mobo death?

[imported_malex]

Hi all, new to the forums.

*Basic rundown for those who don't like long posts*
Bought Nidec 120mm fan.
Installed and ran for a few.
Tried putting case side panel back on.
PC shut off.
No longer boots but powers up.

I recently bought a Nidec 120mm fan to replace the annoying vibrating stock fan and hooked it up. It fired up and was working fine until I decided to put the side panel back on my case. If anyone owns an Asus Vento case you know how annoying it is to put the thing back on correctly.

So after a few mins of struggling with the panel my PC just shuts off. Suddenly the case lights don't work and my PC won't boot. Everything powers up but now the video card fan won't throttle down when I turn it on and I get no signal. The Power LED jumper no longer works as well.

I tried swapping out the basics(mobo,CPU,vid card,ram) to a friends spare case and still the same. His case had a 450w PSU so I can rule out mine being the problem. I tried another vid card, using 1 stick of memory in different slots, clearing CMOS, taking out the mobo battery for awhile, reapplying thermal paste to the CPU, etc and still nothing.

I'm still trying to think what could of happened but the only thing I can think of is I reused the screws from the stock 120mm fan and they wouldn't screw down the Nidec all the way. Maybe at some point the side panel rubbed against something and shorted something out. The Nidec takes a lot of power and I had it piggy backed with the case front lights(powered via molex) that also went to my HDD. Maybe it took too much power or something I really have no idea what happened lol. I found the same board open box at Newegg for 50 bucks so I'll find out next week. I'd just like to get some ideas on what happened so it doesn't happen again. Any ideas?

Specs just in case:
Intel 2.8 520
Albatron PX915p
Corsair XMS3200 4x 512MB
X-Connect 500w PSU
Ati x800xl pcie
Asus Vento crap case

 

[phios]

I have done that exact same thing and cause a +12V line to short against the case. In my case (no pun intended), all I need to do was pull the cover off again, and straighten out the wires, but the damage could have been far worse. So, I think that you are most likely right about shorting something out... Good luck with your next mobo and beeee careful!

 

[imported_malex]

It happened to me once before and I just pulled everything out and put it back in and it worked again. Guess I wasn't so lucky this time. From now on I do everything with the PSU off and take my time

 

[thescreensavers]

you have to turn off you computer befor u open the cover come on electricity =bad when shorted