Motherboard Short-circuited? ASUS P8Z68V

[Thale]

Hi,

This is my first time assembling a desktop PC.
After everything is in place, I turned on the computer and there was quick flash of lights followed by the smell of the magic smoke...

I believe I short-circuited something. But everything was connected at the moment so I was not sure which component I short-circuited.

I did a simple test on the motherboard with CPU and graphic card on only. all other connections, except for the EATX power, the EATX 12V, the CPU fans, and the AD'97 header connections are removed. When the power supply is on, the power supply shows a stand-by light and the motherboard power-on switch light is on (red in color) I then shorted the power pins with a screw driver quickly. Now there is a quick spin of fans and nothing else happens. The motherboard is not boosted.

the mother board i'm using is ASUS P8Z68-V
I would like to ask these questions:
1) Did I short-circuit my mother board?
2) Did I short-circuit anything else, like graphic card, CPU, power-supply etc? what can I do to find out?

All helps are appreciated. Again I'm quite a beginner. Thanks so much

 

[Thale]

Hi, well yes if you smelled smoke then it's the motherboard, all your other components should be fine, just try to get another board to test it on.

Did you made sure that the motherboard was properly mounted? sometimes people especially for the first time make a mistake of not lining up the mounting holes on the mobo to match the mountings in the case, so you probably screwed in a stand-off that did not lined up with one of the mounting holes on the mobo, if that's the case that is what caused it. Also you should never over tighten the mounting screws, it should be screwed in FINGER TIGHT only, that can also cause damage a mobo. So make sure of that as well.

Take the mobo out and look for any physical damage like burn marks etc.

You can also follow this guide, maybe it's not all lost http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-boot-video-problems

The place you bought the components from should have assembled it for you, because if something went wrong when they would have done it they would have taken responsibility, unless you bought it online of course.

Thanks so much!

Actually there are no physical burnt marks on the motherboard except the solder on some of the mounting holes are melted. I guess the reason is very likely that I over-tightened it or shorted it with the case.

Also first round of inspection shows that my CPU is probably damaged too. The heat paste on the bottom of the heat sink is all melted on the metal top of the CPU. This is really bad.

I'll keep checking other parts with another motherboard. Again, thanks so much.