"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
I'm still rather bemused that a bit of wine could short out
a 5V or so line and cause that amount of current to flow.

It might not have. It might have caused a chip to misbehave, which in
turned pulled the excessive current.



Hmm, this is interesting.

I have been assuming that the connector in the photos has a whole load of
data pins on the left hand side, and 2 heavier duty pins on the right
carrying the power supply. It looks to me that these two power supply pins
have been shorted, resulting in localised heating to the point of partially
melting the connectors. I have also assumed that this huge increase in
current is what killed the melted device that was supplying that current.

I can't otherwise see a scenario whereby a faulty component could have
forced such a huge current between these two pins.


Gareth.