Like all digital pack rats, I’ve amassed a huge array of USB-C to USB-A cables over the years—but it wasn’t until recently that I realized how many of them were dangerous to my electronics and should be destroyed. Yours probably should, too.
Why destroy a perfectly good USB-C to USB-A cable? Well, it all goes back to the introduction of USB-C in 2014. The reversible connector was a big break from previous USB designs and was so complicated that many cable makers didn’t know how to build a safe USB-C cable (fave.co/3CM0a6r). In a nutshell, each cable is supposed to have a 56k ohm resistor in it. This lets your phone, tablet, or laptop know if the USB-C port is connected to an older square USB-A port.
If the device senses the 56K resistor, it limits the amount of power it draws from the port. If, however, there is no 56K resistor, the phone or tablet assumes it’s connected to a higher-power USB-C port. In that state, the cable can potentially draw too much power from the port it’s plugged into, burn the port out, and sometimes cause damage to connected devices.
The good news? This problem was fixed years ago, and even the cheapest dollar-store USB-C to USB-A cables I’ve bought recently were built to spec.
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