[SOLVED] Found PC off in the morning, turned it on, Spark + smoke.

[kinar100]

UPDATE: I did the paperclip PSU test and the PSU turns on just fine. Still leaves me wondering what exactly happened between leaving the machine running last night (like I've done many nights before) and this morning to cause the mobo to short. Just a matter of time? Also, if the PSU turns on, should I stick with it or look at buying a new one?

Hello there and thank you in advance for any input. I am decently versed in IT/tech but have never run into an issue such as this and I am hoping to collect some input on best steps forward.

I have a Desktop machine built in 2016 that consists of:

i7-6800k 3.4hz 2011-V3
ASRock x99 Taichi
RM850x 850W PSU
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 128gb DDR4 2666 RAM
RTX 2080ti
Samsung 950 PRO M.2 512gb
Numerous HD/SSDS

Last month I installed the RTX 2080ti and an additional SSD which have been the only hardware upgrades really since 2016. PC has never really had any issues aside from the random BSOD maybe once a year. My lease on my office space was up Sept 1st and as I wait for the new office to finish renovations I have moved my machines to a 10x10 room in my house in Southern California. Since Tuesday my machine has been humming away without issues in my office, rendering 3D files and or operating live streams etc. Zero problems.

Last night (9-5-2020) I set it to render some files prior to going to bed and went to sleep. Woke up and found that it was off. I tried to start it and power button did nothing. I pressed it another time and heard a quick sizzle then a little bit of smoke came out. First time this has ever happened in my 20 or so years with PC's. Machine has been in the same operating spot for 3 days operating fine. The room is a bit hot but I hadn't seen any issues.

Took most of the things out of it, put it on it's side and checked all the connections. Everything seemed fine. I couldn't find any visible damage to the board. Removed everything but the processor, PSU and Mobo. Hit power and saw a spark shoot out of the top of the mobo near the MOS_Heatsink and ATX connectors. It looks like it either came from the ATX connector or the Transistors near the MOS_Heatsink on my X99 Taichi.

I run my own business and work 7 days a week so running into an issue like this is definitely not something I want to deal with long term, nor do I want to fork over the money needed to upgrade (although mobo/processor might be time anyways) right now.

After the second spark I took out the mobo, looked it over thoroughly and still couldn't find any damage at all. Right now it's just sitting in the case. I am scared to try it again for fear of further nuking my board and processor.

Should I be looking at replacing the mobo and the processor right now? The 2011-V3 socket is not that common anymore and it might make sense to grab a new mobo and a new processor that is more in line with virtual production/video editing which is my current core service offering. This requires more M2 and PCIE slots. I figure the HD's, RAM and the GPU should all be fine. I am not sure how to test the PSU and to see if the processor is fine but like I said, this hasn't happened to me before and to have it happen when I wasn't around makes it even harder to figure out what is wrong.

Any insight into a next step? Right now I've got a shopping cart ready to drop on a i9-9900k + LGA 1151 Mobo or a Ryzen 9 + compatible mobo. Hoping (and praying) that the RAM, GPU and HDS are all fine.

 

[bishopi5]

I can tell you right now that its 99% positive its going to be that ASrock mobo, CPU's rarely die especially intel ones, ASrock on the other hand, i had to replace same mobo 3 times in a year, never been back, You should be able to get a motherboard cheap as chips since its an oldish chipset, So would be better then dropping all ya cash on 9900k and mobo in my opinion