What have I done? :(

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 15:06

Hey all,

Just been doing a bit of cable neatening around my case went to power it up and...nothing. Tried making sure all my power cables were good and started it again, noticed my fans turned about half a turn then a loud cracking bang and a big spark from my mobo.

is a picture of what I was doing and I am fairly sure the spark was from the blue heatsink here

Anybody know what might have happened? I had it working fine this morning not changed any of the set up at all except to tidy a few cables from around the fans at the top. If I have somehow killed the mobo will anything else have been damaged too?

Thanks for ready, and any help.

Davefran · 24 Sep 2011 at 15:30

That PCI-X x1 slot looks like it's burnt out, has something fallen into it and shorted out.

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 15:37

Just had a close look at that, its a bit of camera shadow I think. Looks fine to my eye, I can see no sign of any damage anywhere on the board at all. Dont suppose I should think of trying it again though should I?

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 15:39

Tiggerlator, I dont know I bought a 3pin splitter thing, so I have two 120mm fans coming from that one header. That is a new part I tried today. :/ assumed that would be fine??

edscdk · 24 Sep 2011 at 15:44

usually very hard to blow up more than one component..

mobo toast, everything else likely fine

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 15:46

Just had a look to try and get a better pic of the pci slot, turns out that heat sink is wobbly. Think it might well have broken off entirely except from those two side pins you can see in the pictures.

bugger

varkanoid · 24 Sep 2011 at 17:59

the side pins hold the heatsink on, it doesn't "break off" the chip underneath there will just be TIM contact between chip and heatsink, if its slightly wobbly its just due to movement over the chip underneath.

now if one of the side pins has broken then that would mean the heatsink would move more, you always get slight movement with heatsinks depending on the tim underneath.

At a guess you have blown your PSU.

biuro74 · 24 Sep 2011 at 20:21

You've got a WC, a spark from blue heatsink located just underneath might suggest You've had a small leaking.

Hyburnate · 24 Sep 2011 at 20:32

What company is your WC from?

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:05

The WC is the http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-OP

I hadn't thought that there could be a leak, I will check this out now and find out if that could be it.

If I power it up and it starts to boot up, could there be any danger to any other components at all do you think?

Really not sure what to do :/

Emphacy · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:10

Sounds more like a blown capacitor to me...

Was there any smoke and paper/ waxy deposits in your case OP?

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:13

Little bit of smoke, it really stank like something was burnt out. No waxy deposits at all. Have had a proper look around it and there is no sign anywhere of any leak from the wc.

I just think it is really weird that it didn't "fire up" at all, normally the fans are on full blast right away, but they only managed a half spin and then stopped, it was the next time I tried it that there was the bang.

Cheers,
Mike

hohum · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:19

You may have overloaded the fan header circuitry by having two fans on one header with that adaptor.

Jokester · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:22

Sounds like the fan spliiter meant you pulled to much current from the header, what model of fans are they?

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:25

Does anyone think it would be safe to try booting it again? Maybe with the gpu removed? or if I have the fans with out the adapter?

Jokester · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:27

I would unplug the adaptor and see if it goes, but sparks are never a good thing.

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:35

I think I will leave it until the morning now. I will try it without the adapter, I just cant see what would have made it try to start then give up.

Thanks for all the help today, I will update this tomorrow morning.
Mike,

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:37

Jokester said:
Sounds like the fan spliiter meant you pulled to much current from the header, what model of fans are they?

Sorry I missed this question before, they are both 120mm Xilence Red Wing fans. That header near there powers the two in the front of the case.

Jokester · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:42

Hmmm, that's only going to pull about 0.2A, so maybe I dunno 0.5A to start them or something. Certaininly nothing out of the ordinary.

Red Alert · 24 Sep 2011 at 21:49

Cheers Jokester, I will have a try booting it tomorrow see how I get on. Just really worried that if it has happened this once, even if it does boot there is a problem in there somewhere.