What did I damage

[Lucky Strike]

This morning I shorted out my Enermax PSU by being a moron.
The computer was off while I was working on it but I didn't have the sense to unplug the power.

The next time I tried to start the computer, it wouldn't power anything on. So I thought it was just the PSU being fried. So I swapped it out with a brand new PSU and still nothing will power on.

So my question is, to what extent can I expect the damage to be. I am fairly certain that the Mobo is pretty much done, but hopefull that nothing else was damaged.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

How exactly did you short it out?

Have you tried unplugging everything you don't need to boot?

(only have motherboard, PSU, CPU, HS/F, ram, vidcard) and then connect the monitor and see if it works.

Try clearing CMOS too.

If those don't work, try taking everything out of the case and only attaching the things I mentioned above.

 

[Lucky Strike]

My origional intent was to unscrew the fan grate and clean out the dust from the PSU fan. Unfortunately I wasn't actually looking when I was doing this and managed to stick the screwdriver INTO the PSU until it SPARKED.

Pretty stupid huh?

Yes, I tried starting it with the bare minimum components and nothing changed. Maybe the only thing I didn't do is try to start it with only 1 stick of RAM instead of leaving the 2 sticks of RAM in.

Didn't think of clearing the CMOS but I already sent the comp away to one of my friends to have each component checked out =\

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

wow....

well, you'll never do that again at least :laugh:

I hope it's just the motherboard if anything.

 

[Lucky Strike]

Haha, at least I wasn't hurt.
I had a look at my screwdriver and saw a huge burnmark =]

 

[FlyingPenguin]

When PSU shorts out it can potentially do a LOT of damage. Mobo, CPU, RAM, hard drives, you name it.

You'll have to test everything one at a time. Try disconnecting EVERYTHING from the mobo except the power switch, the vid card and one stick of ram. Unplug everything else and disconnect all drives from the PSU.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I have seen a psu take out the md, vid card, and a cd-rom drive at the same time.

 

[Slikkster]

well, if it's any consolation, my folks' pc took the brunt of a lightning surge in Florida (even through a protector).

The mb was cooked, but all the components still worked (cpu, ram, hard drive, etc.), and were utilized on the new motherboard.

Good luck.

 

[Lucky Strike]

Just a quick update:

I managed to get everything back up and running.
All of my IDE devices (HD, CD, Zip) seem to working well.
My CPU and ATI9800pro seem to be working as well.

The only problems I have are with all my PCI devices which included my soundblaster and my network card which both are not being recognized by windows. The interesting thing is, my network card still works with my hub (the LED indicator still light up). Another interesting thing is, when I'm trying to play any game, it is noticibly slower than it was previously.

This leads me to beleive that I etiher damaged the PCI devices themselves, the PCI of the Mobo or I caused some other kind of damage that I haven't found yet.

 

[montag451]

If you imagine that there are, give or take, 50 million transistors on a cpu.
Destroy a few of them - maybe that will affect something that you use a lot, or not - - - -

Take a mobo now - Millions of traces/circuits.
destroy a trace - maybe it will affect something - maybe enough to be noticeable, but not enough to cause an error.

No way to know.
Just see if you are happy with the result.

If I was in your position though, I would get a duplicate mobo and see if there is a great difference. [Would be best to start from scratch though if you do suspect the mobo was faulty in any way]