144 5v LEDs is something like 45watts at full brightness. That would draw 9 amps of power. There is no way you can provide anything close to that through the usb/Esp. You will kill it and or cause a fire.
You will also need power injection. You can’t send enough power for 144 5v LEDs when just powering them from the beginning of the string.
Did you adjust the brightness limiter in LED Preferences to something higher than it’s default 850mA?
*If you didn’t change that then your Esp is likely still good.
For 3 meters or 432 5v ws2812b LEDs
You should have at least a 30A power supply and wire that can also handle 30A
You could use more than 1 smaller power supply but make sure you isolate the positives but keep the ground common.
You could use your 12v supply with buck converters dropping the voltage to 5v at LED connection points. Doing this would also allow you to use smaller gauge wire as you would be sending a lower amperage down the line at 12v vs 5v.
*If you are not planning on using full brightness white you would likely be ok with a 10-12A 5v power supply. Make sure to have fused connections to the LEDs and to set the brightness limiter to a value a little bit lower than what your power supply and wire can handle. Just incase you happen to go over it.