Frying my wireless cards?

[Under Dizzle]

I have no clue what's going on. This problem ONLY happens with my desktop, not a problem with my internet itself.
Ever since I put together this computer I've gone through a total of 6 wireless adapters, internal and external. Usually they're fine for a while, sometimes a week, sometimes a few months. After that they just become totally unstable and I only get ~1mbps. If I keep using them then they just totally go kaput and I can't even connect.
Again, these problems are in isolation with my desktop. Every other computer in the house is fine and has been for years. Anyone have a clue what could be causing it? (I've tried cheap and pricey wireless solutions and have the same problem each time)

 

[70i]

They break and won't work on other computers?
I'd double check and make sure you connected all the power supply cables correctly. Or maybe the power supply is faulty.

 

[Swan]

Could be power supply, or it could be the motherboard. I don't suppose you could connect a multimeter to your USB ports and report voltage output?

(reason I ask is there exists the possibility of over or under-volting, and given it happens with USB, if you get anything significantly more or less than 5 volts it could indicate a faulty power supply)

 

[SASRT8]

Generally, onboard WiFi adapters are powered off of one or two pci-e lanes, which means that the onboard adapter is powered on a 12v rail. If you're not burning up graphics cards, motherboard components such as VRMS and MOSFETs that regulate power into your ram and cpu...then you can bank that your power supply isn't killing the onboard controller itself
External are usually powered by USB, which is a 5v connection. Few other devices on the motherboard operate on 5v though, so this is hard to reference.
Nonetheless, I reckon you should get a power tester and test your power supply first. Start there. If that's good, which I think it would be, then I would check the outputs on your board. Check the outputs on your USB header and also on the connectors for your wireless card. Better yet, you should check resistance and continuity on that as well. Let us know what you find.... but to me it sounds like your motherboard is first culprit, and PSU would be second, but a very viable culprit as well

 

[Under Dizzle]

I'll see if I can find a way to check the voltages. But none of my other components have problems. Thanks everyone.

 

[Under Dizzle]

Update: Got a cheap multimeter and just for the hell of it I checked what was coming out of my wall to make sure it was 120v. Never used one of these things before and fucking smoke shot out of it, probably because I had it on DC instead of AC. Needless to say I don't think I want to test any of my computer parts with it seems how I haven't got a clue what I'm doing.
Is there by any chance an easier way to check voltages, possibly in the BIOS?
(feel free to laugh at me)

 

[Swan]

You overamped it. The multimeter would have had a specific limit on how many amps of current can pass through it.

Voltage is energy per charge, but amperage (current) is how much of that charge is passing through. You can have something at 1000 volts that will not hurt you but 1000 amps on the other hand will kill you. It makes sense though that over or under volting means there's either too much energy or too little energy per charge, which can damage electronics.

As a matter of fact, motherboards do have the ability to measure voltage. The thing is, it's often easier to test the power supply itself as not all motherboard manufacturers provide a set of software to measure it. If you're lucky perhaps your motherboard manufacturer has provided software for overclocking and whatnot which may show it, so it's worth a check, but honestly I don't know. You'll have to look up your model on the manufacturer's website and see what software is bundled with it.

This is what my ASrock tuning utility looks like and you can see it is measuring the 12 volt, 5 volt and 3.3 volt PSU outlets.

 

[Under Dizzle]

Alright, my usbs are 5.035v
12v is at 12.097v
Nothing else is higher or too much lower than yours. Any other ideas? Need more info?
(thanks a lot for the reply Swan, really helping
If it makes a difference, the parts are no more than a year old.

 

[Swan]

Well, I think that we can within reasonable doubt rule out a power supply issue as your voltages are within smaller margins than mine are - supposing it's a voltage issue. There are other things that can go wrong with PSUs but if you're getting a consistent voltage then I think the PSU should be fine.

My next guess would be that it's a motherboard problem. I don't suppose you have any spares around? If not you can usually pick up inexpensive motherboards for like $50. If you can afford to, try setting up with another motherboard and see if it helps.

If you're interested you can also get a cheap PSU for like $25, so you could check if it's the power supply as well.

 

[SASRT8]

test your board with it powered up first, check voltages on outputs of your board. test your usb2 header and your USB3 header if you have one(surely you do).

on your USB2 header, your powered pins will be the last two, on the side opposite the blank pin. On the USB3 I'm not sure which one is power, but there are several. Just ground to something like your case and test each one, several of them will give voltage.

test your wireless adapter as well. If it is soldered to the board, test against the solder joints.

record everything then see if your tester can check resistance/continuity (it should, it will be the Ohm symbol) and do the same thing, but ground to a screw on your motherboard first, then to a spot on your case. record all numbers, including to the screw and to the case.
The reason for this comparison testing is that there is very slight chance, although very unlikely, that it may have a short to the case. I've only ever seen this once though, and it resulted in total failure of the PC.

You could also have tiny stress fractures in your motherboard. This is common from things like overtightening screws on the board, forcing tight power cables into the board, too much pressure when applying a cooler, a heavy air cooler causing shear forces against the motherboard, bumping said heavy cooler during a cleanout, heavy graphics cards that aren't secured properly...many other reasons. I'm not sure what type of motherboard you run, but I have seen this happen several times personally...most particularly on ASrock boards but it can happen to any board. This doesn't mean ASrock boards are bad they're just a little more delicate as their silicon is thinner. If you have a stress crack, it can often still make an electrical connection, but it will be more subject to "electrical leakage" where it can be affected by other tiny connections around it. In this case, you'll pick up a difference in resistivity from what it should be while still maintaining continuity. This can sometimes be tricky due to other components on the board such as resistors, but we can help you through all this.

 

[SASRT8]

if you can, tell us what motherboard you have.

 

[Under Dizzle]

Asus m5a99x Evo R2.0
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-M5A99X-EVO-R2-0-Motherboard/dp/B0091RA8U0