Smoke: not good. Ideas?

Well, its my first build, and, being the clumsy person i am, i managed to fail the vaunted Smoke Test. Due to slow reflexes, one of those little black square thingys on my MSI P6N SLI-FI actually caught fire breifly. This was on first powering-up. Why did this happen?
Note: I did not use any case standoffs. The case i have is a really cheap rosewill from newegg.

My only plan is to rma it to newegg.
Also i am worried about my ram (patriot 2x 1gb pc6400). The chip that fried is right next to the ram slots.

Is this possibly due to short with case's tray?
The tray is unmarked, and the back of the motherboard only has slight discoloration underneath this circuit. The top of it is partially vaporized, and partially ashy-white. Any ideas?[/img]

that what these brass thingies are for?
/slaps forehead

they should tell me these things

ty

hope rams not fried too. Thoughts?

roflmao ok MSI = shite for one, and two, your ram might be ok, it might not be ok - depends if the lines got shorted and zapped the ram too

i did thi s stpid thing a while back, i had put togetther a pentium 3 when it came out and now i thought i could do it again with pentium 4..but forgot about standofs... my motherboard fried but other components(cpu,ram & video) were ok

I know a guy that installed a new Intel CPU who gently placed the chip in the socket, but had a hard time closing the little lever to secure the chip in place. After a great struggle, he got the lever in place and then installed the stock HSF. The computer wouldn't boot, so he brought the system back to the vendor complaining the whole thing was defective. Upon quick inspection, the technician noted the plastic protective cover on the CPU was still attached crammed inside the socket. Warranty voided.

As everyone else said, the board is fried for certain. Now as for the ram/cpu, it just depends on which solder points got shorted, no-one can say for sure. One thing to make sure of on future builds is that the standoffs are also placed in the right spot, I've seen many boards fried from them being in the wrong spot and shorting the board, so when you install the board count how many standoffs are on the case, and count how many screws you screw in to be sure they all go in. I know that sounds like a common sense thing but you'd be surprised at what I've seen working in a computer repair shop 8O

standoff's

1, Makes sure all atandoff's are the same, (you might to use ones that are different if there are not enough

2, plastics standoff you can plastic standoffs (that provide a mechanical connetion but not electrical so that the board dont flex when you plug stuff in (i have one near my PATA ports.

3, make sure a standoff is removed if there is no hole for it on the board.

Quit picking on the poor guy. *hugs* OP. We've all done stupid things when first starting out

was gone for weekend. anyway, yes i AM completly serious. Newegg standard warrenty does infact specifically exclude physical damage. I think this counts as such, its obvious from looking at it that part is fired. I sent em an email asking if it counted though, no response yet and not much hope either (for actually getting exchange). Crossing fingers on other components. if its only the 125 for board ill be happy. hm, if ram fries maybey i can still return that with no phys damage.

does seem to be one of the two ram controlers; perhaps itd work if i just use other two chanells lol try that later.


havent rma'd it yet, considering not to, until today, when the replacement open box one i got (same model) came with MISSING pins on socket. So, im pissed. If theyre going to be idiots like tht and not ck their returns before shipping back out, and waste their and others money, i may as well go for broke and try for my original 120$.
Needless to say im also returning mr missing pin.

Look at OPs nick...



word to teh wise...