A hand-held test meter for use with an analytical test strip in the determination of an analyte (such as glucose) in a bodily fluid sample (for example, a whole blood sample) includes a housing, a test meter control circuit block, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector block that includes an unpowered USB connection detection circuit block. The unpowered USB connection detection circuit block is configured to provide a shielding signal of a first potential (for example, a high-level signal) to the test meter circuit control block when a USB connection to an external device has been made to the USB connector block and a shielding signal of a second potential (such as a low-level signal representative of ground) to the test meter control circuit block when a USB connection to a an device has been made to the USB connector block. In addition, the test meter control circuit block is configured to interrupt operation of the hand-held test meter when the shielding signal of the second potential is received from the USB connector block.