Bricked Motherboard from inserting RAM while PC still on

[seany123]

I've made a massive boob and accidentally connected RAM to a motherboard while the PC was on, this wasn't intentional so please save any ear bashing.

Once that happened the PC immediately powered off and i could smell smoke, now when i power up the motherboard shows power but i don't get any signal to the monitor with no beeps on startup.

I'm assuming either the motherboard and/or the RAM (which was already inserted on the motherboard) have been Damaged/Bricked.

so i'm going to have to order a new motherboard and RAM which will hopefully get me up and running again.

In the meantime I have a couple working albeit old PCs lying around which i had hoped to use, however when i inserted the HDD into the older PCs they wouldn't boot up, is this due to the hardware changes or do you think the HDD has been damaged also??

Any help would be great!
Cheers

 

[USAFRet]

Not booting in the other hardware is almost certainly because it is 'other hardware'.
Unlikely the drive or its contents got damaged. (but still a possibility)

The smoke, however...that IS a toasted part.

 

[seany123]

Not booting in the other hardware is almost certainly because it is 'other hardware'.
Unlikely the drive or its contents got damaged. (but still a possibility)

The smoke, however...that IS a toasted part.

Thankyou for the answer,
I'm going to work on the assumption at the moment that it is just the motherboard and possibly the RAM which are damaged.

as the computer is a few years old, I'm struggling to find the motherboard in stock (GigaByte GA-B150M-D2V DDR3).
if i was to buy a different motherboard and but use all the same hardware would i still get this booting issue due to hardware changes?

Cheers

 

[USAFRet]

Not booting in the other hardware is almost certainly because it is 'other hardware'.
Unlikely the drive or its contents got damaged. (but still a possibility)

The smoke, however...that IS a toasted part.

Thankyou for the answer,
I'm going to work on the assumption at the moment that it is just the motherboard and possibly the RAM which are damaged.

as the computer is a few years old, I'm struggling to find the motherboard in stock (GigaByte GA-B150M-D2V DDR3).
if i was to buy a different motherboard and but use all the same hardware would i still get this booting issue due to hardware changes?

Cheers

Unless it is an exact replacement, it would probably fail to boot as well.
Time for a clean install of the OS and everything else.

What OS is this?

 

[seany123]

Not booting in the other hardware is almost certainly because it is 'other hardware'.
Unlikely the drive or its contents got damaged. (but still a possibility)

The smoke, however...that IS a toasted part.

Thankyou for the answer,
I'm going to work on the assumption at the moment that it is just the motherboard and possibly the RAM which are damaged.

as the computer is a few years old, I'm struggling to find the motherboard in stock (GigaByte GA-B150M-D2V DDR3).
if i was to buy a different motherboard and but use all the same hardware would i still get this booting issue due to hardware changes?

Cheers

Unless it is an exact replacement, it would probably fail to boot as well.
Time for a clean install of the OS and everything else.

What OS is this?

This is using Windows 7.

I know i'm going off topic but is there no way of using a Hard-drive with new hardware without starting fresh?

Cheers

 

[USAFRet]

This is using Windows 7.

I know i'm going off topic but is there no way of using a Hard-drive with new hardware without starting fresh?

Cheers

Using a drive+original OS and a new motherboard or system, 3 basic possibilities:

1. It boots up just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It boots up, but you're chasing little issues for weeks

I've seen all 3.

Win 10 is better than earlier version, but still no guarantee.
Win 7? Likely won't boot up with new hardware.


If there is no real critical data on this drive, a full wipe and reinstall is the easiest way forward.

If there IS critical data on this drive (critical = leading to divorce or unemployment if it is lost), then you find a way to connect that drive as a secondary in some other system, copy the required data off, and then do what needs to be done with a wipe and reinstall in the other affected system.

Lastly, take this as a wakeup to start creating actual backups. Things happen all the time. Drives die, nasty virus, or some poor fool blows up the motherboard by changing components while it is ON...

A good continuous backup of your data means no unemployment line or stinkeye from your partner.