Esp8266 not powering up while grounded

So ive been strugling a bit with this, ive gone so far to replace all the led strips and the ESP board but i keep running in too the same issue.

I have about 45 leds getting power from 5v USB. The issue is that when i connect the data and ground to the esp i does not power upp (no blue led), but that issue is only present when i ground the led strip. I have an other setup like this that works fine but i cant figure this one out. I dont use a level shifter or use R on the data line.

Also, i have the leds from 2 gpio pins
Any ideas?

You have to add 10K pull-up resistor to your GPIO.