Plugging A Certain Usb Cable Into My Computer Causes It To Shut Down.?

Maybe someone can tell me why this happened…
I have the Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver. Have used it for years… the cable has always been a bit touchy, but it always worked and never gave me errors. I read about problems with the thing trying to draw too much power from the USB, but that never seemed to phase my PC.
A bit ago a decided to move the tower and clean up the mess of wires piled up back there. When I got it all hooked back up, my adapter would not turn on. So, I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Instant shutdown. When I turned the computer back on, it told me the USB was drawing too much current and shut down; the only way to get it to start windows was to unlpug the wireless receiver. I spent around 2 hours updating BIOS, drivers, everything… trying to fix this and it still happened.
Finally I came to the conclusion that it must be the adapter cable, so I took one of my old play and charge kits, ripped it up and spliced the USB connector with the adapter’s cable. It works perfectly now.
My question is, how in the world would a broken USB cable cause the computer to shut down entirely? I’m guessing it’s a problem with the computer, but nothing else has caused this.