Foam pad on motherboard???

[tommywmson]

I was looking at a friends computer, which was acting erratically. I noticed that when the motherboard was installed in the case, someone put the foam pad that was part of the packing, under the motherboard, between the back of the board and the case. Wouldn't this cause some problems?

 

[pike]

That may verywell cause heat dissipation problems.
It ha no reason to be there.
Occasionnally a small piece of foam may help to avoid a grounding of a excentric setup, but only 1 or 2 small pieces not the whole lenght of the board. It's a big job but consider taking components off while noting where all go. Unplug power connections. Loosen main setting screws, slide mobo of spacers. Take off foam pad and reinstall.
Do these before:
1- Find the original builder and see wy that was done.
2- If nothing in 1- then look carefully at mounting posts and spacers to see if there was not an incompatibility. There could be a mobo formfactor mismatch, in which case things become less interesting.
3- You may on inspection only find the builder ran short of spacers and decided to leave the foampad to prevent grounding. Bad builder. Then add spacers as above.
Post back if needed.
Good luck.

A stick up your butt with that sir?