I made a video about the Chinese USB cable: Here are pictures of a defective USB cable with an intermittent shield, because the connectors were not properly crimped to the braid: But I have found other cables with gold color that were not as reliable. They have a clear jacket and a braided gold-colored shield, and the connectors are also gold colored. I have had problems in the past with USB cables for a device I designed and manufactured, and I bought a large quantity of cables that proved to be reliable. The cheap Chinese USB cable also has a fake common mode choke, just a lump of non-magnetic plastic. 24AWG/1PR AND 24AWG/2C 80 C 30V CSA AWM I/II A FT4 80C 30V TUNG AN ****' I have checked other USB cables, and I have found many with poor conductivity of the shields to connector shells, and some with no connection and probably no shield. I measured the resistance of this cable, and it is about 2.3 to 2.6 ohms pin to pin, and no connection between connector shells. However, I can set the voltage to 4.75 VDC and it programs OK. But when I tried to program the device, it reports that the voltage at the device is 4.75 V and says it is drawing too much current. I have some cheap Chinese USB cables that are NOT shielded, and when I use one of them instead of the one supplied with the PICkit, it connects and stays connected even if I wiggle the connector at the computer. If I don't wiggle it, I can program a target device (PIC12F675) using 5 VDC from the PICkit with no problems. The resistance from pin to pin and between the connector shells of the customer's PICkit cable reads less than 0.5 ohms. The printing on the label of my PICkit 3 has worn off, but it also comes up in MPLABX as BUR154275038. This seems to be a new PICkit 3 (10-00424-R7 S/N BUR154275038) and the cable has a transparent red jacket with a braided shield visible. It connects and enumerates OK but if I wiggle the connector up and down it disconnects. I have a PICkit 3 from a customer and there seems to be a bad connection from the USB-A male connector to the USB port of the computer.

Pickit 3 cable