A hardware device, inserted in a universal serial bus port of a computing device, is detected. A counter is set to an initial value of one. In response to determining that one or more device descriptors associated with the hardware device are not received by the computing device within a predetermined time period, the hardware device is prevented from discharging a high-voltage charge into the computing device by inhibiting the hardware device from storing the high-voltage charge in a capacitor of the hardware device.