I have a Nano ESP32-S3 and I was testing out one of the digital pins (D12) with a simple LED circuit. USB cable from my laptop was used for flashing and for power. The circuit was just a small LED connected to digital pin D12, then grounded back into the board using the ground pin on the digital side (next to pin D2).
I can't remember if it first happened after I flashed the code, or if it was when I connected the USB before flashing, but now every time I plug in the USB, Windows can't recognize the board and it won't make a COM port. The LED circuit was completed and connected before I plugged in the USB.
I've tried double clicking the board's reset button, as well as shorting pins B1 and GND then pressing reset, but the board still can't be recognized by Windows. I've tried unplugging and replugging the USB.
Another note--I had previously tried an identical LED test successfully on this board with the same pin, but instead of grounding to the board, it was grounded externally.
Any ideas? I can't fathom how a simple LED test could have this kind of an effect on an Arduino MCU.