Motherboards getting zapped by power outlets ?
Good day folks. Quick discussion here: recently, I've had a couple of dead PC motherboards (both Gigabytes in case your curious), which have died in rather inexplicable circumstances, but both of their "eye witnesses" seem to blame it on roughly the same thing: some sort of power surges.
One of them is totally dead (GA-H81M-S2 - the PCH and a D-pak transistor nearby get very hot and doesn't run at all, so this is pretty much trash) and the other (GA-H87-HD3) has some signs of life but it's likely not repairable either (only turns on once for a few seconds after having its CMOS battery pulled and then wouldn't do it again. The PCI tester shows "15" in those few seconds when it's actually on - could be the BIOS ?).
Either way, if anyone could provide some pointers on either of these (schematic, boardview, etc), that would be friggin' awesome, but for now I just want to discuss the probability of them getting damaged by the line voltage, since that's what the chaps who had these claim one way or another. They came into my former shop at different times, so this last one (GA-H87-HD3) apparently died when they had plugged a fridge or some other large appliance like that into the same power strip as the PC. They said they heard a pop and apparently it came from the printer, as the USB port got darkened on that (actually they just said A USB port got darkened and since I couldn't see any charring anywhere on the MB itself, I could only assume that it's on the printer itself)....freak scenario, isn't it ? It's like one of those 1000 stupid ways to die - sounds completely ludicrous, highly unlikely and complicated and would require some planets to align at 12 o'clock on a full moon night on the 13th of Friday on a leap year....or something
but the fact remains that the PC died, so we can't entirely dismiss the probability of a power surge or some other electrical phenomenon being the cause here....
As far as we know, ATX supplies are isolated and regulated, so mains spikes shouldn't affect the output or get physically connected. The chassis of both the PC and the printer would also be earthed. GND of the power rails for both would be chassis (earth) referenced, so the only possible scenario that I can come up with is this fridge having a live wire touching the chassis somehow, though that should've caused an RCD to trip (assuming they have one installed, which I believe they very likely do since this is a public institution we're talking about, properly wired to code by some authorized electricians ).....What do you guys think ? Fact or fiction ? Accident or coincidence ? What would electronics tell us in this scenario ? Is it even remotely possible ? EMP pulse or something ?
One of them is totally dead (GA-H81M-S2 - the PCH and a D-pak transistor nearby get very hot and doesn't run at all, so this is pretty much trash) and the other (GA-H87-HD3) has some signs of life but it's likely not repairable either (only turns on once for a few seconds after having its CMOS battery pulled and then wouldn't do it again. The PCI tester shows "15" in those few seconds when it's actually on - could be the BIOS ?).
Either way, if anyone could provide some pointers on either of these (schematic, boardview, etc), that would be friggin' awesome, but for now I just want to discuss the probability of them getting damaged by the line voltage, since that's what the chaps who had these claim one way or another. They came into my former shop at different times, so this last one (GA-H87-HD3) apparently died when they had plugged a fridge or some other large appliance like that into the same power strip as the PC. They said they heard a pop and apparently it came from the printer, as the USB port got darkened on that (actually they just said A USB port got darkened and since I couldn't see any charring anywhere on the MB itself, I could only assume that it's on the printer itself)....freak scenario, isn't it ? It's like one of those 1000 stupid ways to die - sounds completely ludicrous, highly unlikely and complicated and would require some planets to align at 12 o'clock on a full moon night on the 13th of Friday on a leap year....or something
but the fact remains that the PC died, so we can't entirely dismiss the probability of a power surge or some other electrical phenomenon being the cause here....As far as we know, ATX supplies are isolated and regulated, so mains spikes shouldn't affect the output or get physically connected. The chassis of both the PC and the printer would also be earthed. GND of the power rails for both would be chassis (earth) referenced, so the only possible scenario that I can come up with is this fridge having a live wire touching the chassis somehow, though that should've caused an RCD to trip (assuming they have one installed, which I believe they very likely do since this is a public institution we're talking about, properly wired to code by some authorized electricians ).....What do you guys think ? Fact or fiction ? Accident or coincidence ? What would electronics tell us in this scenario ? Is it even remotely possible ? EMP pulse or something ?
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