something on my motherboard broke..whats this??

[banzi fuq]

ok guys, my parents call me up and tell me they unplugged their PC because it smells like burning plastic. i sigh, and head over to check it out the next day. I get there and they opened it up in search of something burnt or whatever, but turned up nothing. So i dust it out and clean things up and start searching for anything broke/burnt and suddenly i realize a piece of the motherboard nestled on the video card.



ok now, the motherboard is the following



http://www.ixbt.com/mainboard/images...1/8k7a-big.jpg



an epox board, had no problems ever..you see the 4 heatsink looking things in between the CPU slot and the AGP slot? Right above the mobo model # in the graphic..appear almost white.. two things are facing up, two facing right. well the top left one in that picture was nestled ontop of the video card. I tried to see how it fell out and if i could put it back..apparently it isnt a snapon part



so what the hell is that thing? and can i fix it? i mean i built the computer and all,but have built only a few and dont consider myself an expert. redoing the entire thing is gonna strain some wallets and time..whats the verdict?

[Mulkero]

The pic doesn't work.

[banzi fuq]

The pic doesn't work.

sure does man

[Kolar]

Couldn't view it directly from the board either, here:

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

My guess is that some of the adhesive holding on the heatsink came loose and the heatsink fell off that chip.

Now, that means bad things--your parents smelling burning plastic/silicon isn't a good sign, especially if you see a broken heatsink. Chances are, even if you could somehow reattach the heatsink, that the chips below it are burnt.

Long story short, sounds like "new motherboard time." I'd recommend staying away from Epox--every Epox board I've ever used (with one exception) has broken in some way or another. Asus boards are nice--they've never failed me.

My bet is that most of the rest of the components are okay--try popping off the actual processor and see if you smell/see anything funny. My guess is to start by replacing the motherboard with something similar and keeping all the rest of the components. Basically it's just a process of elimination from there.

[Jeansi]

I've never ever broken my epox board. Well I've only had one so I can't say that much

[Creature]

Get an ASUS motherboard.. I like them, the only time it blew out on me was because I didn't install a surge protector (stupid me) and power went dead lol...

[Richard Creager]

Asus boards are nice--they've never failed me.

I've got an ASUS and nothing has fallen off when I kick the case out of rage yet.

[geekbot]

I can't tell what it is. have you tried booting the computer? I mean there's still 3 good ones left. : )

it's probably soldered on...are there pads? did the pads rip off? if there's no mechanical damage you should be able to solder the part back on.

[banzi fuq]

researchin around..found out that the thing is a mosfet..or connects to a mosfet and that i could do some thermal adhesive on the shiz but that wouldnt be a very permanent solution..or i could solder it on, but its sucha tiny scale that i say fuck that. yah see i have an asus in my pc im usin right now, only thing wrong is one of the nic cards in it has some problems sometimes..oh well. uhm parents dont want to really replace everything..if i get new mobo..say asus for simplistic sakes..am i gonna have to reformat HD. and moreso, can i get a nice asus that is upgradable for the future..yet backward compatible to work with the amd 1.4tbird thats in their computer now??

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

researchin around..found out that the thing is a mosfet..or connects to a mosfet and that i could do some thermal adhesive on the shiz but that wouldnt be a very permanent solution..or i could solder it on, but its sucha tiny scale that i say fuck that. yah see i have an asus in my pc im usin right now, only thing wrong is one of the nic cards in it has some problems sometimes..oh well. uhm parents dont want to really replace everything..if i get new mobo..say asus for simplistic sakes..am i gonna have to reformat HD. and moreso, can i get a nice asus that is upgradable for the future..yet backward compatible to work with the amd 1.4tbird thats in their computer now??

Yes, you'll have to reformat unless it's an Epox board of the exact same model. Reason being that although Windows XP (god have mercy on your soul if you're running any other Windows product--well, maybe 2000) is very resilient and tries to fix itself, some of the very basic chipset stuff (there's a three-letter acronym that's escaping me right now) is only available for install at install time.

Off the top of my head, an Asus A7N8X (http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?langs=09&m=A7N8X) might be your best bet for a replacement motherboard, price-wise at very least. The thing retails for like $64, so it shouldn't put a stress on your wallet.

[Krazie _ Killer]

Try looking underneath the CPU.
Remove the Heatsync, Remove the CPU, Look under.

If you see a burn mark you burned your CPU.
also look around the black heatsync harnis. look for burnt spots.