Did my faulty PSU kill my motherboard?

MentalNoob

MentalNoob

MentalNoob

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So just to give you guys a general view of what happened.. A bit of backstory...

I just bought 2 new ram sticks to upgrade my potato PC from 2x4gb to 4x4gb and also hooked up a new external microphone.. After playing games for a while on the upgraded system i noticed a weird funky burning plastic smell and my friends told me they were hearing some static noise over discord.. So i thought it could have been the microphone, but the next day i turned on my PC i was getting boot failure warning due to overclocking, i immediately tried to re-configure my overclock settings.. But nothing worked, every time i would re-boot i would get a boot failure and it would revert to stock settings. Then i just left it on stock clocks and i still got boot failures. After turning the PC on and off while tuning settings i noticed that burning plastic smell come back and it was coming from the back of the PSU. I immediately turned the PC off and removed the PSU, thankfully it is a corsair HX series so i already set-up a RMA.
Now the thing is i also noticed that 4 of the 8 12v pins on my motherboard looked burnt.
I have attached images below.. Now im pretty sure what the answer is but gonna ask anyway.. Do i need a new mobo or could this one still work after i get my replacement PSU?
IMG-20201014-170438.jpg

IMG-20201014-170544.jpg
 
It doesn't look that bad.
I would Advise you to take out mobo.
And investigate upclose and behind it.
If it was shorted, then some fuses or some capacitors might be gone,
If that's the case u will know.
Look for melting damage.
Even if its clean it's multilayered so no guarantee there.

U can use a multimeter and look if there is any shorts, but u have to know what u doing.

Other option plug in new psu and pray.
 
Thanks for the response guys. I am uncertain if the boot fail warnings are due to the PSU not supplying the right amount of voltage/power or due to the motherboard being damaged from the faulty PSU. I will check if i can identify any more damage on the back side.
I am not an expert on hardware so i do not know if i will be able to identify damage with a multimeter. If somebody has a link to a how-to guide for that please let me know, i am willing to try.
 
I wouldn't risk it. You could end up doing the same with the replacement PSU. The board is 8 years old and has probably had its day, if you can afford it then its time to upgrade.
 
That's bad contact fault, not internal PSU fault.
Or then CPU VRM is failing and somehow drew enough current to overload/stress that connector.
Which is unlikely, because of EPS12V connector being rated for 380W, which would seriously grill those uncooled MOSFETs.

And looks lot like case is designed in last millennium and using PSU as exhaust for heat and any smokes.
 
EsaT said:
That's bad contact fault, not internal PSU fault.
Or then CPU VRM is failing and somehow drew enough current to overload/stress that connector.
Which is unlikely, because of EPS12V connector being rated for 380W, which would seriously grill those uncooled MOSFETs.

And looks lot like case is designed in last millennium and using PSU as exhaust for heat and any smokes.
Click to expand...
There was no smoke, only burning plastic smell coming from the back of the PSU, the PSU fan was on standby since its a corsair HX model.
I have a 80cm exhaust fan where the cpu and connector are.. So i would have noticed any smoke coming from there. The PSU did last me for almost 7 years of heavy gaming tho, so it was nearing its end.. I guess those extra 2 ram sticks i installed made it happen.
 
Originally loose/over time loosened contacts burning connectors are nothing new and if you Google you'll find plenty of pics.
That connector would be literally the last thing PSU's failure would damage.
Probably even letting 240VAC straight through would have no effect on it.
 
EsaT said:
Originally loose/over time loosened contacts burning connectors are nothing new and if you Google you'll find plenty of pics.
That connector would be literally the last thing PSU's failure would damage.
Probably even letting 240VAC straight through would have no effect on it.
Click to expand...
The thing is the connector definitely wasn't loose.. It took me a few minutes just to detach the pins cause they were so firmly attached with their locks
 
Its possible you have a short behind the board, as EsaT said its unlikely to be a short on the VRM as they would explode
 
MentalNoob said:
The thing is the connector definitely wasn't loose.. It took me a few minutes just to detach the pins cause they were so firmly attached with their locks
Click to expand...
Things melt when heated enough, which often gets those things stuck.
And either 12V contacts were loose, or something drew some very excessive current for a far longer time than few seconds.
 
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