@drgeoff,
To answer your question I had found and purchased a full size USB - USB cable specifically to run that test. Yes they are a rare cable these days.
I re-read that post and you are correct, the USB - USB method only works with: PI model A, A+ or Zero.

Thank you all for the replies.

After a bit of research I found out that I had connected the fan in the completely wrong place on the GPIO pins 1 & 3 where i should have connected it to pins 4 & 6...while the Pi was currently powered on.
good bye Pi?

Live and learn.

Thank you for the reply, Yes, the Pi was receiving power and on when I plugged in the fan, during the installation process... :| I will measure the voltage as you said and check the readings. So the SD cards should all be fine then? If for some reason the Pi is not fried and I get the readings you m...

Looking for help please. I recently purchased the 3B+ . Like most people I am also having problems with the SD card not reading and booting. Although I am new to this hardware and software I am extremely competent in reading/watching tutorials and following instructions. With that said below are the...