Tiny spark caused by screwdriver

[Harry9508]

Hi folks! I was working one of my MacBook Pros 2015 A1398, just the regular cleaning, removing dust, cleaning the fans etc. After I had done all the cleaning, I plugged back everything in and tested it out everything worked great. Right then I realized I forgot to put one tiniest screw in. While trynna screw this in, I touched my motherboard right where it should never had been touched  with a screw driver! It was some kinda IC. Very close to battery lego connector and I saw a spark, it was for a split second, not blue but like a fiery spark, it definitely wasn't blue/white. The laptop was already shut down but the battery wasn't removed, so at this point I am uncertain that the spark could have caused the machine to turn off. Anyways, I power it back up and runs like nothing ever happened. In fact, I think it even runs a little better, it stays cooler now. I tried to visually inspect the board for blown capacitors, or some kinda magical smell or a black spot of some sort but there was nothing, I didn't removed the board to have a look at the other side of the world but at least where the spark happened, there's nothing on this side.

I have been using it for two days now, exactly the same usage, CPU has gone up to 71c when I build something with Xcode, idles at 38c. Everything looks normal, feels normal. In fact I am using it to create this post right now.

So my question is, I have ruined boards with just my fingers, yeah ESD can be a b*tch I know that, once a screw fell on my HDD and it never worked again, but this time I saw a spark and that wasn't blue either it was just the same when you jump start a car and you see sparks when you initially connect the terminals of a battery to another one, exactly like that. How is everything still looking fine? I have tested GPU, CPU, stress tested it, did everything it all looks good. I am OCD about such things, what would be the symptoms if I had shorted something out?

Attached image shows the screw I was putting in and the small IC that's inside that circle, my guess is something sparked there.

[SenKa]

If you didn't break it immediately than nothing did any damage, almost certainly.

[Otto_iii]

Avoid doing that, but probably nothing with modern hardware, there is a lot of good inbuilt protections on newer stuff.  Unless you are doing a TechYesCity and building old 8 core Xeon gaming 600$ rigs from ali express that can compete with 9900k's with midrange GPUs then don't worry about it. 
 

 

[Harry9508]

8 minutes ago, Caroline said:

When you accidentaly crack apple's secret overheating firmware.

 

Use it, leave it on overnight to see if it restarts itself

LOL. Yeah I left it on last night, with charger plugged in. Worked fine though. 

[Harry9508]

15 minutes ago, Otto_iii said:

Avoid doing that, but probably nothing with modern hardware, there is a lot of good inbuilt protections on newer stuff.  Unless you are doing a TechYesCity and building old 8 core Xeon gaming 600$ rigs from ali express that can compete with 9900k's with midrange GPUs then don't worry about it. 
 

 

Ya I should never do that. Anytime you go close to a circuit make sure it isn’t plugged into any kinda source!!

[Otto_iii]

You shouldn't, but if its running i can pretty much promise with 99.99% its absolutely fine.  In regards to sparking components, they either completely break or aren't effected at all.  You sound like you are in the clear. 

The easiest trick is just keep grounding yourself on a case or other piece of metal if wearing a wrist-strap seems too much like a meme for you, likewise nitrile gloves aren't that pricy and you can find them in any automotive department, if you are paranoid. 

I personally wear nitrile gloves a lot when working on computers, not so much because of the anti-static, just so that i can't put skin-oils onto any connecting components (the gloves allow me to man-handle parts, pins, various gold plated connectors etc, with no worry), that though by most peoples standards is massive overkill, i wouldn't worry so much.  I'm just used to wearing them due to tinkering on cars a lot previously. 

[Falkentyne]

Next time, completely UNPLUG a laptop *AND* disconnect the battery before trying to screw something in on the inside.  You are very lucky you didn't destroy something.

I destroyed a 4 year old ($1800 when new) laptop in 2016 like that so I'm not talking out of my ass here.

[Harry9508]

Thanks @Otto_iii! really appreciate the words! I definitely am gonna try something.
@Falkentyne damn. I am gonna be very cautious in the future man!