Ethereal_Dragon
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I have a friend whos PC I work on frequently, due to user error, and virus infestation, etc. etc. Well, this time I was told it wouldn't power up. I was under the assumption that the PSU failed, given the symptoms.
Next, I started thinking that perhaps the CPU burned up, so I started taking all the components off of the motherboard. This computer was built by a different friend of hers a few years back, and has 2x 36 Gig SCSI drives in it. The SCSI card was in a lower PCI slot, and the SCSI cable was a mess down at the bottom of the case. After getting the cable out, I immediatly saw the problem..... USB header for the front ports BURNED UP!! After looking at the front ports, hidden behind a liftable cover on the front of the case, the lowest port had the piece in the middle broken off, and the pins were all jammed up into the metal housing of the case, shorting the pins out. This caused the cable to heat up to such a magnatude that it turned black, and the copper inside turned green and crispy, and the plastic sheathing was all bubbly and nasty. So I disconnected the whole front connector assembly, 2x USB, headphone & mic ports, and wrote it off as a total loss. After getting that out, I hooked up her PSU, tried to fire up the PC, and STILL NOTHING. Then I hooked up my PSU, and it worked without issue.
I am pretty amazed. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? My biggest shock, aside from the cable being in how it is now, is that the motherboard had NO DAMAGE that I could find, yet the issue was severe enough to burn out the PSU also.
Pictures..... (sorry, if the quality is bad, phone pics....)
Here are 2 shots of the cable inside the case.
Here are 2 shots of the bent USB pins on the front of the case. You can see that the metal is all discolored near the pin farthest to the right.
- Smelled like burning after turning PC on
- PC turned off after a few moments
- Would not power back on
Next, I started thinking that perhaps the CPU burned up, so I started taking all the components off of the motherboard. This computer was built by a different friend of hers a few years back, and has 2x 36 Gig SCSI drives in it. The SCSI card was in a lower PCI slot, and the SCSI cable was a mess down at the bottom of the case. After getting the cable out, I immediatly saw the problem..... USB header for the front ports BURNED UP!! After looking at the front ports, hidden behind a liftable cover on the front of the case, the lowest port had the piece in the middle broken off, and the pins were all jammed up into the metal housing of the case, shorting the pins out. This caused the cable to heat up to such a magnatude that it turned black, and the copper inside turned green and crispy, and the plastic sheathing was all bubbly and nasty. So I disconnected the whole front connector assembly, 2x USB, headphone & mic ports, and wrote it off as a total loss. After getting that out, I hooked up her PSU, tried to fire up the PC, and STILL NOTHING. Then I hooked up my PSU, and it worked without issue.
I am pretty amazed. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? My biggest shock, aside from the cable being in how it is now, is that the motherboard had NO DAMAGE that I could find, yet the issue was severe enough to burn out the PSU also.
Pictures..... (sorry, if the quality is bad, phone pics....)
Here are 2 shots of the cable inside the case.
Here are 2 shots of the bent USB pins on the front of the case. You can see that the metal is all discolored near the pin farthest to the right.
