Damage to motherboard ??

[tony245]

Hello yesterday I had to take apart my pc for some reason when I did I was removing my gpu.

Its an HIS IceQ 6970 and its not very sturdy and the pcb is pretty exposed so its wobbly.

Anyway it took a great amount of effort to yank the 6970 out and it made some weird grinding noises while coming out.

First question, Could i have caused any damage to the 6970 or PCI Slot, My computer is running fine

OK now to continue, I put the 6970 back in screwed it down and locked it shut. I didn't put in the 6pin power connector and the 8pin..

Somehow I forgot, Very stupid of me I know. Anyway I started the computer up really quick without the power connectors in the gpu

The gpu fan revved up to 100%, I immediately shut the computer down within 5 seconds..

Second question: Could that have caused any damage to the motherboard, cpu or gpu, Again everything is running fine right now..

Third question: How delicate are pc parts, How rough can you handle them, For example I've seen a video of a guy bending a motherboard pretty far
while installing a Cpu cooler. I've always been so careful with my computer parts where im even afraid if my 6970 touches the floor or if i place my mobo down anywhere.
AM I being OCD about it?

Thank you for the help.

 

[abekl]

You are right about being careful with computer parts. They are pretty delicate. They can handle *some* abuse, but not much, and once you've gone too far, well, you already done in for.

The noise you heard while removing the graphics card was probably the slot latch holding on to the card. My guess is you didn't have the latch depressed while removing the card. This can definitely damage the card and MB this this way. In fact, I'm surprised you got away with it at all. Count yourself lucky.

 

[DJDeCiBeL]

It's fine (GPU, motherboard, etc.). It would be nearly impossible for something like that to cause any harm. I mean, it was getting too little power, not too much. It should have just refused to boot and that would be the end of it. No harm done.

As far as how rough you can be with components, I wouldn't recommend literally throwing parts on the ground or anything, lol, but most components are pretty damn sturdy. A mechanical HDD is about the only thing that can't take much roughness.

And ESD (static) is usually a non issue. I've never once killed anything with a static shock in my 15+ years of building computers, and while I took some precautions, I wasn't overly protective of anything, either. You'd have to be very careless to damage something from ESD (as in literally taking the time to touch each individual chip after running around on carpet while in socks. In other words, it just doesn't happen that often).

Edit: I missed the part about you "yanking" the GPU out, but as long as it's working fine, you're good.

 

[tony245]

You are right about being careful with computer parts. They are pretty delicate. They can handle *some* abuse, but not much, and once you've gone too far, well, you already done in for.

The noise you heard while removing the graphics card was probably the slot latch holding on to the card. My guess is you didn't have the latch depressed while removing the card. This can definitely damage the card and MB this this way. In fact, I'm surprised you got away with it at all. Count yourself lucky.

No, I actually unlocked the slot latch trust me. I guess it was just a bit stuck in there. Thanks for the answer

 

[tony245]

Best answer selected by tony245.

 

[tony245]

It's fine (GPU, motherboard, etc.). It would be nearly impossible for something like that to cause any harm. I mean, it was getting too little power, not too much. It should have just refused to boot and that would be the end of it. No harm done.

As far as how rough you can be with components, I wouldn't recommend literally throwing parts on the ground or anything, lol, but most components are pretty damn sturdy. A mechanical HDD is about the only thing that can't take much roughness.

And ESD (static) is usually a non issue. I've never once killed anything with a static shock in my 15+ years of building computers, and while I took some precautions, I wasn't overly protective of anything, either. You'd have to be very careless to damage something from ESD (as in literally taking the time to touch each individual chip after running around on carpet while in socks. In other words, it just doesn't happen that often).

Edit: I missed the part about you "yanking" the GPU out, but as long as it's working fine, you're good.

Thanks for the help