I might have accidentally fried my motherboard

[lycidity]

Parts:
i5-7600k
Gigabyte GTX 1080
Corsair RMx Series RM750X 750W 80 PLUS
H60 Corsair liquid cooling
8GB x 2 Corsair Vengence RAM
Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming Mobo

Last night I was building my PC, assembled everything and the PC booted up magnificently, I even installed windows and all the drivers for the GPU and MOBO.
The only problem that annoyed me was that the power wire of the controller that connected the 3 LED front fans to the PSU had a broken Molex head, so the fans would only work if I connected it directly onto the MOBO itself. I did so and only 2 out of the 3 fans would light up; but at least all 3 were working. This bothered me because the case had a glass front plate, so missing 1 fan made the aesthetics look bad.
Anyway, I had a long night and powered down my newly built PC for the day. The next morning I booted my PC and everything started up as normal. The fans were still bothering me, so I attempted to see if the box came with a spare 3 pin to Molex head adapter wire to connect to the PSU for the fan controller. this is where I got careless and eff'd up bad

I'm not at home right now so I'll try to describe this next part in as much detail as possible for the lack of pictures. I found a Molex adapter which had a female 4 pin receiver, which looked identical to the original female 3 pin to Molex head that was broken. I then connected the 4 pin head to where I thought was the right spot on the controller, however.... As I later found out, it was a spot to connect for a fan. The controller confused me because it had side-by-side connecting pins so you can plug multiple fans. In total, there were 18 pins; 6 on the top, right and bottom. The left side was for the 3 pin power cord to connect to and it specifically had 3 pins. Being the stupid person that I was, I connected the 4 pin head to the bottom side and connected the Molex head straight into the PSU.
As soon as i pressed the power button to boot up, the PC turned on for a split second and then I heard a POP noise, followed by a burnt smell. Needless to say, the PC did not turn on afterwards.
ATTEMPT TO FIX: I tested the PSU with the paperclip to 24 pins trick to see if the fan turned on. It did. I then connected it with my other build and it powered that PC on fine. So the PSU is ruled out. I tried testing the MOBO by having plugged in just one stick of ram, re-plugging in the 24 pins and the 6 pin CPU power, but this did nothing and the MOBO did not turn on.
My only conclusion is that the MOBO could be fried due to my stupid attempt to macgyver the fan controller.
Any input on my endeavor would be appreciated. I inspected the MOBO thoroughly but I did not find any scorching on either the front or back. I also checked the CPU chip and found no marks either; but I know this doesn't mean that the CPU would be okay. I really hope that it only damaged the MOBO. I did not test the CPU, GPU, or the RAM

The fan controller looks identical to this (http://i.imgur.com/XLOzagv.jpg)

 

[wehler53]

So basically what you're saying is, you plugged the fan controller straight into the PSU through one of the controllers fan slots?

 

[lycidity]

So basically what you're saying is, you plugged the fan controller straight into the PSU through one of the controllers fan slots?

Sadly yes. Do you think this would be enough to fry the MOBO? What surprises me is the PSU is fine apparently.

 

[wehler53]

I would have been very surprised if the PSU died. The pop and burning would have most likely came from the fan control unit, as it was just fed an awful lot of power into a part of it which is meant to be sending power. Depending on how you've set it up it could be the fan controller stopping the computer from starting particularly if the mobo isn't sensing any fans.

However the bad news is if it has fed the power striaght back through the controller and too the motherboard and fried it, all of the components on it will be at great danger of being damaged. So you will need to test them all. I would highly recommend stress testing them to make sure they work correctly.

 

[lycidity]

I would have been very surprised if the PSU died. The pop and burning would have most likely came from the fan control unit, as it was just fed an awful lot of power into a part of it which is meant to be sending power. Depending on how you've set it up it could be the fan controller stopping the computer from starting particularly if the mobo isn't sensing any fans.

However the bad news is if it has fed the power striaght back through the controller and too the motherboard and fried it, all of the components on it will be at great danger of being damaged. So you will need to test them all. I would highly recommend stress testing them to make sure they work correctly.

It could be that the capacitor on the fan controller popped and not one on the motherboard. This would make more sense because the controller isn't necessarily connected to the motherboard in any way. The controller is just connected to the front fans, a wire that connects to the top of the case to indicate fan speed, and then the PSU itself; no wires lead the motherboard. Basically the controller is independent of the motherboard, it is controlled via the top of the chassis and not with a program.

I unplugged all of the front fans and left only the fan of my H60 water cooling connected to the motherboard but when I tried to power it on it wouldn't work. I also connected how it was originally with leaving out the controller and plugging the fans straight onto the motherboard and it still would not turn on. It just doesn't make any sense why it would not turn on.

 

[wehler53]

Is your power supply modular?

So the fan controller isn't plugged into the mobo at all?

 

[lycidity]

Is your power supply modular?

So the fan controller isn't plugged into the mobo at all?

Yes the PSU is modular, and the fan controller is not connected to the motherboard at all.

 

[Doombot1]

Parts:
i5-7600k
Gigabyte GTX 1080
Corsair RMx Series RM750X 750W 80 PLUS
H60 Corsair liquid cooling
8GB x 2 Corsair Vengence RAM
Gigabyte Z270X-Ultra Gaming Mobo

Last night I was building my PC, assembled everything and the PC booted up magnificently, I even installed windows and all the drivers for the GPU and MOBO.
The only problem that annoyed me was that the power wire of the controller that connected the 3 LED front fans to the PSU had a broken Molex head, so the fans would only work if I connected it directly onto the MOBO itself. I did so and only 2 out of the 3 fans would light up; but at least all 3 were working. This bothered me because the case had a glass front plate, so missing 1 fan made the aesthetics look bad.
Anyway, I had a long night and powered down my newly built PC for the day. The next morning I booted my PC and everything started up as normal. The fans were still bothering me, so I attempted to see if the box came with a spare 3 pin to Molex head adapter wire to connect to the PSU for the fan controller. this is where I got careless and eff'd up bad

I'm not at home right now so I'll try to describe this next part in as much detail as possible for the lack of pictures. I found a Molex adapter which had a female 4 pin receiver, which looked identical to the original female 3 pin to Molex head that was broken. I then connected the 4 pin head to where I thought was the right spot on the controller, however.... As I later found out, it was a spot to connect for a fan. The controller confused me because it had side-by-side connecting pins so you can plug multiple fans. In total, there were 18 pins; 6 on the top, right and bottom. The left side was for the 3 pin power cord to connect to and it specifically had 3 pins. Being the stupid person that I was, I connected the 4 pin head to the bottom side and connected the Molex head straight into the PSU.
As soon as i pressed the power button to boot up, the PC turned on for a split second and then I heard a POP noise, followed by a burnt smell. Needless to say, the PC did not turn on afterwards.
ATTEMPT TO FIX: I tested the PSU with the paperclip to 24 pins trick to see if the fan turned on. It did. I then connected it with my other build and it powered that PC on fine. So the PSU is ruled out. I tried testing the MOBO by having plugged in just one stick of ram, re-plugging in the 24 pins and the 6 pin CPU power, but this did nothing and the MOBO did not turn on.
My only conclusion is that the MOBO could be fried due to my stupid attempt to macgyver the fan controller.
Any input on my endeavor would be appreciated. I inspected the MOBO thoroughly but I did not find any scorching on either the front or back. I also checked the CPU chip and found no marks either; but I know this doesn't mean that the CPU would be okay. I really hope that it only damaged the MOBO. I did not test the CPU, GPU, or the RAM

The fan controller looks identical to this (http://i.imgur.com/XLOzagv.jpg)

Dunno how to help you tell if it is fried or not, but if you end up figuring out that it is, one word: Warranty! Good luck otherwise!

 

[wehler53]

Seeing as the PSU is modular its unlikely it fed bad to the motherboard, and since the controller isn't connected to the mobo it seems unlikely to have hurt it that way.

When you power it up does the mobo debugger light up?

 

[lycidity]

Seeing as the PSU is modular its unlikely it fed bad to the motherboard, and since the controller isn't connected to the mobo it seems unlikely to have hurt it that way.

When you power it up does the mobo debugger light up?

The motherboard that I bought has LED lights and will come on if it's alive. However, when I plug it in there really is no sign of life. No lights, no display, nothing. At this point my best bet is to wait for the RMA to return with a new motherboard to really rule out the cause.

 

[wehler53]

By the sound of it it definitely seems to be a mbo issue. So yeah wait to see what happens with the RMA. Because it it was another component you'd still see the mobo light up when the PSU is plugged in and powered on.