Discussion Plugged wrong cable into Motherboard, seen a spark and smoke.

Dec 19, 2020
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So earlier today I was installing RGB strips into my case and I put the wrong cable into the motherboard, I turned it on and I seen a spark and I seen it start to smoke. I turned off everything completely as I panicked and let it rest for 5 minutes. After that I turned it back on and everything turned on and is working fine. I don’t have a graphics card yet so I can see if it caused any damage. and this is my first build. What do you guys think most likely got damaged? because everything is working properly and i’m scared it won’t work once my GPU comes in. please give me advice.

Thanks.
 
if you are lucky, it would be just the rgb strips. if not motherboard.
The strips are fine, they turn on once I connected them into the proper place. everything turns on. CPU Fan, RGB RAM, and everything. The LED light that says “CPU” turns on briefly, but then turns off and VGA LED light turns on because I don’t have a GPU yet. do you think I might have just gotten lucky that it didn’t fry the entire motherboard? and just the connection to the RGB on the motherboard? i’m just very scared that it could have fried something more than that.
 
Would need to know which cable you plugged into which wrong header. Look to see what caused the smoke, the insulation on a cable? Or something else.
it was a 4 pin connector to JRGB_1. it was probably most like not meant to connect to the motherboard. which was my fault not knowing that. I see a little white smudge near to what appears to look like a battery. How do I add a picture on this? so I can show y’all to make it easier
 
it was a 4 pin connector to JRGB_1. it was probably most like not meant to connect to the motherboard. which was my fault not knowing that. I see a little white smudge near to what appears to look like a battery. How do I add a picture on this? so I can show y’all to make it easier
I use Postimage.org its pretty easy to add a pic to your posts just copy the code in after uploading the pic
 
https://postimg.cc/6T3GkRqn
if you look under that battery lookin thing, there’s like a white smudge on the black of what looks like a tiny processor of some sort. if you can access the picture. that’s where the small spark started to form and smoke from. and I plugged the connector to the JRGB_1 Pins right there. what do you think i could have possibly fried? since it was close to the GPU slot, I hope it didn’t fry that.
 
https://postimg.cc/6T3GkRqn
if you look under that battery lookin thing, there’s like a white smudge on the black of what looks like a tiny processor of some sort. if you can access the picture. that’s where the small spark started to form and smoke from. and I plugged the connector to the JRGB_1 Pins right there. what do you think i could have possibly fried? since it was close to the GPU slot, I hope it didn’t fry that.
I don't know what that chip does with white on it. I guess you can hope it's nothing important and see if the system works ok. I wouldn't use JRGB_1 though. My guess is that chip controls the RGB functions of the motherboard.
 
I don't know what that chip does with white on it. I guess you can hope it's nothing important and see if the system works ok. I wouldn't use JRGB_1 though. My guess is that chip controls the RGB functions of the motherboard.
Hopefully it does control the RGB only. because everything else is running just fine. If that’s the case, then i’m fine with that. I don’t plan on using any RGB functions in the future. if I do, i’ll just probably get a new motherboard. I’ll keep you posted once I get my GPU.
 
https://postimg.cc/QBJ8wmvQ
So recently, I connected the 4 pin cable of RGB strips into a JRGB_1 pins and it wasn’t meant to go there on the motherboard. It caused that black chip to start a very small spark and smoke, that’s what that small white hole is on that chip right underneath that battery. I turned off everything and my motherboard is still running fine. everything turns on and off. so i’m just wondering what does that chip do, does it control RGB? hopefully it’s not very important that the motherboard can run without it. if anybody knows, please reply, i’m scared i’ll have to get a whole new motherboard.
 
it’s a MSI MAG B550 Mortar motherboard. not the wifi, just the normal version of it.
Does it says Nuvoton on top of the microchip?
It could be an I/O controller (PS/2 , display outputs, etc)
Depending on the I/O controller number, it could also be a fan controller (CPU, Pump, Sys fans, etc).
The motherboard could have more that one of that type of controller.
If it is the one for PS/2 & display outputs on the motherboard then you might not need it.
 
Does it says Nuvoton on top of the microchip?
It could be an I/O controller (PS/2 , display outputs, etc)
Depending on the I/O controller number, it could also be a fan controller (CPU, Pump, Sys fans, etc).
yeah, it says Nuvoton on the chip. what does this mean? i’m new to pc building so could you explain and dummy it down? lol
 
That's one of the chips that controls the functionality of certain ports and connectors on the motherboard.
Lets imply that the chip that burnt-out controls the PS/2 & display connections on the back of your motherboard.
Without the chip they won't work...so if you were to connect a PS/2 keyboard or mouse on that port it wouldn't work.
If you had an APU (e. g. Ryzen 5 3400g) , connecting a display to the motherboard wouldn't give a signal.
 
That's one of the chips that controls the functionality of certain ports and connectors on the motherboard.
Lets imply that the chip that burnt-out controls the PS/2 & display connections on the back of your motherboard.
Without the chip they won't work...so if you were to connect a PS/2 keyboard or mouse on that port it wouldn't work.
If you had an APU (e. g. Ryzen 5 3400g) , connecting a display to the motherboard wouldn't give a signal.
So I don’t have a GPU yet to display anything yet. So how would I test this with just a keyboard and mouse (both wired, don’t have a PS/2 port designed keyboard/mouse)
https://postimg.cc/F1zFpbWk
here’s all the ports on the back. is it safe to say that I got lucky and my motherboard didn’t get fully fried from this?
I appreciate you helping me out man, this is very stressful as I just got this built last week. if anything is damaged, should I just replace this board with a new one. none of my other parts seem damaged from this. everything is functional. i’m just worried about this chip that got burnt.
 
If the chip that got burnt was the one the controls the PS/2 and display ports, then you got lucky.
We wouldn't know for sure until all system components are installed.
Can you see the number on the top of the chip?
I can barely make it out since it’s so small, but I believe it says nuc126ne4ae. sorry for the late response.
 
The NUC126 could be use for voltage and PWM regulation, USB voltage delivery, etc.
It will be hard to know how MSI is implementing it.
I’ll keep you posted once i get my GPU in. since it’s very hard right now since everything is out of stock. i’ll be active on this thread. it should come in this week. Do you think i’ll have to replace this motherboard?