Russ,

That's a good question and this is a subjective answer, based on my
experience of about 1,000 repairs a year trough my shop. Most common method
of shorting something is plugging something in or taking it out while the
computer is on. Second is a dead short in a device. we have blown
motherboards and power supplies, with harddrives, case fans, cd-roms and
floppies that have short.  Rarely have I had incidents involving CPUs,
Motherboards, add-on boards (i.e. PCI), memory, that are just bad. If the
part is bad normally the PC will not boot or acts real funny.  I personally
am always smelling parts as I swap them and look at suspect items with a
regular 4 inch magnifying glass. Even though I use Microscope and some other
professional diagnostic tools, I am your classic parts swapper, mostly
because I have plenty of parts and its quick.. I average about 3 blow ups a
year swapping parts, usually 2 from harddrives with dead shorts and the
other from some stupid act by a tech (or me).  Hope this helps.

Wayne Ware


> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date:    Fri, 5 Jan 2007 17:21:31 -0500
> From:    Paul Hachmeyer <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: rebuilding a Dell - risks?
>
> Is there any risk involved in putting possibly damaged components into
> another mb?   Couldn't a fried cpu or memory damage the mb or a bad cpu
> damage memory?   What about a bad PCI card  - a  NIC, a video card, tv
> tuner card, etc.  - couldn't they damage a mb, memory or cpu if it's
> shorted?
> Paul Hachmeyer
>
> AAA-Onsite Computer Repair wrote:
>
> >Russ,
> >
> >Yes the usb/audio and the power switch panel  are I/O (Input Output).  I
> >call them that because that is what the Dell support tech called them. I
> >just recently had a Dell in my shop that that we were having a heck of a
> >time tracking the problem down.  The power had 2 panels and a ribon cable
> >between them. The first was at the actual switch, the second panel went
to
> >the motherboard. It also had the usb/audio panel. It had three panels in
the
> >front of the case, I forget which model it was now.  I remember not being
> >able to short the pins for the switch, I tried taking of the ribon from
the
> >switch and shorting the pins, nothing happened. Everytime time we ordered
a
> >part, we call Dell support and for asistance with trouble shooting. First
> >they sent us mother board, then a power supply, then a fan, then and
other
> >motherboard, finally they sent us both panels to the switch and the
related
> >ribon cables. This really did happen!  The switches, were about $22.00
for
> >both parts plus shipping. I also believe the diagnostic lights on the
back
> >panel of the dells do not show a normal power on sequence/diagnositc if
the
> >the IO panel is bad.  What are the lights in the back doing?  The last
Dell
> >support tech asked me about the diagnostc lights right away. A second
Dell
> >came shortly there after same problem, we fixed it first try! Dell took
all
> >the other parts we ordered back as well. Reference the CPU, Sometimes I
have
> >unclipped it and 1/2 tension on the socket lever and pulled the CPU
sraight
> >up and it has cleaned the pins enough  to fix a PC that powers on, but
with
> >noting to screen. (A long shot, but it has worked). I knew it was not the
> >CPU on this one, because I had CPUs to try out on it. Email me when you
find
> >what the problem finally turned out to be.
> >
> >Good Luck
> >
> >Wayne Ware
> >

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