Hello all. I was messing around with the Arduino, a potentiometer, and an external voltage supply. Long story short, I think I accidentally shorted the computer connection to the board because the computer no longer recognizes the device (I checked in device manager and saw no ports), and when I try to upload a program to the board I get this error, “avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x30”.
All signs point to me frying the connection, but I just wanted to make sure this is possible and that my only solution is to buy a new board.
That is definitely a possibility.
As one last desperation act: Remove the '328P chip and try the loopback test. If that fails, the USB/Serial chip is likely dead, and few have the capability to remove & replace it successfully. It that passes, then perhaps you only need a new bootloaded '328P chip
and to be more careful with your wires.
If the USB/Serial chip is dead, you might still be able to use the "burned" board for 328P chips that are uploaded on a new working board.
Does the PC recognize other USB devices ? (the damage can also be on the PC side)