Question I saw a spark and some smoke, not sure what I did to the motherboard.

[Lukes_09]

Hey everyone,
so when I got home today and tried to turn on the computer nothing worked, PSU wasn't spinning, no lights, nothing. I took the PC apart and cleaned it up a bit because there was some dirt piled up on the CPU and tried turning it on again, but it still didnt work. Next thing I tried was the paperclip PSU test and the PSU did work. And then I plugged everything back in, tried again and because the computer still wasn't working, I put the paperclip in the green and black pins of the 20-pin ATX while everything was plugged in. Everything started up, both the PSU and the CPU fans were spinning, but I noticed that there was something sparking in the lower right corner of the mother board. I unplugged the PSU like 2 seconds after seeing that, there was also smoke and it smelled as if something burned. After 10 minutes I tried turning the PC on and now everything is working fine.
I'm not exactly sure what happened, so I am a bit hesitant of just using the PC. It is currently unplugged, but it worked fine when I turned it on before.
So... does anyone have any idea what happened? Do you think the computer is safe to use? What's the worst that could happen if I just used normally?
Also the motherboard is the ASROCK H67M.

Thanks for reading, all answers are appreciated.

 

[sc2lines]

What I would do? Take the motherboard out of the case. Air blast it, the power supply as well. Examine it carefully and reinstall it as if it was a new MB. Reassemble. then power on. Put the Computer on a cleaner diet of nodust and periodic checks.

 

[jay32267]

I think it's possible your original problem may have burned away.

It's possible you had a motherboard component that was on its way out....and that caused it not to boot....and it burned away....and now it boots.

I assume...being you didn't mention that you actually see evidence of the burn.....that you don't see anything.....however I would look again.....because you might find it.

Regardless of what happened.....if you are running fine now....I wouldn't be super concerned regarding the safety of the whole thing. Motherboards....and PCs for that matter....don't generally catch fire. Usually something burns or smokes and that's about it.

That being said....I wouldn't keep anything really flammable (like a box of tissues) near the motherboard.

As far as ...will it come back? I think....probably not. I've had similar things happen and components don't generally "unburn" themselves.

If it were me....I would run and keep an eye on it.

I'd also look for the burn.

....and I might not leave it powered up (if I wasn't going to be home etc).

If after a while.....you still don't see anything and everything is still OK....I might get confident enough to leave it powered up.