ARRGHH stupid electricity

[Rapmaster]

OK-- I was just trying to swap out an old 10mpbs NIC for newer a 10/100 card that I had lying around.

Easy job, I thought. Good way to kill some time before work (I got annoyed with the light on my switch telling me that #2 wasn't running at 100mbps)

Unfortunately I am an idiot and I left the computer plugged in (but powered off) while I inserted the new PCI card.... sparks went flying from the PCI slot and the thing powered up, with fans spinning but nothing else. I dumbly tried turning it off with the front switch (which may have caused more damage) before unplugging the power.

After reconnecting it--- system won't boot. Absolutely nothing happens when I push the button

I know that stuff is likely damaged -- but how bad COULD it be. Motherboard? CPU? Power supply? RAM? I'm going to look at it tomorrow but I'm just wondering HOW MUCH can possibly be damaged by something like this. Anyone had a similar experience?? =)

It's a secondary computer so I don't care too much but it was still useful in that role (AMD K6-2 450, 128MB RAM, Voodoo 3)

I'm hoping that most of it is salvageable.




arghhhhh

 

[t'kron]

Sparks fllying is NOT a good thing, ever.

"sparks went flying from the PCI slot "

That probably means every PCI card is suspect to being damaged, the motherboard, heck everything in that computer was subjected to an electrical charge, All you can do is test the components one at a time in another rig and see what works and what doesn't

 

[Unregistered]

Sounds like a fun encounter with Lan Wake-up to me, we love you ATX!

-- Magickian, because I'm too lazy to login

 

[YesNameRequired]

so rapmaster how's your computer now?

 

[Viridion]

hrm

im goin to school for this stuff
microsoft says technically for changing pci agp drives etc you don't need to unplug the comp

i never have either hehe

never had a problem with changing pci stuff

i even done it 3 or 4 times with the computer running

as long as you get good contact with all the pins at once.. it's all good hehe...

i can't see it powering up by itself or sparks flying from a pci without the comp power being on tho hehe

 

[Wargasm]

couldbe very worse depends all in all .
i had it happen while exchanging memory . forgot to take the plug out and power up the puter so the last energy out of the transistors would flow away ..
new mobo was the result .

 

[Rapmaster]

Finally got around to looking at this thing (shows you how much I care about this system)

Swapped the power supply-- didn't help. And the power supply that was in there tested ok in another system. So I didn't blow any fuses.

Removed every single card... still absolutely nothing when I push the power button (no fan or anything)

So it looks like a dead motherboard. I'll test the individual cards/drives in another garbage system to make sure that they weren't damaged and to see what can be salvaged since they seem ok so far. I'll even try the NIC that caused the problem =)

Just wondering... if the CPU was damaged could that caused this problem? I'm thinking that the fans should at least spin if it was anything other than the motherboard.

Viridion, as Magickian (who doesn't log in) mentioned, ATX systems are never really powered off... they just kind of sleep until they get an electronic signal to start up (triggered by the power switch, or by a wake on LAN/wake on modem feature.) Which is why the power switch plugs into the motherboard and not into the power supply like it used to on older AT systems.

 

[YesNameRequired]

then what happens if you push the I/O switch on the power supply that's behind your computer?

 

[Rapmaster]

Whenever that switch is on (and the system is plugged in) there is a 5V current flowing through pin 9 of the power connector. When the system wants to wake up, the motherboard signals the power supply to fire up full blast. That 5V current is needed in order for the electronics to work when the computer is "off"

If there is no switch (cheaper power supplies don't have one) then there is always a 5V signal on pin 9 when the system is plugged in.

 

[Unregistered]

this is why UPS are good.