Franc Zabkar wrote:

On 14 Jan 2005 22:19:26 -0800, "larry moe 'n curly"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Several months ago, a port on an NEC-based USB card failed
(a section of its LM3526 power controller & overcurrent
protection chip blew), and just recently the same happened
to an ALI-based USB card.

Do both cards use the same NS chip?

Is it possible that you have an open ground at your mains
outlet? This would result in a case potential of half the
mains voltage.

The ground seems to be OK (120VAC from ground to hot, 0VAC from ground
to neutral), and the ALi card doesn't use a separate
controller/protector chip but has the USB chip tied directly to the
ports.