My entire PC was shorting after I swapped my motherboard, and you'll never believe why this simple USB hub fixed everything

Back at the beginning of summer, I rebuilt my PC for the umpteenth time. Since it had started its life in a small form factor ITX case, it was still using a tiny ITX motherboard that, although wasn't giving me any performance problems, was stuck with Raptor Lake processors. As a CPU reviewer, I needed to move on. But there was a problem with the new board I picked. I thought something had gone wrong when I rebuilt everything because when I had all of my USB devices plugged in, the entire gaming PC kept shorting.

It made me question everything. I was troubleshooting in every direction, trying to find the problem. Was it a screw I had wrongly used to secure the new motherboard to the case? Was it a faulty motherboard? Was it some other tiny mistake I had made with the rebuild?

Actually, it turns out it was a very, very niche problem with one of my bits of content creation gear, and one that any owner of the Rodecaster Duo could run into depending on how they use it.

From the beginning, having all of my USB devices plugged in was causing issues - that includes a mouse, keyboard, a few controllers, a Stream Deck+, and the RodeCaster Duo (twice, since it has dual USB connections you can use to separate audio channels). Shorting the board would cause the PC to crash, trap in a boot cycle, or even clear the CMOS and reset all of my BIOS settings.

To avoid the problem, I was ensuring that I was clearing any residual power from the board every time I shut down, which was a giant pain in the ass. That meant turning off the PSU switch after shutdown, holding down the button, and waiting until all the inner lights turned back on, then went off. It also meant shutting down the Rodecaster Duo before the PC so there wasn't this weird power cycle going on, leaving more inside the PC for the next time I came to boot it up.

Oddly, if I turned the Rodecaster on before my PC, it would be less prone to shorting.

It was inconvenient, but seeing as I literally could not work out what I had done wrong in the building process, and the Rodecaster Duo hadn't given me any trouble before this on an older, less powerful motherboard, I figured it was happenstance that the Duo was triggering something - it must be the PC itself, I thought.

But then the Duo started acting up. It got trapped in a boot cycle where its loading bar you see everytime you power it up, got stuck near the end. It wouldn't turn on, so off to Rode's brilliant customer support team I went.

See, the Rodecaster Duo is a really clever bit of kit. Remember I mentioned those dual USB outputs you can plug into one PC to separate audio sources onto different faders? Well, one of those has a very rare power-giving-and-receiving feature - something that the folks at Rode aren't sure exists in any other USB-C product. Essentially, so it can power a USB mic or a storage drive, it has the ability to send power out to a device, but it can also just receive data and be treated like an external device itself.

As Isabella, a very helpful Rode customer service agent, explained to me: "When plugged into a USB port, the interface will negotiate over USB in order to ascertain what it is connected to. This process includes sending 5V power output with a view to powering up an external device if one is connected," she told me.

"Some motherboards can struggle with this USB power negotiation process, which may lead to issues such as the computer failing to boot correctly, shutting down unexpectedly, or other connected components drawing power from the USB connection."

It suddenly all added up - it wasn't my perfect PC building skills failing me; Gigabyte's motherboard couldn't work out whether to power the RodeCaster, or somehow let a USB device... power.. it? I know which of those things a motherboard of a desktop PC should only be doing, but seeing as this is such a niche issue with one device, I'm not going to judge too harshly.

So, what was the solution?

"A potential workaround is to use an external USB hub as an intermediary," said Isabella. This was news to me, especially seeing as, when I had so much as thrown the USB-C connections into the wrong USB ports on my motherboard before, the Rodecaster would be very stroppy and not work correctly due to speed discrepancies.

But as it turns out, connecting to a fast enough USB hub, everything works just great. By connecting the Duo through a USB hub, it effectively isolates the 5V output from the computer's detection process. As a test, Rode sent me its own very speedy USB hub, and plugging both USB-C connections from the Duo into it solved my motherboard shorting issues. As for the Duo, despite trying a few troubleshooting and reset methods, leaving the device completely unplugged for 24 hours fixed its booting issues.

This was a really complicated and bizarre mismatch of motherboard and USB device, so I'm aware it's going to take some very small chances for anyone to run into my exact issues. But in writing this, I hope someone doing a frantic Google search to figure out problems with pricey technology is met with something that they can relate to - I know when I was troubleshooting, I was at a loss as to what I could do.

So, next time your motherboard is shorting due to USB devices being plugged in, trust that it's almost never a faulty board, and it's not so likely to be an issue with your building. USB hubs can actually come in handy, and one may just solve your tech problems.

For more PC building talk, take a look at the best CPU for gaming, the best RAM for gaming, or the best computer speakers.