Did I damage my motherboard?

[xrome]

Hey everyone,

i hate asking questions that make me feel like an idot but here I go anyways.

I just built a new system for my fiance last week. Everything was running fine, except the videocard's fan was defective. I RMA'd it and got a different brand and now all is well.

I have been running my system off my wireless card for a year with no problems at all, a Linksys WMP54G PCI card.

I took it out of my system to get her online, but when i intalled it I got network connector with the yellow triangle in the device manager. After trying 3 or 4 things to get it to work (various driver things, not really important...I got frustrated and I pulled the card before the system fully shut down.

1.) The screen blanked, and then restarted on its own.
2.) When it came on, I started windows and then i shut it down properly.
3.) I reinstalled the wireless card and fired it back up.
4.) It was no longer recognizing the card at all, didn't even come us as a yellow triangle caution sign in the device manager. just nothing.
5.) Tried it in the other pci slot. Still nothing.
6.) Put it back in my computer, and now even mine wont recognize the card.

So heres what I'm worried about. I assume somehow I screwed up the card by pulling it out while the system while still running (like an idiot). That sucks because I am not out a $45 wireless card that was working just fine. What I'm really concerned about is the possibility of screwing up her motherboard pci slots. Is it possible that it caused any damage? I don't own any other pci slot parts to test the slots out at the moment.

Looking for a little guidance here. Did i fry the wireless card by pulling it? Could i ahve damaged the motherboard? Could i have damaged my motherboard by installing it into mine afterwards? I just don't know how the stuff works well enough to know.

I did fire up Dragon Age on her system after the whole wireless card thing and it seems to run fine. i guess I'm worried if I might have screwed up a pci slot or something.

help? Thanks.

 

[xrome]

Anyone willing to take a shot at helping me out? Sorry if my post is dumb lol. but i would certainly appreciate some of your thoughts.

 

[xrome]

I would love to get some thoughts before I have to send rebates in on this gear

 

[jsc]

I would guess you lucked out and didn't cause and permanent damage to the GF's computer. Shame about your wireless card though.

 

[capt_taco]

Well, it sounds like the wireless card is toast. If your GF's computer is able to play Dragon Age, I don't think anything's terribly wrong with it. It's not like regular PCI slots are essential these days anyway unless you've got a few really specific uses in mind.

I would go and secretly get a new wireless card of exactly the same model, then tell your GF it was broken but you figured out how to fix it. She might be impressed with your intelligence and brag to her friends about how great you are with computerrs. Then next time one of her hot friends has computer problems, they'll call you asking for help, and you can tell her "hmm, I need to come over and take a look at it," and then when you get there you convince her to have a few drinks, and within 20 minutes you have her doing things a Thai hooker would be ashamed of. See? You can really play that angle to your advantage if you think ahead.

What? You came here for good computer advice, not good relationship advice, so quit complaining and get on that.

 

[xrome]

First: Don't disrespect my fiance.

Second: Bought a new card and the mobo is fine it seems, although finding an inexpensive high quality windows 7 supported wireless card is tougher than i thought it would be.

 

[xrome]

Best answer selected by xRome.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey