5V and GND make momentary contact

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

After much banging my head against the wall troubleshooting I have discovered that on two!! of my Uno boards the built in 5V and GND pins make momentary contact. I have discerned this using a multimeter checking for continuity, my probes were attached to jumper cables which were respectively inserted into the 5V and GND built in pins.

The continuity was only detected as one probe (other probe was already inserted into 5V) first entered the GND header--once fully inserted continuity stopped. However my setup has been crashing from time to time irregularly and I think this may be the problem.

MY QUESTION: 5V and GND should never pass a continuity test as described above right?

Normally I would assume I had a faulty board but as my second Uno also behaved the exact same way I feel the need to ask the community. Can anybody make logical sense of this?

2

You cannot do a reliable continuity test on a board that is populated with components. To do this test the multimeter applies a small voltage to the probes and detects current flow. Current will naturally flow because the components are meant to draw current.
If you do have a mechanical problem with the pin headers you could discover this easily when you move/bend the headers and cables while the sketch is running. A short circuit between 5V an GND will immediately reset the Arduino

3

I suspect your momentary continuity is a false reading due to the caps across the power rail confusing the multimeter.