What could I have fried?

[zagood]

I was cleaning up my "work area" and dropped a screw into my machine, open and on its side, while running. The screw rolled under the top edge of the mobo about where the CPU_fan connector is, there was a big "POP" and the machine turned off with a faint whiff of smoke. Cursing, I unplugged the machine, fished out the screw, looked for scorch marks and couldn't find any (at least on the top of the mobo), plugged it back in, booted, restored saved bios, and it seems to be working fine.

I've run Prime95 8hrs+ no problems, played Mirror's Edge (physx on), and done standard office work, and I haven't seen any problems or deviations from normal operation.

I'm hoping I got lucky, but what are some things I should be looking for?

Thanks,

-z

 

[Big Lar]

You may have fried a Cap either on the Mobo or the PSU. Decent power supplys will shut down immediately but do sometimes take a hit with a short.

Larry

 

[zagood]

Yeah, checked the caps on the mobo first thing, rather not crack open the PSU unless I start seeing any instability. Thanks!

 

[AstroGuardian]

Some component could become overheated and reached the temperature threshold and eventually shut down. After removing the screw everything goes back to normal. I guess that's what happened. But you went REALLY lucky there.

 

[Gillbot]

You may have tripped the PSU's overload protection and got lucky. The PSU tripped the power before any damage occured.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

If it's been running prime for 8hrs I'd think it was OK. It probably arced on the screw. I'd just keep using it.

 

[AstroGuardian]

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
If it's been running prime for 8hrs I'd think it was OK. It probably arced on the screw. I'd just keep using it.

To be absolutely sure everything is fine, you should cherck every possible combination. You should check all PCI and PCI-E slots, SATA slots, onboard devices, cables etc. Some components might be still broken while the machine as a whole works fine with current configuration. Make sure you don't get surprised when the time is bad 😉

 

[roid450]

Originally posted by: AstroGuardian

Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
If it's been running prime for 8hrs I'd think it was OK. It probably arced on the screw. I'd just keep using it.

To be absolutely sure everything is fine, you should cherck every possible combination. You should check all PCI and PCI-E slots, SATA slots, onboard devices, cables etc. Some components might be still broken while the machine as a whole works fine with current configuration. Make sure you don't get surprised when the time is bad 😉

That ^^^

If you have 2 PCI Ex slots, check the card ine ach and also if you have a sound card move it around and see if it work sin the other slots. SATA hookups too, my mother board has one non working SATA port and my top PCI Ex slot casuses my vid card to not post on boot. but I haven;t gotten around to RMAing it since I;m getting by just fine with no inconveniences.