If the motherboard shortcircuits...

[bartek4443]

will the CPU and RAM be fried as well?

 

[jsc]

First, if you have a good PSU, it should electronically shutdown before it fries anything else. That's an often overlooked benefit of a good PSU.

Second, the CPU and RAM are "insulated" from the rest of the motherboard by their of power regulators.

Third, a short represent a lower resistance path to ground than any CPU or RAM chip.

The CPU and RAM should be OK. Why?

 

[Upendra09]

sometimes

Depends on what happened and how bad, sometimes if it is statci electricity then you can buy a new mobo but if it is like a power surge then most of the parts are going to be dead.

 

[plasmastorm]

CPU / Ram being ok depends entirely on one thing to be honest. Luck.

Plop them in a new board and test them, simple as that.

 

[RetiredChief]

It all depends on where the short is, and what caused it.

Not all shorts are from a given point to ground, just most.
The most common short circuits caused by "goof" are forgetting the standoff under the MB and "Forcing" a PSU connector on backwards. Even with a Good PSU, this normally damages components - the reversed Connector being the worst as it will create a reverse current.

The other cause is component failure - First place to look is components that have the highest current. Where, and why will determine what componets other than the MB are damaged. Could be a shorted CPU which inturn damages the MB - IF this was the case, Not a good idea to plug it into a 2nd MB and what it fry. Need to step back and evaluate.

 

[bartek4443]

Thanks. this was mainly for a server, which is the first one I have ever built so I don't know how everything works on these different motherboards.