Question Is my motherboard toast?

itm

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Apr 10, 2004
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I had a problem with an external powered USB hub yesterday - its power supply was faulty so I replaced it. When I reconnected it , to a USB/Firewire adapter in my Asus P8Z68-VLX motherboard, it still wasn't recognised, so I was fumbling around trying to connect it to the other USB port on the adapter and I felt one of the metal expansion port covers fall out of place, into the PC casing. The machine immediately lost power.
At first I assumed that the power supply had blown, but I've just removed the 24-pin connector from the motherboard, shorted the green/black pins with a paper clip, and re-connected the power. The SATA devices all seemed to power up - suggesting that the power supply is OK?
So now I need to know if my mother board is irreparably damaged (presumably by a short circuit when the expansion port cover fell into the PC case). Can anyone tell me how I can check whether my motherboard is dead?
 

itm

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Sorry just to be clear - it does not power up. I tested the power supply in isolation, with a few SATA drives connected, and it powered up the drives OK but when the 24-PIN motherboard connector is plugged in nothing gets powered up.
 

itm

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I'm pretty sure it fell on the USB/Firewire adapter, which I think had itself been damaged by the faulty external USB hub.
There are no visible signs of motherboard damage.
 

itm

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So I've just discovered a couple of tiny LEDs which were hidden under cables. There's a red DRAM LED next to the 24-pin power connector which lights up, and also a green Standby LED next to the SATA ports which lights up. So the motherboard seems to be getting some power, but is in some sort of dormant mode, and maybe has a DRAM error??