ASMedia ASM1480 Chip... chipped and PCI-e slots stopped working?

[corrado33]

 

So I bought some WD HDDs used.... (the price was way too good to pass them up... $50 for 7TB total). I stripped the hard drives out of their WD enclosures, then plugged them into my little desk HDD "dock" thing. The 3 TB drive works fine, I erase it, then secure erase it. 

 

Then I pop in the 4 TB drive. And my desk dock wouldn't do anything. The light would pop on for a second, then turn off. So I said "hmmm, I wonder what's wrong". So, since my one computer has the side panel off, I decide to plug the sata power cable into the drive to see if it spins up. I figured "My power supply is beefy on this computer, it can surely handle a simple HDD being plugged into it while running." Note, I was NOT plugging in the data cable.... just power. NOPE. As soon as I plugged the sata power in I heard a pop and the computer shut down. I said "well shit." Unplugged the HDD and tried to start the computer. To my surprise it started up just fine, but my monitor wasn't getting any signal. (I know it started because there were shared drives on that computer that I could access from another computer, and I could VNC into it.)

 

After fiddling with bios settings, PCIe slots, different GPUs, everything I can think of, I finally decide, "Well it's either the mobo or the power supply since the GPUs work fine in other computers." So I get to stripping down the computer and I inspect all the visible chips on the mobo and I find the above. On the right most chip there is a.... chip blown out of it. I thought it was a smudge, but you can actually see copper through the chip. 

 

My questions are this:

 

1. Why on earth would plugging something into the power supply cause a multiplexer chip to blow? It's a 650W good seasonic power supply (I think it's tier 2 or 3) so it couldn't have been lack of power. I only have one GTX 980 in the computer at the time, and the CPU wasn't even OCed. 
2. I don't have a hot air station, so I surely wouldn't be able to fix this, but would it be worth getting it fixed, or just buy a different mobo?  
3. Thirdly, I bought this board used, but the original owner had purchased it at memory express, and it has a warranty until aug of this year, and I have a picture of the receipt/warranty statement. Do you think I could return it? 

[nick name]

Perhaps if the wrong power cables were used, but it may have just been a fluke incident so I would attempt the return/RMA route if it's still available to you.  

[corrado33]

56 minutes ago, nick name said:

Perhaps if the wrong power cables were used, but it may have just been a fluke incident so I would attempt the return/RMA route if it's still available to you.  

No, everything was working perfectly until I plugged the hard drive in. And a sata power cable is pretty unmistakeable, and the cable only fits in one spot on the PSU.

 

Unfortunately, I managed to bend a few pins while trying to put the damn socket protector on and Mem Express won't take it back because "Physical damage".

 

The HDD's electronics were screwed up as well. There was a blown diode when I took it apart, I replaced the diode and it worked.... for a few minutes. It's ok. 

[menonv]

@corrado33

 

Had to create an account to answer to your post Corrado,

This happened to my GA-Z77X-D3H aswell, and I know what caused it. If you forget to plug in the Power Cables to your GPU, it tries to draw all the current through the PCIe slot, and blows those chips. Loved the smell, didn't love the black screen.

The only thing that works now is one of those dodgy half, low powered GPU's like a GT720. 

 

Anyway, yeah. Happens....

[Fabingo]

The same thing happened to me, is there a way to solve this problem?