[Solved] I might have shorted my GPU and Motherboard...

[phoatu]

Hey guys; I pulled a bit of a major blunder today.

I was doing some e-shopping for some new components and as I was browsing for a possible upgrade for my GPU I did something stupid: I used tape measure to see the dimensions of my video card -while- my PC was still running.

I must have touched the tip of the tape measure against a contact or some other metal bit; as when I was reaching the tape measure towards the motherboard to measure the card's depth my computer very quickly and suddenly shut off.

I tried re-booting my machine a couple of times to only a mild twitch of the cooling fans at best. After I removed the graphics card entirely the computer would attempt to boot as normal. The motherboard gives a long beep ending with two very short beeps whenver it boots up in this way; but all the fans are humming and the lights on my mobo turn on as usual otherwise.

I don't have a backup GPU and my mobo doesn't have any sort of integrated graphics so i'm running blind; I have no means of being able to see how far along my computer boots, if I can even get to the bios screen, or anything like that until my new card comes in a couple days.

What facts I -do- have to work with:

No smoke or odd smell or signs of damage upon inspecting my components.

The first time I did a blind boot without the GPU I was able to use my speakers to confirm the windows 7 login sound. This at least reassures me a bit that the motherboard isn't dead, but I have not been able to reproduce this.

I re-inserted the GPU just once to see if it would fail to boot again; which it did. I tried again shortly after un-plugging it from the motherboard but leaving it plugged into the power supply and it once again failed.

I've never had to deal with this before and man am I kicking myself hard over such a stupid mistake; but is it safe to assume with what I've said that I likely only shorted and killed the GPU?

 

[Supernova1138]

The graphics card is definitely dead, your motherboard still seems to be okay. I believe the one long beep and two short beeps error code is the one that indicates no video card, though that may depend on which BIOS your board has. If you want to make sure if your board is okay, you can see if you have a friend that has a spare graphics card you can borrow to test it, or you can take it to a computer shop and get them to test to see if the rest of the system is working okay. Assuming, the rest of the system works fine, just replace the graphics card.

Always remember, never fiddle around inside your PC while it is on!

 

[RetiredChief]

Impossible to determine without preplacing the GPU. It possible that you damaged a gpu component, But equally possible that you damaged a component on the MB that prevents the GPU from running.

Don't know how much your New GPU cost and if your willing to try it in case the MB is defective and could damage the New GPU. I think in this cass I'd barrow a spare or buy the cheapest GPU you can buy and try that one, before trying your new one.

 

[phoatu]

Thank you both for your responses; I appreciate them greatly.

I had not thought about the possibility of killing my new GPU due to a damaged socket... thank you very much for having the foresight for me.

Is there any way to test out the PCI-E socket aside plugging in a compatible graphics card? Any tool to serve as an alternative to (potentially) ruining a perfectly good part?

P.S. The main reason the thought never crossed my mind is because if it was just the socket the PC would still power on if the damaged card was still plugged into the PSU.

No way to know if this is the case for sure otherwise?

 

[phoatu]

Hey folks. Sorry for the double post but after risking my family pc's GPU I managed to confirm it was indeed just the card; my computer thrummed to life and my monitor turned on and all that good stuff. At this point it's a matter of patience until my new card comes in.

Thanks for your time and reassuring feedback.

 

[RetiredChief]

Great, since you were going to replace it anyways - only loss is a "spare" GPU plus a valuable lesson learned.