shorted fan header with multimeter and it won't work anymore

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silverwolf0

Gawd
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Jan 14, 2004
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I was checking the voltages on a fan header on the mainboard of an egpu enclosure. I accidentally shorted it by touching the multimeter ends together. There was a little spark and the enclosure shut down. I turned it back on and everything seems okay, including the video card, but the fan header doesn't work anymore. I've tried three different fans with no success. I'm not sure if it means anything but I tested it again and the fan header still shows 12v but it won't power anything.

Can this be fixed and how likely are other parts of the board affected?
 
What type of fan header? 3 or 4 pin. It is possible you blew the control circuitry if the 12v and ground pins are still working. Pwn fans are more sensitive to frying the control circuits. It also makes a difference where on the motherboard the header is. I've in the past blown a motherboard my shorting a fan header that was located in a sensitive part of the board.
 
How are you measuring the voltage? pin to pin or pin to somewhere else?

EDIT: after looking at the pic, it seems like you're missing a pin. From the board markings you have +12v and tach, but no ground, which would cause nothing to work.
 
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did you turn it off and on again? getting plug backwards? if not, you killed it.
 
cyberguyz said:
um.........
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Doesn't mean he wasn't trying to plug a three-pin or PWM fan into the two pin header.

If you're getting 12v from the pins the problem is likely with the fan. Assuming the pin with the square pad is +12v, you should be able to use three-pin or four-pin fans as long as you've got the connector oriented correctly.
 
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