Google engineer Benson Leung has been busying himself testing USB-C cables and adaptor for quality and compliance with the standard. While testing a cable the other day he managed to blow up his test gear.The cable in question was a USB 3.1 Type-C SuperSpeed cable from a company called Surjtech (this is not a company I've ever heard of previously, and the cable is no longer available on Amazon). Leung connected the cable up to his test gear and thanks to what appears to be sloppy soldering and the use of an incorrect resistor, the cable instantly destroyed a Chromebook Pixel 2 and both of his USB power delivery analyzers.A cautionary tale, no doubt. Not all cables are made the same, and the smarter that a cable needs to be, the more scope there is for shoddy build quality to destroy stuff.How can you prevent this from happening to you?I remember a glut of bad Lightning cables as soon as Apple released its new port, and it seems the same thing is happening with USB-C. Is Fry's Electronics Headed Towards Bankruptcy?

The number of brick-and-mortar electronics shops available to do-it-yourself (DIY) system builders and consumer electronics (CE) junkies has fallen dramatically in the past several years. First it was Good Guys that fell by the wayside in 2005, then CompUSA that sunk itself into financial trouble a year later before being bought out by Systemax, and finally Circuit City, which Systemax also scooped up after the chain filed for bankruptcy in 2008. Could Fry's Electronics be next? Take this with a grain of salt, but a popular news and rumor site claims to have heard from sources (and confirmed with store employees "more than willing" to broach the subject) that Fry's Electronics has fallen behind in payments to vendors by several months. These aren't rinky-dink vendors either, but big-name suppliers like Seagate and Western Digital. "At least one San Francisco bay area store's shelving and stock resembled the last days of Circuit City, and The Good Guys as they prepared to be shuttered," the site indicated.

Fry's Electronics has mostly been able to keep itself out of the headlines, save for a recent settlement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in which the company forked over $2.3 million to settle sexual harassment charges.Hot Springs Prodigy Hot Tub Parts retails stores under Systemax's leadership (as Systemax pointed out to us in a followup email). Bathroom Mirrors Greensboro NcThe Internet boom has proved rough for brick-and-mortar electronics shores, while online vendors like Amazon and Newegg continue to thrive.Maine Coon Cat Breeders Utah blog comments powered byHelp me not fry my laptop September 28, 2013   Subscribe I have two laptops, both Dells. I'm going on a trip and would like to take only one power brick.

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It's time to get your belly ready for some air-fried feasting! Meredith Laurence, authorPaperback140 recipes240 pagesNutritional information included for some recipesCopyright 2016 For in-store pickup only, Fry's offers the Thrustmaster TMX Force Feedback Racing Wheel for Xbox One or Windows for $159.99. That's the lowest price we could find by $40. It features 900° force feedback base, 11" wheel, pedal set, and Xbox One certified embedded software.The requested URL /?stId=292 was not found on this server.Over the past year or so, one of the biggest tech stories has been about one of the smallest things: a USB plug. Specifically, the new USB Type-C plug and port, which promises to become the single thing that we can use to connect all our devices, from monitors to phones to computers to whatever we dream up next. USB-C has the support of the biggest companies in the tech industry. Apple and Google released the first laptops to use it, and now it’s showing up on computers, tablets, and phones all over the place.

USB-C is reversible and can deliver huge amounts of both power and data very quickly. Importantly, it’s also backwards-compatible so that adapters and cables can get us through the awkward period between now and when it actually becomes the universal standard. It’s that last bit that has USB-C in trouble. Right now, if you aren’t very careful, a USB-C cable can destroy your laptop. If you just go to Amazon and buy any pack of USB-C cables you find, you could end up with a wire that can destroy your machine in a flash. That’s what happened to Google engineer Benson Leung, who, in the course of testing a USB-C cable, destroyed his Chromebook Pixel. It also happened to me — I used a cheap cable I found on Amazon to charge my Nexus 6P and it drew too much power from my MacBook Air’s USB ports. Apple did a remarkable job engineering the MacBook’s ports — they shut down temporarily to protect themselves — but when they came back online, they only worked intermittently.

The problem is that when you plug a USB device in, it starts drawing power. If it tries to pull too much power, the device that supplies it can burn out. It’s not the Nexus’ fault that my MacBook got fried — it was just doing what it was supposed to do: ask for as much power as it can get. It’s not the MacBook’s fault either — its ports weren’t designed to handle delivering that much juice nor to know that they shouldn’t even try. It is the fault of the cable, which is supposed to protect both sides from screwing up the energy equation with resistors and proper wiring. This kind of failure is possible with any cable, but older kinds of USB devices didn’t draw this much power. The solution should be simple, then: just don’t buy cut-rate USB-C cables. But "just buy the more expensive one" is a really crappy solution. Right now, if you want to buy a safe cable, you have to know Leung is the only person vetting them in a broad way on Amazon. Here’s the process you have to go through:

This process is insane, and it shouldn’t be this way. In fact, I believe this failure should have been obvious to everybody involved in the creation of USB-C. Apple and Google helped design the spec, but a little-known industry group called the USB Implementers Forum is in charge of maintaining and propagating it. It does have a certification process for approving cables. When I asked about this issue, the USB-IF noted that it has certified 61 cables so far and that it "continually meets with the major retailers in North America, including Staples, Best Buy, and MicroCenter to educate about the importance of compliance and certification." It also pointed me to its logos that certify safety, which look hilariously outdated: But the real problem isn’t the logos, it’s that you can’t find them anywhere on the biggest electronics retailer on the internet: Amazon. If you want to buy a cable on Amazon — where you already shop — you will need to go through that five-step process above.

When hoverboards started exploding, the industry reacted. Amazon pulled sales, manufacturers stepped up their standards, and ultimately we got to a place where UL started certifying boards as safe. We’re not at the danger-to-human-life-and-limb stage with this USB-C problem, but nevertheless, we need a similar solution now. Apple solved this problem with its proprietary Lightning cable. It has a "Made for iPhone" licensing program, and anything that doesn’t have that label is potentially dangerous. With USB-C, Amazon needs to pull dangerous cables from its store and every single retailer needs to demand that USB-C cables are certified. And the USB-IF needs its partners like Apple and Google to help push cable makers to stop making dangerous products. And, you know, a better logo wouldn’t hurt, either. Even if these problems get fixed, USB-C still faces the usual aggravations that come with any new kind of connector. I’ve watched basically every kind of computer cable imaginable in the past 30 years take an achingly long time to propagate through the industry, and it’s always a hassle.