zoomkat:
I don't want to fry anything, especially not my laptop.
Sounds like bad wiring, and your switch is possibly causing a short. Luckly most pcs have resettable USB fuses.
Spot on 
the switch was connected to the box and the circuits inside via a jack that was grounded to the metal enclosure, and the wrong pins where used, so the switch was causing a short, all is working perfectly!
Cheers,