Simple answer required, please assist

[ashleyb1969]

Pretty sure i've blown the fuse(s) on my motherboard (popping sound) my fault. I'm assuming its probably not worth keeping the motherboard but is the ram, cpu, graphics card etc likely to be ok to use on another board?

thanks

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

 

First is a whoa, slow down a bit, lets first be sure it is the motherboard, fair enough to say a popping sound can be bad news, but it may be elsewhere and not the motherboard at all.

 

Have you firstly had a good look round the board, not just on top but have you had it out of the case and looked underneath as well?

Is there any black marks, capacitors showing leaking gunge, any other components looking burnt?

 

If there isn't any signs of damage there is a good chance there might not be, and the next thing to look at would be the power supply.

 

Have a look through the vents, do not take it apart even if the power is fully removed, but can you see anything inside looking burnt or is there a burnt smell from the power supply?

 

it can be tested, but the best test is try the power supply on another computer, or try another power supply on this one. The second is better and safer, as a bad power supply can in rare cases cause damage to another board.

 

Let us know what you find, and if possible post a picture of anything you are suspicious about.

 

Nev.

[ashleyb1969]

Firstly thanks for the swift response. I tried with another power supply and there was no action. The pop definately came from the motherboard, i'm pretty certain it's the fuse(s) but my knowledge is limited, i have searched for a diagram showing exactly what the fuse would look like but it looks like one to me. The most obvious one is just to the right of the graphics card near the edge of the board, it is labelled as follows

D3

D2

I will try and get a photo in the daylight as the flash is blinding. The motherboard is a foxconn A6GMV (http://www.manualowl.com/m/Foxconn/A6GMV/Manual/297408)

thanks again

Edited April 15, 2013 by ashleyb1969

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, there are to my knowledge no fuses on motherboards, though the component you may be looking at and labelled D3 and D2 are more than likely diodes, if it is a glass encapsulation and is discoloured like the inside of a blown fuse would look like, then it is probably blown, it may also have blown internals of chips as well, whatever it was that happened to destroy the diode. A picture of it will definitely help me to decide. What happened to make it pop by the way?

 

However if so then I doubt the mother board is salvageable as we don't know what else is damaged by the high current that did that.

 

So we get back to your first question, what else in the computer may be OK, what may not be OK.

 

That now does depend on what caused this to happen in the first place, as surge currents can damage RAM, and if part of the supply for the CPU it could also have damaged that. Unfortunately the only way to find out is to try them on a similar motherboard and computer.

 

That also goes for the graphics card. Even if they are damaged and will not work, it is unlikely to do damage on a new or other board, it just won't work is all.

The hard drive should be OK and that can be tested on another computer by fitting it to a USB caddy or simple adapter, adapters are cheaper if no caddy.

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Hi

 

I have never heard a fuse "pop" ..... it is more likely to be a capacitor.

 

Assuming your m/board is dead - to answer your question about recovering components ...

Your m/board uses socket AM3 for the central processor.

If you wanted to salvage the CPU then your next board MUST have an AM3 socket ( there are different ones available and Intel CPUs are not compatible )

Your CPU is AMD.

 

Your RAM is DDR3 ( quite common ) so any m/board that can use DDR3 1333 / 1066 RAM would be OK.

 

Your m/board has integrated graphics - so unless you have added a video card there is nothing else to salvage.

 

To be frank - I wouldn't select a motherboard to suite a few old components.

Start afresh ..... unless you can get exactly the same board.

 

Also ...

If you put a new m/board in that case and intend to use the hard drive with the present Operating System then there is a very good chance that the system will not boot up - or if it does it will be very unstable as major hardware has been changed.

You would need to re-install the operating system.

If you can get exactly the same board this will not be a problem.

 

Also ...

Your present board is a micro ATX ( smaller than standard ATX )

You would not be able to fit a standard ATX board in your case.

 

You never said what you were doing to cause the problem ?

[ashleyb1969]

Hi thanks for the responses, the reason it went was that somehow the psu was switched to 115v or whatever the lower voltage was, I wasn't getting power from a new psu and thought I'd hook up an old one to see if I could narrow down the problem, didn't realise there was a switch on the back, somehow in storage the switch has been moved across(should of checked).

 

I have a fairly good understanding as I built much of the system, I have a copy of the os so could remove any data I need from the hard drive and start again with the new setup. The system is in a standard sized case so I don't mind what size the replacement motherboard would be. I have the following which I would hope to move across to a replacement board all being well,

2xddr3 memory units

Hard drives(weren't attached at the time of problem)

Radeon video card

Psu

 

I understand that a new setup would be the best but the system isn't very old so would like to salvage what I can if I can. Basically I've decided that if I get a new motherboard which accepts my athlon 11 x3 but with the capability of more then if the processor doesn't work I can buy a new one and anything else needed.

 

Any thoughts/advice especially on a new motherboard would be much appreciated.

Thanks again

[KenB]

Any thoughts/advice especially on a new motherboard

Why not go with the same m/board ?

There will be no compatibility issues - and there will be no problems with the OS.

 

somehow the psu was switched to 115v

This will definitely cause damage - initially to the PSU - it could damage the m/board too.

thought I'd hook up an old one to see if I could narrow down the problem

Did you do this ?

If so - what were the results ?