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Old 24th January 2009
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IdOp IdOp is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
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Default USB extension cable: bad?

I bought an el-cheapo USB extension cable at Dollarama. Type-A male to type-A female, 1 m (=3.3ft). I've tried it on all the ports on 2 computers, with my flash drive, and also mouse, and it doesn't work (they work fine without the cable). The cable seems too short to be over-long. So I took an ohm-meter to the cable to check the connectivity, and found:

* The outer casing at each end is connected. (For shielding?)

* 3 of the 4 inner leads pass straight through ok (0 resistance).

* One of the 4 inner leads doesn't connect through. (It's the 3rd one from the left, if you hold the two ends side-by-side, with the key-tabs both on the bottom.)

So does anyone know if this is how it's supposed to be electrically, or does USB use all four of the inner leads and thus the cable is bad?

Thanks for any input.
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