may have one at most, friend that knows about fire...but i dont think even the.

main problem now is having two ipods that function as far as lighting up and responding to the touch wheel. however windows at most says that a usb device has malfunctioned and isn't recognized/working. i guess that heat at the bottom of the ipod was the firewire problem cause the overload or something. as now that bottom port of the ipod feels loose, as apposed to the tight fit before all that.
i dont imagine that there is going to be a easy or cheap answer to getting one of these fixed, although it seems as though most of its innards and functionality are in tact. so i may just be looking at buying another mp3 player. sad lesson to be learned, especially taking two ipods to find out about this easily mistaken death usb combination. i guess i will at least look into if they can quote me something maybe.

 

Was the USB header plugged into a Firewire connector on the motherboard?

If it was, remove it and replug it into a USB connector on the motherboard (double check to make sure) and those two front USB ports will work as expected.