How to Check if Micro-USB Cable has a Short?
The easiest way to check a cable for shorts is to push a mating USB jack on one end of the cable. The jack will have the solder connections sticking out so that it is easy to check for shorts on the cable with your multimeter. The multimeter can be set for a low ohms range and then perform shorts checks including:


V+ to D-
V+ to D+
V+ to GND
D- to D+
D- to GND
D+ to GND


It is equally likely that the cable, if it is even possibly bad, to have an internal open circuit. In similar manner it is possible test this with a USB jack pushed onto both ends of the cable and then testing for continuity end to end:


V+ to V+
D- to D-
D+ to D+
GND to GND