Question Smoke from GPU/PCIe slot ?

[Zeezallo]

Old motherboard died some time ago and I ordered a 2nd hand mobo. Tested with GPU and no boot drive on its motherboard box just to see if it works and it "worked" (got the part where it was asking for a boot drive). Assembled everything in case and I tried to start it up forgetting to plug in the 8 pin connector. It started emitting smoke from the general vicinity of the GPU and I immediately unplugged it. My problem now is that I don't know whether if it was the GPU or the PCIe slot that was cooked and I'm not sure how to find out. It doesn't smell burnt though, it smells similar to the new just out of the box GPU. Also, my guess is that it tried to power the GPU through the PCIE slot and that cause the smoke?
Asus ex-b250m-v2 (I do not have a DVI cable/monitor so I cannot test it without a GPU for now)
MSi MECH RX 5600 XT

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

any smoke emitted from a system is very bad news.

my advice would be to get a second-hand system from a friend, family member, neighbor, co-worker and try these components in their functioning system to ensure components are still functioning.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Asus ex-b250m-v2 (I do not have a DVI cable/monitor so I cannot test it without a GPU for now)

Then get DVI cable and test with it.
If you have HDMI cable, then you can use DVI->HDMI adapter also.