Motherboard short circuit?

**Rooster2000** · December 6th, 2013

I wonder if my motherboard is short circuited, as I am having some problems with my hard disk and graphics card. If the power cable from power supply to hard disk touches the corner of the graphics card (see the left attachment), hard disk shuts down. There is some sort of short circuit protection in my power supply, I wonder if it activates. Also, behind the graphics card there are two capacitors that have leaked a bit (see the right attachment). Could this cause the short circuit?

**tgalati4** · December 6th, 2013

Check under the wire for worn insulation. Wrap with electrical tape. The wire could also be broken inside, see if it flexes differently from the rest of the wire.

The capacitors will need to be replaced. The motherboard will not work correctly with leaky/shorted capacitors. This is a common problem, do a web search.

**Rooster2000** · March 24th, 2014

I replaced my motherboard, but this problem still persists. I checked also the wires of the power supply but didn't notice any worn out. Anyway, I'm going to replace the power supply and see if it helps. If not, then the hard disk.

**tgalati4** · March 24th, 2014

Try resoldering the power pins on the hard disk. If they have solder cracks, then any motion of the cable could cause the hard disk power to drop out. Because the video card has a fan, the vibration from the fan could be transmitted to the power cable causing dropouts. I would use a tie strap to isolate the hard disk's power cable from anything that vibrates. But, yes, your power supply could be bad, but also, your motherboard may have suffered damage as well from those shorted capacitors.

**Yellow Pasque** · March 24th, 2014

I would totally redo this system. Unless you got the new Socket A mobo out of a dumpster for free, you spent too much IMO. With a budget of about $150, you can build a new base system that will run rings around your current one:

Sempron ($40) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103888
Nice mobo with IGP ($40) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138376
2x1GB dual-channel DDR3-1333 RAM ($35) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148194
PSU (seasonic): ($40) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151077

Options
1. Move up to a 2x2GB RAM kit for $10-20 extra
2. You can reuse 1 of your disks and the optical drive, or you can get a cheap SATA optical drive and use both of your disks (assuming the unplugged PATA device in your pic is another hard disk).
3. Throw in a cheap GT610 if video decode is important to you, or a more powerful GPU if you want to game

**Yellow Pasque** · March 25th, 2014

Actually, come to think of it, the Sempron may not be the best idea anymore with the existence of Intel's Bay Trail. I guess it comes down to what your needs are...

**Rooster2000** · March 27th, 2014

I checked those power pins of the hard disk. I noticed no cracks there. I changed the possibly-bad power supply back in, and noticed that the other wire branch of the power supply has some loose on it where the wires attach to second connector (the one that was attached to optical drive). I changed to other branch and made sure it doesn't get near graphics card. So far it has been working for couple of days without dropouts.

Thanks for your suggestions Temüjin. I do agree that this is the system where only nickles should be invested in (except components that can be reused). I do happen to have one Socket A motherboard (Abit KT7) as a spare, so didn't have to buy anything. Didn't realize though that I could have so much better system with such a reasonable investment. Got to think about it.

**Rooster2000** · May 2nd, 2014

The other wire branch of the possibly-bad power supply and those blackouts still persisted. I replaced the whole power supply now for good. So far no problems. I'm pretty sure it was a faulty one.