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First time builder and I think I dameaged my motherboard

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I made all my connections and did a test boot. Everything worked fine. I carefully mounted the board to the case and did another test. It still worked. Here is where the problem comes. When I went to install the firewire plug in I could not find the right slot, so I plugged it into a USB slot because the connectors were the same. Like I said it was my first time and not all my parts had manuals (hand me down components). When I pressed the power button the lights flickered on and off and I was unable to get power to my board. I took the board out and tried to troubleshoot but was unable to get power to the board. I noticed some damage to the underside near the 24 pin power connector. Is it safe to say I fried the motherboard? Is it possible to fix it?

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wiinippongamer said:
Can you take a pic of the damage to the board?

I doubt it was because of plugging firewire into usb, it's likely just a coincidence.


If he had something plugged in on the other side, it could have shorted the board.
The pin locations are the same but the pinouts themselves are way different (i.e Pin 7 is 12V for firewire, ground for USB).
If that was the case, if OP is lucky he just killed the port and/or device; if he's unlucky the board itself is toast.

sbogus said:
If he had something plugged in on the other side, it could have shorted the board.
The pin locations are the same but the pinouts themselves are way different (i.e Pin 7 is 12V for firewire, ground for USB).
If that was the case, if OP is lucky he just killed the port and/or device; if he's unlucky the board itself is toast.


I am pretty sure it is toast. The board itself wont power up and I never plug anything into the front panel or anything from the back. This was what I was afraid of when I decided to build a new PC for the first time. At least I can learn from my mistakes and never let that happen again.
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wiinippongamer said:
Can you take a pic of the damage to the board?

I doubt it was because of plugging firewire into usb, it's likely just a coincidence.


I can't get a good picture due to the reflection off the backside of the board, but it looks like a copper strip near the 24 pin connection has separated and blown out the back.

One of the good things about computer building is the fact that the connectors are "keyed" so they won't fit into the wrong slot. Unfortunately the exception to this rule is the onboard USB and Firewire connectors. They are keyed the same. (Bad idea motherboard designers) There should have been a warning about this in your motherboard manual.
The pin assignments are totally different and can cause a short.

Max Collodi said:
One of the good things about computer building is the fact that the connectors are "keyed" so they won't fit into the wrong slot. Unfortunately the exception to this rule is the onboard USB and Firewire connectors. They are keyed the same. (Bad idea motherboard designers) There should have been a warning about this in your motherboard manual.
The pin assignments are totally different and can cause a short.


There is a warning, but I must have overlooked it. Good thing I won 150$ in my Fantasy Football League this week. LOL.
Motherboard Master

Not only Firewire and USB, but the RS232 port also. Don't ask me how I know that.

Oh, OK. I fried a thumb drive once.

All it takes is just a moment of carelessness.

Be careful it could have fried your power supply too. Then you get a new mother board and plug it into the power supply and nothing happens again other then you need to buy another new MB.
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