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My motherboard got fried, I think I plugged in a fan to the wrong spot and on boot I heard an electric pop and the computer stopped working. A chip on the motherboard is visibly cracked but I didn't see any battery damage or burns.

Are there any components that I should be worried about being fried? I'm using a second computer, I can't boot from the harddrive that was in the fried mobo but I can still see all the files on it if I boot from something else. Nothing seems to be corrupt, repair doesn't work but when I boot I keep getting the error message

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key

Could my RAM, CPU or GPU be compromised? I don't want to go plugging things in and testing them if theres an issue with them

user1040360
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  • Maybe **[this](https://superuser.com/a/1219286/814740)** can help you. – C0deDaedalus May 26 '18 at 16:09
  • The motherboard is toast, replace it or get another PC. Don't take a chance frying other components that could be re-used if you decide to replace the motherboard. – Moab May 26 '18 at 16:21
  • "Could my RAM, CPU or GPU be compromised?" Not in the way you describe. Causing a short by introducing higher voltages where they shouldn't be is going to cause the weakest wires to heatup and sever like a fuse.. a very expensive fuse. The idea that it would fail into a parts killing state is highly unlikely. You should post a photo of the chip and where you plugged in the fan. Considering I don't actually know what happened though I can't really provide any further info besides that. – jdwolf May 26 '18 at 17:14
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    Some PSUs can fail into a bad or unregulated state. ... which is why you never want to get a cheap PSU among many other reasons. It could well be a PSU issue simply exacerbated by the introduction of a new fan plugged in correctly. – jdwolf May 26 '18 at 17:16

1 Answers1

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Could my RAM, CPU or GPU be compromised?

Could? Yes.
Are they? Maybe.

The big question is if you are willing to take the risk.

If you have an old PC which is compatible and which you do not mind losing, plug in the graphics card and see if it works. (I assume that the GPU you mean a graphics card and not just the single GPU chip on a graphics card).

Ditto for the memory and the CPU.

If you do not have anything which may be lost in testing then assume all components fried and potentially capable of kill whatever you plug them into.

As for the harddisk: More of less the same. I have not yet seen any problems if I put a disk in an external USB case and powered it up without smoke (which you do before connecting it). But if you do not have up to date backups then it might be worth the risk.

Given the this part if your text means that you probably were lucky.
(For interesting values of lucky, but...)

I can't boot from the harddrive that was in the fried motherboard but I can still see all the files on it if I boot from something else

Booting usually only works if:

  • The OS is Windows and the computers are very alike.
  • The OS is Linux/BSD/... (graphic env might not work, but these tend to boot even when you move the disk)
  • The firmware is the same (read ancient BIOS vs a modern system with EFI).

The safe thing to do would be to check your backups. Get any files you miss from the disk. Plug in a new disk and reinstall the OS. Then put the old disk in a drawer with a post-it note on it with "Might fry my computer at any time. Please do not use".

Keltari
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Hennes
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