The motherboard didn’t contain weed, yet it was still smoked.
The motherboard didn’t contain weed, yet it was still smoked.
Currently my motherboard is functioning well and the PC is operational. I use a Gigabyte Aorus B450 Pro Wifi board. I posted about my motherboard's audio yesterday on audio, and from that I learned it might have been damaged. Recently I added a GPU bracket with A-RGB, and while checking the manual, I tried to connect it by shutting down the PC. The process involved repeatedly turning it on and off, until finally the bracket activated. My motherboard features two 5V 3-pin A-RGB headers, but one was already non-functional from the beginning. During those shutdown cycles, I noticed a smoke coming from the GPU area near the CPU. Because of this, I quickly turned off the power supply. I didn’t check if the fans were still running or stopped, so I focused on shutting down the PSU. After waiting a few minutes, I restarted everything and it works perfectly now.
However, this incident coincided with the failure of my onboard audio. I’ve already mentioned it in another thread, confirming it’s dead. My main concern is identifying other potential issues that might have been missed. Could this small event lead to bigger problems later? Or am I just overreacting and it’s really just a simple audio loss? I’m seeking advice and any insights you can provide. Thank you!
It seems you may have connected the fan or RGB header into the HD Audio header and stopped it. I’d suggest replacing the board quickly if you’re certain it’s dead. Even if you don’t notice more damage now, issues could develop later from the original point. If you’re confident only the onboard audio was affected—perhaps the amplifier part was removed—you can switch to a PCIe card, USB DAC, or use your HDMI monitor’s audio. But if the board is truly dead, the BIOS might not shut it down properly, making it hard to power off the system.
I was thinking about upgrading around December, but I didn't anticipate needing to do it so quickly because of a mistake. Right now there aren't many hardware stores open near me, making it tough to visit places with operating hours. Are there any early warning signs I should watch for so I can stop using my PC before it fails? That way, I'll know exactly when to halt operations and get the replacement. At the moment, I'm using this setup; I assumed I'd face some audio issues for a while since GPUs use separate sound cards and my monitor has its own jack. Currently it's working fine, but I disabled audio in the BIOS to prevent any problems. If it still shuts down normally, even if turned off, I'm not sure yet. I noticed sometimes static noise when plugging in devices, especially near the audio inputs, but it's faint. Since I disabled it, it might not be detected anymore. I'm worried about potential damage and want to know if any component is likely to fail first. Thanks for the guidance, but I'm stuck right now because of the pandemic.
I wouldn't be overly concerned then. "Electrical damage" usually moves from the first point of failure because of altered capacitance from missing components. It seems you might have affected the DAC, but the amplifier and codec sections are still functioning. You should be fine as long as you avoid connecting anything to it. Still, I recommend swapping out the MB once you have a suitable board. It's a minor chance, though not nonexistent. As long as you don't notice any electrical buzzing from the MB, you're safe so far.
I currently have my front audio IO plugged into the header, should I remove that completely? Well I guess I should've since I won't be able to use it anyways. I will, I just hope the one I have right now won't damage anything else while I'm still using it. Yeah, I hate it, specially since I know even the smallest risk can grow into a bigger one when left unchecked for a long time. Also I'm the type the worries over the smallest detail so this has got me worried. I'm not hearing them as of now, but thanks, now I know one of the signs that I should be looking out for. Right now it's still sounding like before the problems occurred. Thanks for the advice, this has been a hard lesson learned.