Is it destroyed?

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SAshe

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Feb 6, 2012
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Hello,

I have computer that I built for gaming a couple of years ago, the HDD recently went out on me (didn't know this at the time) and I took it to the local shop to see what was wrong. The repair guy loaded a new HDD and everything worked fine, he then re-installed my old HDD and he said "it shorted out the motherboard".

He then advised me I needed to scrap the whole computer because it had shorted out. My question is what was destroyed vs. what is salvageable? I assume my motherboard is gone, but what about the CPU, memory, and graphics cards? The CPU is an Intel Core 2 quad and uses a 775 socket, so I can find a new motherboard for cheap if that is all that I have lost. Any suggestions on what to do? Is there a way to test the components or should I just scrap it all and start again (really don't have the cash to, or I would do this anyway). Thank in advance for any help.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm fairly new to the world of computers (this was my first build).
 
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Hi SAshe,

I'm sorry for what happened, well maybe that the motherboard is gone but there is always ways to repair it depends on the gravity of the issue .. some electronic issues can be easily repaired some others not.

The CPU

There is no piece of hardware in the computer able to hurt the CPU .. I mean make it totally burned up, or stop it from working .. the intel CPUs contains a very clever security system that can deal almost with every situation even when the ampere and the voltage of the power supply unit go down suddenly .. the only thing that can hurt a cpu .. is YOU when you force it via the bios to work overclocked for a long time and you don't respect its max temp° ... even though some intel CPUs detect that and stops the computer to do not get hurt (some CPU have this option in the bios)

the graphic card .. the only graphic card I blowed my self .; was a 7200 nvidia when I was playing need for speed undercover which is not dedicated for 7xxx and I activated Vsync by an error and I played the game in high resolution .. the screen when fully black and the card never worked again in any computer.

test your harware in another system and see if it works .; I'm 100% sure the CPU is OKay

Hope this help
 
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I would go back and tell him that is his fault, he probably wasn't grounded, but it have happened in his shop. HDD just doesn't short the mobo and rest of the stuff. No way.

1 in the 1000 and still I would not believe it.
 
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EVGA nForce 750i FTW Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz
Seagate 500GB HDD
2x EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX v-cards
OCZ Dual Channel 2048MB PC8500 DDR2 1066Mhz RAM

 
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i agree i never heard of a HDD shorting out a mobo so it would be there fault. on the other hand you never tried to troubleshoot it so the mobo could have been the issue before you took it anywhere so that nullifies that argument.


what i am puzzled by is if you built the computer yourself why would you take it somewhere and get it fixed when you could have just troubleshot it yourself?
 
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I tried troubleshooting it myself, but couldn't get it to do anything. It was stuck in a boot loop....it wouldn't go past the Windows loading screen. I tried everything I knew how to do (disabled auto restart, tried going in through safe mode, tried using last known settings) everything I did just gave me a STOP error (blue screen of death flashed for like .5 seconds) and then auto rebooted.

I figured it was a problem with my HDD, but wanted someone that knew what they were doing to look at it. I tried last night to put a new HDD on the system, but I couldn't get it to display anything. The fans all come on and the mobo lights up, but I don't see a POST or any BIOS info displayed on the monitor.

So since I know my HDD and mobo are now shot, should I try a new motherboard & HDD with my other components or scrap it all?
 
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i would try to find the jumper on the mobo that resets the bios first before doing anything like that and reseat everything on it. also did you try the HDD in another system to see if it gets picked up? if the mobo has to be replaced it will be hard to find a decent mobo for a Q6600 these days. if you can't find one you may be forced to get a new mobo ,CPU, and ram
 
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I'm betting this guy tried plugging it in while the system was on, thinking it was hot-swappable, and fried the PSU/Mobo. I'd go back to the shop, they owe you something because he definitely messed up. I had a system with a HDD with a bad circuit board that you could literally smell burning while the system was posting, and it didn't fry anything (fixed it by swapping the HDD's board too!).

Complain! Customer's always right! They'll probably give you some sort of compensation, just make sure their manager knows about it.

Summary: you're being BSed. "Scrap the whole thing" LOL maybe he sneezed water on the whole thing :|.

Also, in my experience, when a system seems to boot but doesn't show video, replacing the RAM can resolve the issue (that is if you mean by nothing showing on the screen that it's not getting a signal e.g. yellow light on your monitor power button).
 
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Yeah, I spoke with EVGA today and they confirmed that there is no way the HDD fried the motherboard...I will try calling the guy tomorrow and see what happens. Thank you everyone for the help, I appreciate it!
 
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good luck i remember i had one PC ages ago that had to get a mobo replaced under warrenty and the mobo they replaced it with was bad and gave random errors it took a few months to get them to finally replace it with another mobo
 
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