Did I fry my cpu with my external drive?

[quill037]

Hello all. I have a frustrating issue related to my processor.

I was plugging my external western digital hard drive into one of my front panel usb 3.0 ports and my computer instantly shut off and sounded like it was restarting. After a second, the fans shut off and my computer would not turn on. When the power button was pressed, the fans would spin up and instantly stop, my computer turned off. There is no end to this and the computer will not start at all. I have tried replacing the RAM with extra sticks I know are good but the same issue persisted.

I had tried taking the cpu out and when I ran the computer with no cpu in the socket, the computer started normally with no interruption. Of course with no cpu in the screen remained blank but nonetheless, it started up like normal. Could this be a blown cpu and if so, why did this happen? What could I do in the future to prevent this? It seemed like normal operation. My specs are below.

SPECS:
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P (rev. 2) AM3+ AMD 970 SATA ATX
CPU: AMD FX 8320 VISHERA 8 CORE 3.5GHZ FX Processor
Power supply: 800W

 

[mdd1963]

any short in a USB connector path or device could take out a MB and/or PSU in short order...

Most would try another PSU first, but, I'd disconnect the USB port header from MB in question beforehand, just in case....;the drive in question could even be a suspect if the little bit of interface circuitry in the drive's USB enclosure developed a short in it....