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Fried My Compy

M

mattag08

n00b
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
11
It seems I killed my computer. I had recently upgraded to a new setup and I was going to take off the side panel to check and make sure everything was working correctly. I decided to leave the computer on (big mistake I guess) because I wanted to make sure my new CPU fan was running correctly and I wanted to be able to feel the heat level coming off of it. The computer had been upgraded about three days prior and had been running for 72 hours straight with not a single glitch. I had even played some Flight Simulator X and Call of Duty 4 on it. All components in the computer were still at their stock clock speeds and nothing was OC'd yet.

As I removed the side panel the computer just powered down. I think there might have been a "pop" sound, but that could've also been my speakers reacting to their loss of input from the computer like they usually do when I shut down. I didn't see or smell anything yet so I tried to restart and of course the fans spun up and the lights came on, but no post or even so much as a blip from my motherboard....crap. Then I started smelling burning electronics so I quickly killed the PSU and pulled the plug.

I took all the parts out examined them, tried to isolate the issue and eventually determined that the most likely problem was the voltage regulators on my 8600GTS had blown out. The regulators were very slightly deformed (melted I think) and the 4-pin Molex had a little black burn mark on one corner of the connector. My motherboard, CPU, and video card were all determined to have been claimed by the incident (after testing the parts in a different computer) however my 2 SATA HDDs, my audio card, my DVD/CD drive, AND PSU all remained intact and are still in use (I reinstalled the components I had before the upgrade).

My question is:
What do you think caused this to happen? It was suggested to me that I might have touched a cable as I removed the side panel and that caused something to short circuit, but I was very careful to remove the panel straight upward and then out away from the case so that I didn't bump anything. I have a hard time believing this was the issue (especially when all cables are insulated and can be touched anyway). I also read somewhere that someone had a motherboard (not my make or model) that had some CPU backplate issue that caused a short because it was contacting with the case, I'm curious if something like this may have happened. The other reason I could think of was maybe I had an underpowered PSU, though my computer was just idling when I decided to remove the panel. Okay, well that's the whole story, lemme know what you think.

My system specs at time of death:

MSI 790GX Platinum
AMD Phenom 9950
Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066 2GB x 2 (4GB)
eVGA NVIDIA Geforce 8600GTS
2 SATA HDDs
1 IDE DVD/CD+-R/RW
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 PCI sound card
8 USB devices totaling about 600mA draw
Antec Truepower 550W PSU (about 2.7 years old)

*EDIT* Fixed typos.
 
What's the case model? Any mods done to it? Can opening the side panel touch anything? (Fan connected to mainboard, etc.)

If the motherboard, CPU and GPU got killed, something might have happened on the 12V line. The peripherals that weren't touched don't rely critically, or at all, on the 12V line.

What are your HDDs?
 
The case is a Lian Li PC-60A Plus ATX Mid Tower. AFAIK nothing touches the side panel. The wiring in the case could've used some work, but it wasn't anything too awful. There's always a slight chance that a cable could have been resting on the side panel, but I count that among the very unlikely.

I have one Seagate 160GB and one Western Digital Caviar SE 500GB drive.
 
OK, I was just wondering about the HDDs, WD's motor controllers have a tendency to blow when anything happens to the PSU rails. I believe it only happens when there's trouble with the 5V rail though.

The problem must lie somewhere around the mainboard, or since there are many 12V rails, it could be something that only touched one of them...
 
I forgot to mention one thing. The 4-pin molex that I referred to in my initial post was connected to the 8600GTS. That was the one that was burned on one corner. This was the only PSU connection to see any sort of damage and that's why I think its somehow linked to the video card.
 
From my experience, killing a CPU is very, very hard, practically impossible without really jacking up the voltages, so, it might not be dead. What kind of a system did you test it in? 9950's won't work on all AM2 boards.
 
The only time I fried a CPU was when I attached a thermal sensor on the the heatsink and it slid betwen the die and the cooler. Instant BOOM. Not fun blowing a cpu within an hour of opening your new hardware. Other then that I've never had a cpu failing. I have even ripped a cpu out of the socket with the arm lever still down with no effects. The thermal paste created a vaccuum and my waterblock would not seperate, instead it ripped it out of the socket. Scared me for sure.


I'd try pulling that card and putting something cheap in just to test - also another power supply. Narrow down the issue to either PSU or Video Card.

I had a burn/melted connection on my radeon 9800 pro from sapphire. The connection turned from white into a bubbled black. PSU went out. I attached a new PSU and the video card was fine.
 
I tested the items in another computer that I have. It wasn't compatibility. I'm not really trying to diagnose what's dead so much as figure out where I went wrong so I don't do it again and melt another board.
 
It could be the PSU, if it's out of warranty, you could look in it to see if there's something wrong. Molex connectors shouldn't be melting, unless a metallic part moved and shorted the video card while you opened the case.
 
I have had a Lian-Li PC60 for years now, since they first came out and were entirely too expensive. The case has housed numerous systems, I think I'm on the... 7th or 8th different motherboard setup now, and I open my side panel with the PC powered up literally all the damn time, never had an issue like that. I really doubt opening the side caused your problem, crazy coincidence tho. Sorry man.
 
My thoughts... PSU and some kind of freak grounding issue.
 
Welcome in the world of electric devices, the laws of nature are still here, you will never get answer why the fault happen. In small circuit board like as graphics card are milions of small circuits, which all are running in swtiching mode. Maybe the software error caused incorrect combination of conductive way and current flown to wrong location, which killed some components in your card and it is no longer repairable. I got the same problem on my old 6600GT. One time card just died and when it was still connected in computer, it did not started after it was powered on. And done same solution, immediately disconnected power cord from computer and pulled out all components, first thought was the dead mainboard, but later I discovered it was failed graphics card. But didn't spot any damaged components or smell of fried electronics.
 
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