Diagnostic tool to test motherboard video card slot?

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Guest

Recently, I tried installing a graphics card which ruined both the
Power Source and the graphics card. The Power Source started smoking
and I ultimately had to get both the PSU and graphics card replaced.
How do I go about testing to see if the motherboard was also damaged?

Currently I have the original graphics card installed in my computer
and everything seemingly works okay, but I'd like to be sure that the
motherboard was not also damaged during the botched installation. Can
anyone help?

thanks!
Jaxim
 
Recently, I tried installing a graphics card which ruined both the
Power Source and the graphics card. The Power Source started smoking
and I ultimately had to get both the PSU and graphics card replaced.
How do I go about testing to see if the motherboard was also damaged?

Currently I have the original graphics card installed in my computer
and everything seemingly works okay, but I'd like to be sure that the
motherboard was not also damaged during the botched installation. Can
anyone help?
Click to expand...
If the machine is working OK with the original card,
I`d say your machine is not damaged.
 
Recently, I tried installing a graphics card which ruined both the
Power Source and the graphics card. The Power Source started smoking
and I ultimately had to get both the PSU and graphics card replaced.
How do I go about testing to see if the motherboard was also damaged?

Currently I have the original graphics card installed in my computer
and everything seemingly works okay, but I'd like to be sure that the
motherboard was not also damaged during the botched installation. Can
anyone help?

thanks!
Jaxim
Click to expand...

It depends on which path the electricity took, as to whether the damage
is limited to the video card or may include the motherboard. If the video
card had an Aux connector on the end, and that is where the miss-connection
or overload occurred, then the damage would be restricted to the video
card.

The things that could be damaged on the motherboard, are connectors and
copper tracks. It is possible to burn out a track in a motherboard, without
visual signs, if the track is really small. For larger tracks or copper
conducting planes, the motherboard fiberglass might begin to char, indicating
that there was an overload. So you could look near the video card slot,
look at the pins in the video card slot, or look at the condition of the
main ATX power connector pins.

While it is possible to do some kind of load testing in a lab, measure
the voltage drop, and compare the impedance seen to a reference motherboard,
I doubt such a measurement would really do much to reassure you that
the motherboard will have a long life. A visual inspection will probably
tell you as much as anything else, at this point. And the fact that the
old graphics card works, tells you no connection was totally blown. So
just pull the working video card out, examine the connector pins, and
look for discoloration of the fiberglass, to determine whether there
was any significant damage.

Paul
 
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