[SOLVED] Have I fried PSU or motherboard? Put Case Fan into F-USB3 port on motherboard. A short quiet zap happened when tried to turn on with no life at all.

[Mattt98]

Have I fried PSU or motherboard?

Put Case Fan into F-USB3 port on motherboard. A short quiet zap happened when tried to turn on with no life at all.

 

[1LiquidPC]

going to need more details here. System specs, ect. Any visual damage signs, charring, black marks, ect. Any strange electronic smells? Which fan model? Pics if possible of connection point.

 

[Mattt98]

going to need more details here. System specs, ect. Any visual damage signs, charring, black marks, ect. Any strange electronic smells? Which fan model? Pics if possible of connection point.

Hi thanks for replying I'm genuinely stressing as it's getting sold monday.

Gigabyte 970A-DS3 motherboard
Bulldozer FX6100
8gb Corsair 1600mhz
Gigabyte R9 380 G1 4GB gpu
Fan installing: Golden Field Solar Halo 120mm

As you can see in the picture I successfully got the 1st fan in working. Although there wasnt enough wire length for the other fan so I put it into an F-USB3 port (whatever that's used for), I then put the psu cable into the psu and there was a short cap noise. The pc then wouldnt turn on.

I've changed the cable and it makes no difference.

I'm truly stressing I cant afford to buy all new components and hope I havent f****d all the other components.

 

[1LiquidPC]

Thanks for the update, but not able to see the pic. Do you mean you installed 3 or 4 pin fan wire into USB, and connected 4pin molex to power supply?

 

[Mattt98]

Hi thanks for replying I'm genuinely stressing as it's getting sold monday.

Gigabyte 970A-DS3 motherboard
Bulldozer FX6100
8gb Corsair 1600mhz
Gigabyte R9 380 G1 4GB gpu
Fan installing: Golden Field Solar Halo 120mm

As you can see in the picture I successfully got the 1st fan in working. Although there wasnt enough wire length for the other fan so I put it into an F-USB3 port (whatever that's used for), I then put the psu cable into the psu and there was a short cap noise. The pc then wouldnt turn on.

I've changed the cable and it makes no difference.

I'm truly stressing I cant afford to buy all new components and hope I havent f****d all the other components.

Thanks for the update, but not able to see the pic. Do you mean you installed 3 or 4 pin fan wire into USB, and connected 4pin molex to power supply?

Go to this link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=123elXybsOP8UFfeyqxPKdcQTDomwbe41

I put 3 pin into motherboard into F-USB3 port, didnt touch molex at the time

 

[1LiquidPC]

Ok. Thanks for update. Have you attempted to reseat and reconnect all other wires, cables, GPU, RAM, ect.? You mention no signs of life at all? Have you tried the "paperclip test" on the PSU?

 

[Mattt98]

Ok. Thanks for update. Have you attempted to reseat and reconnect all other wires, cables, GPU, RAM, ect.? You mention no signs of life at all? Have you tried the "paperclip test" on the PSU?

I will do those things shortly, if theres no sign of life, is it likely just the psu is broken or other things?

 

[1LiquidPC]

If there are no signs of life, could be board or PSU. The paperclip test is just a quick test to see if PSU functions at all. Given that the fan in question was only directly connected to the motherboard though, I'd lean more towards the damage there with current information.

 

[Mattt98]

If there are no signs of life, could be board or PSU. The paperclip test is just a quick test to see if PSU functions at all. Given that the fan in question was only directly connected to the motherboard though, I'd lean more towards the damage there with current information.

Done the paperclip test the psu works, so I'm taking it and putting all.compoenents back in. If it doent work, could this be motherboard is <<EDITED>>?

 

[1LiquidPC]

Could well be the case. The paperclip test isn't %100 definitive, but it's used for showing signs of life. I'll usually hook up a fan or HDD as well to ensure it's powering those up as well to verify output. That said, if you get no standby LEDs on, no fan spin, or any signs of life after hooking things back up, it's going to be either PSU or board failure. Since paperclip already turned on the PSU, we know it's not completely fried. If you still get nothing, I'd say the board is shot.

 

[Mattt98]

Could well be the case. The paperclip test isn't %100 definitive, but it's used for showing signs of life. I'll usually hook up a fan or HDD as well to ensure it's powering those up as well to verify output. That said, if you get no standby LEDs on, no fan spin, or any signs of life after hooking things back up, it's going to be either PSU or board failure. Since paperclip already turned on the PSU, we know it's not completely fried. If you still get nothing, I'd say the board is shot.

Tested motherboard with cpu and ram installed. Just a zap noise with no power.

 

[1LiquidPC]

That's about minimal hardware as you can get for testing. Looking like the board is dead at this point.

 

[Mattt98]

That's about minimal hardware as you can get for testing. Looking like the board is dead at this point.

Question is, is it worth me buying a new motherboard to salvage the pc or just sell the remaining parts. It's a dead piece of kit now. Guttered.

 

[1LiquidPC]

Well, depends on budget and plans for PC are going forward. I don't believe your going to get much $ from remaining parts. The FX series was never popular overall outside of pricing. Even a cheap Ryzen platform combo deal(board, CPU, RAM) would be a huge upgrade. GPU's are quite competitive in pricing as well. Getting a replacement board would likely cost almost as much as a modern AM4 B450 board and 2200G combo for example. Plenty of options with new. Again, it's all on your budget.