HELP!!! Motherboard fire!!!

[NotAPimecone]

what holds the mobo in place?

Screws. There are holes in the standoffs so you can screw screws into them.

 

[jba6511]

can someone please post a pic so it will be clear. The only screws I saw in the case looked like they were for mounting the optical and hard drives. I messed up once and do not want to have the same thing happen again. The case is a Lian Li PC PLUS7

 

[Dade_0182]

The same screws you use for the PSU or to close the case. You have extra standoffs. Take some of those extra screws you have and see which ones fit.

 

[Dade_0182]

something like this or if that doesn't help this should

 

[Zorg]

The HDD is most likely OK. CHeck the video card and the CPU on another board (see if you have a friend who can help you with this).

I'm 99% sure the PSU is fried, but like I said, try getting it replaced.
Same for the othercomponents, althought you might have no luck.

I've got no problems recommending that people try to rip off large corporations. The costs will go up anyway, or will stay low anyway since they need to be competitive. Someone somewhere in the world can be 50 Million dollars poorer, I'll take that great sin upon my soul.

Look at gaz prices. Not exactly "competitive" are they? Yet we're all paying through the nose for it. But I digress.

This is a hardware forum, not a moral etiquette class. THe point is to help the OP. Besides we all know that anyone here would try to return fried hardware if they thought they had a decent chance for a refund/replacement, no matter how many times you go to church per week.


My 2c

Feel free to drop the ethics hammer.

Consider it dropped.

 

[clue69less]

I have actually thrown an old (ATI RAGE) video card away in a garbage that eventually was getting burned in a campfire at my cabin (very rural) and the PCB would only very slowly melt and burn even though it was at the heart of a healthy camp fire... props again to the OP for starting a fire INSIDE a case! 8O

It's actually easy to do... Just toss a laptop battery in there!

 

[Dade_0182]

A sony noe perhaps?

 

[Dade_0182]

Did that fire perhaps look anything like this?

 

[clue69less]

Did that fire perhaps look anything like this?

Put that in a case with a nice window in the door and you can sell it at Walmart in winter.

 

[Dade_0182]

QuadFX anyone, or does this still fall under the Presshot family? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Nitro350Z]

Combine the two! Just imagine what would have happened if Intel had a 4x4 platform with Prescott processors. You could get rid of your oven, furnace, water heater, and just about anything else that makes heat in your home. Have one proc water cooled for the water heater and the other on air as the furnace. Even overclock to increase temps in the house. :twisted:

 

[plankmeister]

Is it just me, or this is an obvious troll?

If you screwed the board into the case without the standoffs, the board would sit "lower" in the case, so when you plugged your VGA card in, the tab at the top of the back plate would prevent the card being installed correctly. The pins on the card towards the back of the slot would not be in the slot. Unless you BENT the motherboard... which introduces the possibility that you've done irreparable damage to the board.

Also, most PSUs are designed to cut off as soon as a short is detected (Unless you have a real cheap-a$$ PSU.) This reaction takes milliseconds, if not microseconds. The flame would have taken substantially longer to form.

Also, you say there's no damage to the board, yet the entire reason a flame exists is because it's burning something. Something on your motherboard (even if it's just the epoxy) has been used as fuel. There will be some kind of evidence on the board of fire damage. (Unless it was the insulator on the wires of the PSU that melted and caught fire)

Hmmm....

 

[plankmeister]

Did that fire perhaps look anything like this?

Heh heh!

Great pic... but I notice a couple of things... there's no PSU in the case, and it looks like there's grass and trees visible through the hole, and is that a branch coming in on the right-hand side? I guess someone threw this on their camp-fire!

 

[Dade_0182]

Damn that's hawt!!!!! (and not in the sexy way)

@Plankmeister: He doesn't seem like a troll. He'll only look like one if you're out looking for one.

Concerning the pic, I was out browsing for something else and I found it. Just posted it coz I thought it would bring a laugh as it is relevant to the topic. I didn't examine it as thoroughly as you did but good observation. Nothing a bit of petrol can't do either.

 

[Ls3D]

so i place the standoffs in the case and then place the mobo on top of them, but what holds the mobo in place?

The screws that thread into the standoffs through the MoBo.

So sorry but thanks for the amusement, you seem to be taking it like a man.

-S

EDIT: Sorry did not notice this spanned a page!

 

[plankmeister]

E6400 @ 3.4 GHz ( 425*8 )
Zalman CNPS9700 LED
Gigabyte P965-DS3 ( F7 )
2GB Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 @ 850 MHz, 4-4-4-12
Aerocool ExtremEngine3T
Sapphire X1900XT 256 MB

Wow... awesome system. Almost identical to the one I'm planning. What idle/load temps do you get? I was only going to go for 3.2, but I see that 3.4 is possible... Interesting 😀

 

[NotAPimecone]

100% load with dual-orthos or dual-prime tops out around 52C (CoreTemp) with vcore at 1.325V, and all my other voltages (except for my RAM, which is spec'ed for 2.1V) at "normal". It's absolutely stable - 36 hours dual-prime95, 24 hours dual-orthos, many, many passes of memtest.

I have to raise voltages substantially higher to get faster (like 3.6GHz), and it gets too warm. But the 9700 isn't the absolute best HSF out there (I'm thinking about trying a Tuniq Tower 120, just for fun), and I have a really shitty PSU (X-Finity 500W) which I'm replacing with a much better one (GameXStream 700W - got it for $99CDN after rebate on a boxing day sale). It was the one component I (foolishly) didn't look into carefully, and I figure even if it doesn't help me OC higher, a better PSU can't hurt.

 

[njvsav]

Did that fire perhaps look anything like this?

ROFL, typical Shuttle picture. 😛

 

[duthoy]

the orange color also can be some electronic component blowing up.
i had this once with a reciever, there weren"t any flames, but a orange glow getting brighter until, SSSssss..., dead.
a motherboard is made from non-flammable materials.
and if the mobo was burning, you should see a all black area.

 

[jba6511]

it was an orange flame at the top right corner of the board right before the 24 pin connector. I smelt burning, looked in the case and freaked out. My inital reaction was f**k so I wasnt really trying to remember the details. Trust me it happened and now I am out a board. Thanks for helping me determine the correct way to install this. Hopefully Not everything is fried and all I need is a new board. Is there any way I can test the PSU and make sure that it still works? I know they have the tool you can buy but I dont want to spend anymore money in case I end up having to buy everything again. Can I simply hook the PSU into a case fan and power up?

 

[piratepast40]

Some computer shops will test your PSU for free. PC Clubs checked mine with a tester that plugged into the 20/24 pin mobo connector. You might want to have them check your CPU too while you're there. They charged me $25 to check the CPU but some might do it for free.

Good luck - I feel your pain!

 

[jba6511]

tried the local shop but they want 45 to test and said they can not do it without a mobo. Any other ideas?

 

[lotussama]

In layers, starting from the motherboard tray (the metal plate that you attach the motherboard to).

Motherboard Tray
Brass Standoffs
Motherboard
Screws, screwing into the threads inside the top of the brass standoffs

 

[Fulmar]

Did that fire perhaps look anything like this?

ROFL, typical Shuttle picture. 😛

LOL

Reminds me of high school when my friend an I created a lot of black smoke when we burned 2 PCs and a monitor (ancient stuff) with diesel fuel. Good thing we did it at night cuz that was black as black.

I'm sure I lost a few million brain cells sitting near that fire that night. I want 5 more points on my ACT!

 

[piratepast40]

Check the phonebook and see if there's any other shops around that will help you out. The PSU test should be free. Most have a tester that plugs into the 20/24 pin port. Even Best Buy should do that test for free.

As far as testing everything else, most shops will charge you for testing the mobo and CPU. I don't understand why they say they need a mobo to test the CPU - if they're a repair shop vs an assembly shop, they should have mobo's around they can use to test. Many "techs" at shops are "parts replacers" and not actual computer technicians. There's a HUGE difference! Again, if you want a professional technician to check your equipment, you'll most likely have to pay for it - that's what they do for a living. I've seen prices around $79.00 for a full diagnosis but that includes a full checkout of all your RAM, video card, PSU, CPU, and mobo.

Just keep calling around to find someone who can actually help - of course, you then need to decide if it's worth the price to just throw things away or find out if they're actually usable.