FIRST TIME BUILDER AND BLEW UP MY PC

[Mike UK]

Yes as a first time builder I let my son press the power button and it light up for about 3 seconds started smoking then make a small noise and turned off. I feel sick as a dog and have no idea what went wrong other than a photo of what I think is the cause where you can see some burn Mark's. The rest of the pc I cant see any damage but I'm really worried something else could be damaged

Edited October 4, 2019 by Mike UK
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[Aperture9999999]

Did you remember to install the motherboard standoffs? If you didn't, then the motherboard shorted out on the back of the case.

[Mike UK]

They came already installed on the case corsair 570x. Thanks for the reply 

[Dedayog]

Yeah< RMA that board.  Looks like the soldered connections under the 8-pin were manufactured badly.  Or that's what I would claim when I set up the RMA.

 

If you had standoffs and plugged in the 8pin properly, not much else to do.

[Mike UK]

Do you think its damaged anything else and sorry what does RMA mean please? Thanks. Father and son bonding I think I've gave my 9 year old mental scaring for life

[Alex Atkin UK]

I don't see the catch on that 8pin socket, did you plug it in upside down somehow?  Is that definitely the 12V CPU connector not a PCIe one?

This is why I HATE black cabling, you can't see the polarity/voltages of the pins at a glance.

[LukeSavenije]

can i ask you something? what psu did you use?

[glenalz81]

2 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Is it the 12V CPU or the PCIe plug?

Looks like a 4+4 so the correct cable, although it does possibly look like it's upside down?

 

EDIT,  Looks like it's just the clip for keeping the 4/4 together, not the latch to hold the plug in.

[Mike UK]

I didn't force any cables I checked them and that one said type 4 one side which I plugged into the psu it would only fit in and the other side said cpu and fitted in easily. I show a photo of other end to the psu.

[Dedayog]

Just now, Mike UK said:

Do you think its damaged anything else and sorry what does RMA mean please? Thanks. Father and son bonding I think I've gave my 9 year old mental scaring for life

RMA is Return Merchandise Authorization.  Basically you call them and say their shit is broke, return it and they verify it was their product malfunctioning.  They send new one.

 

 

[BecauseICanTBH]

Did you happen to drop a screw anywhere while building it? It's possible that a dropped screw could have caused a short.

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 minutes ago, glenalz81 said:

Looks like a 4+4 so the correct cable, although it does possibly look like it's upside down?

 

EDIT,  Looks like it's just the clip for keeping the 4/4 together, not the latch to hold the plug in.

Good catch, yeah looks fine.  Did I mention I hate everything being black as its so hard to get a clear photo of?

[Mike UK]

I've looked for shorts no cant see anything. Here is a photo of cables they are plugged in the correct way its just way cable looks as I show you a spare.

[Alex Atkin UK]

6 minutes ago, BecauseICanTBH said:

Did you happen to drop a screw anywhere while building it? It's possible that a dropped screw could have caused a short.

I don't know, it almost looks like one of the PCB layers has shorted if you look carefully.  Over-tightened heatsink screws during manufacture?  Unless something is actually shorting on the other side I can't see anything an end-user could have done to cause this.

I'd take the motherboard out of the case, take photos of both sides where its burnt.  Trying to figure out where it started could be a clue, although either way I'd be returning it and praying the CPU is okay.

[Mike UK]

So if you look at the 4 pin which is optional you can marry up the shape compared to the spare and see how my 8 pin was in the right way round. Thanks all for you help here I really appreciate it

[Mike UK]

So this is the other side 

[Mike UK]

So there is a chance my Processor is damaged any way of telling without having another motherboard? Thanks again

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Looks like the cable was plugged in correctly.  I see standoffs as well in the pic you just posted, so that's not a problem either. 

Looks to me like there was a problem with the 4+4 connector on the motherboard, but it could also be a problem with the power supply or the cable itself. 

 

If you bought the parts in a computer store, I'd take it there and let them verify that the power supply and cable work as intended and that the CPU still works.  Once they find out which part caused the problem, that manufacturer should be liable for any damage to other components.   

 

If you bought everything online, I'd go to a repair shop anyway so they can identify the culprit and tell you the extent of the damage.  It's better to pay $50 or so to a professional to get a proper diagnosis than to spend days on it yourself and possibly spend a lot more money on buying replacement parts you don't actually need. 

Once the shop has had a look at it, take it up with whoever you bought the parts from or get in touch directly with the manufacturer.

[mcbaes72]

The potential damage to other parts is possible such as CPU, RAM, etc. 

 

Other than replacing motherboard, consider swapping the power supply as well. 

 

Sorry to hear about this happening to you and during your first build, too. 

[BecauseICanTBH]

This just goes to show the complications of building your own PC. I built my first one last year with an 8700k. When something goes wrong, especially like this where it could have affected multiple components, it makes it much more complex of a matter to take to customer support.

 

Also when it's anything short of a highly common configuration, there are inevitably some random weird issues that are difficult to troubleshoot/resolve.

 

I'll probably never build a PC again myself.

 

Best of luck resolving this, sir. Looks like a pain in the ass. I'd recommend searching the CEO/corporate contacts for whatever company you find to be responsible and contact them first. Speaking from experience, that might make it a bit easier.

[Dedayog]

Just now, BecauseICanTBH said:

This just goes to show the complications of building your own PC. I built my first one last year with an 8700k. When something goes wrong, especially like this where it could have affected multiple components, it makes it much more complex of a matter to take to customer support.

 

Also when it's anything short of a highly common configuration, there are inevitably some random weird issues that are difficult to troubleshoot/resolve.

 

I'll probably never build a PC again myself.

 

Best of luck resolving this, sir. Looks like a pain in the ass. I'd recommend searching the CEO/corporate contacts for whatever company you find to be responsible and contact them first. Speaking from experience, that might make it a bit easier.

Definitely contact the CEO of a large manufacturing company when one of their products has a fault.  /s

 

Never had anything break on you, have you?  Return it, move on with your life.

[harryk]

Is it just me or does this look like there is a thin layer of solder covering everything to the left of the plug? In which case that is definitely a manufacturing problem and should be returned without issue.

 

[Mike UK]

Thanks to everyone for their help as you can expect I'm feeling awful and a friend is going to take parts out tomorrow and test them for me. He also has an old pc hes going to plug the psu into so doesnt mind if that get blown up. It has totally put me off and given the chance I would just return everything now if I could.

 

Thanks again to everyone and I'll update you when I know more.

[Zando_]

7 minutes ago, Mike UK said:

Thanks to everyone for their help as you can expect I'm feeling awful and a friend is going to take parts out tomorrow and test them for me. He also has an old pc hes going to plug the psu into so doesnt mind if that get blown up. It has totally put me off and given the chance I would just return everything now if I could.

 

Thanks again to everyone and I'll update you when I know more.

That really sucks, sorry you had to start this way. From everything on this thread it's pretty clear the mobo or PSU was faulty so you should be able to RMA those, hopefully nothing else was damaged. I certainly know the sick feeling when something you put a lot of time and money into doesn't work, it's not a very nice feeling. 

[BecauseICanTBH]

7 hours ago, jstudrawa said:

Definitely contact the CEO of a large manufacturing company when one of their products has a fault.  /s

 

Never had anything break on you, have you?  Return it, move on with your life.

Lol, I contact the CEO whenever possible for literally any problem I have with any product or company. It's always executive level customer support and it's fantastic.