Blew something up on board, fan header dead, board still functions

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Murderbydeath

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Mar 27, 2013
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Long story short, I plugged a fan connector was was connected to a molex connector directly into a fan header on my board like an idiot (was confused about what wires were going where, long story), which obviously shorted out the circuit, something popped loudly, there was lots of smoke, and I thought that my $1200 investment in a new computer had just gone up in smoke. However, I unplugged the power (and 12v fan connector) immediately, rebooted, and it booted just fine. Runs smooth as butter, like the day I built it. A capacitor or something likely blew, and my board still works otherwise (the fan header is dead, obviously), so my question is will this cause me issues in the future?

I have some pictures to share:

The fan header in question that I destroyed: http://i.imgur.com/vwh7M65.jpg

Some pictures of a burn mark I found on my case (it's hard to make out -- I have a terrible camera -- but it's brown, coming out from the back of the mobo, and is near the center of the frame):
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0x4B8X0tyNsaF9wV0w5MG9XSnM/edit
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0x4B8X0tyNsSFBrT2V3VDg5X3c/edit
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0x4B8X0tyNsWE5NOXpsdHE2cTQ/edit
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0x4B8X0tyNsamtIcl9yN2tyVzA/edit
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0x4B8X0tyNsWkpSbnJhLTkzbzQ/edit

I'm currently running Prime95 for 24 hours to figure out if it's causing any immediate stability issues, though I know this is by no means comprehensive or foolproof.

Specs:
* Case: Cooler Master HAF XM
* Motherboard: ASRock x79 Extreme6
* PSU: Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 V2
* CPU: Intel Core i7-3820
* HSF: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
* GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST Superclocked
* Memory: 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM @ 1866MHz
* HDD: 2x Seagate Barracuda (SATA II @ 7200 RPM)
* OS: Windows 7 Professional

 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

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Nov 23, 2004
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With any luck, You just blew the fan header. It is made to put OUT voltage not take it.

When you try to take images like that, look for a macro mode(normally has a little flower logo) on your camera as it will help greatly. Also shining a flashlight on the area may help to avoid the camera using high sensitivity settings.

As the above users says, If you can get it replaced, go for it, if not, cross your fingers and enjoy the build(I have seen damage like this that left the rest of the board un damaged.).
 
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Murderbydeath

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Mar 27, 2013
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This camera is unfortunately from the paleolithic era or something and doesn't have such cool autofocus features :( Sorry for the poor quality. You get the idea though. There's nothing visibly burnt on the surface of the board, just that spot behind.
 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

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Nov 23, 2004
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My hope is you just blew a part on that edge that is ONLY for the fan control system.

All cameras no matter how old or new have some limit as to how close one can get and still focus(manual or automatic). backing off just a hair may also make a difference.

As you can see this is about as close as I can get with one camera and the depth of field is VERY small so if I move forward, I go right past the clip. This was manual focus followed by sliding closer and farther until I had what I needed in focus.

Then you have my girl friends point and shoot that can practically focus ridiculously close like I can almost touch the thing I am taking an image of and still get it.

Back on topic, what ever burned, if it was gonna cause issues, should have done so by now. make sure all your ports and whatnot work and count your self lucky.
 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

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Nov 23, 2004
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I have to ask how you damaged the optical drive?

Worst I did that was similar to this was end up hitting the power switch to the pc speaker(using a screw driver to connect the power switch pins has always been done, but somehow it must have hit the pc speaker contact as well) on an old asus board with a screw driver and bam no more pc speaker trace on the board(burned that sucker real good). Board still works to this day.
 
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Murderbydeath

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Mar 27, 2013
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Well, I know it's power out, not in, but I got some wires mixed up (my fan configuration in my case is really complex -- too complex, it turns out) and plugged the wrong thing into the wrong port. It has been running Prime95 for nearly 10 hours now with no issues, so I'm probably in the clear. I'll probably let it finish out the 24 hours though just to be safe.

I know that it running Prime95 for 24 hours doesn't necessarily mean nothing is wrong, but a lot of voltage instabilities and the like can be ruled out this way. If the system can run at 100% CPU load (drawing a lot of power) for 24 hours, generally it's probably pretty stable.
 
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Murderbydeath

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Mar 27, 2013
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There are others on other forums telling me to RMA immediately, some people telling me that it'll probably be fine. I'm really unsure what to do at this point. I really wish someone knew the specifics of the PWR_FAN1 header circuit on the ASRock x79 Extreme6 and could give me more information. This is hard :-/
 
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maestro0428

maestro0428

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Apr 3, 2009
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Most likely you will be fine especially as you are benching with success. ASRock has good service in my experience, but you will end up with out a board for probably a couple of weeks. Have you considered contacting their tech support and asking them if the damaged header could end up worse? As it was user installation error, it my not even be covered by warranty. I dunno.
 
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Murderbydeath

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Mar 27, 2013
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I'm thinking I might have blown a SMD fuse or a reverse protection diode or something like that, probably not a capacitor, as capacitors are generally pretty visible. I mean, it might have been one of the small surface mounted capacitors, but it's definitely hard to see if it was. I'd like some kind of electrical wizard to come in here and tell me what might have happened and if I will be okay or not with the limited knowledge I'm giving, but I just know that's not realistic.
 
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Murderbydeath

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Mar 27, 2013
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I bring you...A BETTER PICTURE! Courtesy of my friend's smartphone. http://i.imgur.com/S2EBFbw.jpg

Let me know if I can take more pictures for you or something. It was hard to get the natural light to take this shot today, since it's raining its ass off and I'm trying to run Prime95 lol, but I did it. Speaking of, 23.5 hours of running Prime95 and still no issues.

Edit: Prime95 is done running for 24 hours! http://i.imgur.com/U69TeY1.png

If anyone knowledgeable could weigh in on what the most likely component to have blown was, that'd be awesome. Having some more information to go on would be the best.
 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

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Nov 23, 2004
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We can not see what blew since it is on the back of the board(not even work getting an image of the back of the board. most systems on the computer have a voltage system for them selves so they should be unable to effect one another anyway). you may have burned the trance it self. If so the problem will never effect anything else since you effectively cut the fans power source and nothing more.
 
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AmirMakanvand

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Jan 8, 2014
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I was getting really upset thinking I did something wrong but then I realised that I also tried to put power into the psu slot... Worst decision of my life however luckily in the past year or so that's my only mistake... Being an idiot.

Side not This thread may be close to a year old but oh well, just had to comment.
 
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