Stand-offs are used for a reason...

[Mr. Rude]

And another lovely saturday has passed, but not without one wannabe geek possibly having to buy a new motherboard....

Chap comes in with his new tower ( both panels off ) & proceeds to explain blah, blah, blah turned it on & the heatsink fan tried to turn & then nothing.

Hmmmmmm...Our trusty hero muses & does a quick inspection. Yes the I/O shield is in place at the back with everything poking out as it should. A quick flip of the case reveals his worst fears. DUH DUH DUNNNNNN!!!

A motherboard SECURELY screwed down straight to the chassis with even a little bit of bending at each of the holes. And of course a mess of solder points making beautiful contact to a piece of metal so that the electricity can course away to wherever it wants.

I ask the hapless wannabe if he used ALL of the stand-offs or just enough to get the board in line with the I/O shield. Of course, you guessed it, option "B" had been selected. Smart enough to get the thing lined up at the back, too dumb to RTFM.

He had just picked up our upgrade kit the day before. We even toss it together for FREE, but nooooo. He can do it

I offer to book it in to service, a 2-3 day turn around so we can see if he fried any components. Nope, he'll try again.

Come monday we shall see if the fickle tech gods decided to fry it or let it live. Hopefully it only toasted his board & not anything else. A mere $140.00 mistake ( Or $145.00 US now I think ). Perhaps we can put it together for him

Lessons he has/will learn;

1: RTFM
2: Stand-offs are there for a reason.
3: When in doubt. Don't
4: No. I don't take american express.
5: Next time, take the free assembly.


Update to follow monday....... Cheers

[lordlundar]

Hmm, I call that the MB and possibly the processor are fried, up that to a guarantee if the heatsink or the TCP are not applied properly(which is a good chance if the standoffs weren't applied properly), and a longer shot on the ram.

Speaking of which, ATX board? and what standoffs weren't in place?

[Mr. Rude]

This mobo...

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...63&modelmenu=1

And the 2 holes by the IDE & floppy controllers are the 2 that I saw mashed right down. I didn't take a really good look at the next 3 but I'd bet he did the same to those ones too.

[lordlundar]

the controllers are done for, and if the serial drives were in use, the control boards on them are screwed as well. This is in addition to the prior guesses. If the ones by the expansion bays are done as well, well, it's probably going to be cheaper to get a new computer.

[Shabo]

So stand-offs = spacers on the other side of the pond, huh?

He might be ok. I've seen people use their mobo with no spacers, and it worked fine, but if he didn't know to do that, he probably fried something else as well because he clearly had no clue what he was doing.

[Naaman]

So stand-offs = spacers on the other side of the pond, huh?

He might be ok. I've seen people use their mobo with no spacers, and it worked fine, but if he didn't know to do that, he probably fried something else as well because he clearly had no clue what he was doing.

I think the problem was he'd used the spacers at the back end of the case (to get the sockets lined up) but no further. By the time it got screwed down it had an "interesting" contour

[Shabo]

I think the problem was he'd used the spacers at the back end of the case (to get the sockets lined up) but no further. By the time it got screwed down it had an "interesting" contour

Oh, sure, I know. Hence why I said he clearly had no clue what he was doing.

[draggar]

Put me down for mobo, processor, and video fried. As a tie breaker, I call RAM.

Actually, video cards are a good test. Just pull the AGP card up a LITTLE bit and watch the newbie tech see why the PC won't POST.

[Arcade Man D]

Put me down for mobo, proc, and IDE cables. The rest weren't plugged in right, and thus made it fine.

[Lehk]

everything but peripherals and drives., probably also damaged the power supply by shorting it out

[Broomjockey]

... This was so close to being me yesterday. Fortunately, I read the manual a little more closely, and realized that the screws didn't go directly into the case, but into the little screws that take screws. And I've this thread to thank for it.

[lordlundar]

you did remember to apply the Thermally Conductive compound to the heatsink and processor, right broomjockey?

[Broomjockey]

you did remember to apply the Thermally Conductive compound to the heatsink and processor, right broomjockey?

Actually, the nice people at the store did that for me, for free! And with luck, by the time it ever needs to be reapplied, I'll be upgrading something anyway, so I'll have a better excuse.

By the way, should I be worried that my mother, who works in a small computer shop repairing computers and such tried to tell me the thermal compound "Is only there to hold the processor in place"? Also, she didn't know about the spacers, and tried to screw the board directly to the case? And didn't know about SLI, or the speeds on RAM, or...pretty much anything about the computer I was building? Heh.

[JustADude]

By the way, should I be worried that my mother, who works in a small computer shop repairing computers and such tried to tell me the thermal compound "Is only there to hold the processor in place"? Also, she didn't know about the spacers, and tried to screw the board directly to the case? And didn't know about SLI, or the speeds on RAM, or...pretty much anything about the computer I was building? Heh.

Yes, yes you should.

[lordlundar]

By the way, should I be worried that my mother, who works in a small computer shop repairing computers and such tried to tell me the thermal compound "Is only there to hold the processor in place"? Also, she didn't know about the spacers, and tried to screw the board directly to the case? And didn't know about SLI, or the speeds on RAM, or...pretty much anything about the computer I was building? Heh.

I would be worried if she's allowed to touch the computers.

Can I teach her, please? I promise to leave the taser, cattleprod, and any blunt instruments alone.