I think I broke my motherboard

[ryguy425425]

I was given a Dell Inspiron 1501 with a broken LCD in return for fixing my cousin's ps3. I was planning on removing it from the case, and putting it into a 360 shell that I had from a previous adventure. While test fitting the bottom of the board may have come in contact with the metal cage of the 360. I saw sparks, but no smoke. The board will not power on. The power supply LED is green when plugged into the wall, but as soon as it's plugged into the motherboard the led turns off (it doesn't do this when plugged into my dell 1525 laptop). Is there any way to fix the board? If not, where do I go from here? I have 2 gigs of DIMM ram, a 160 GB Sata HDD, a dell DVD burner with a plug that I've only seen on dell laptops (although I do normally work with desktops) and a dual core AMD laptop processor. Is there an affordable motherboard that I could put these in? I'm looking for something small enough to fit in a 360 shell, micro ATX would work, but I'd be starting from scratch.

[x88x]

From your description, it sounds like your MBB is toast. Sorry.

What model is the CPU? If it's a Turion X2 (Socket S1), you might be able to find something over at logicsupply.com. I'm pretty sure that's the only dual-core AMD CPU that has a special mobile socket.

Also, could you get a picture of the plug on the ODD? The link you posted in the other thread didn't have a picture of it.

[Diamon]

I saw sparks

Yea, that sounds pretty toasty.

[ryguy425425]

It is an S1 socket. I have no idea how to identify the CPU, but the socket on the motherboard has 'S1 socket' written on it. I'll put up a picture of the ODD after work.

[dr.walrus]

sparks

Perhaps you could salvage the board.

As a placemat.

[Spawn-Inc]

can you get pictures front and back on the spot where it sparked.

a copper lead in the board may have been overloaded and blown, like a fuse, so you may be able to fix it.

[Konrad]

+1 attempt to salvage mobo

You'd be looking at component-level repair.

Cooked/broken PCB traces can often be fixed, looks a bit ghetto but it works. Traces sandwiched within multilayer boards aren't worth the effort.

Blown electrolytic caps are easy to spot and replace, sometimes with even higher V-rated caps if you know the circuit. Same goes for voltage regulator parts.

SMT passives (resistors, caps, diodes, etc) can be replaced. Hand soldering isn't impossible for most people ... but unless the parts are visibly identifiable (scorched) they can be a real bitch to detect, you'd have to systematically decode markings and test each part.

ICs can be more difficult (but not impossible) to test and (de)solder. Little things like glue logic and crystals aren't much hassle, but the large xBGA parts (like the main chipset) generally aren't worth the effort, assuming a pin-compatible replacement is even available. If you're lucky you'll be able to swap out a socketed part.

Try the easy stuff first -
0) Questions ... do you suffer from the infamous Dell pseudo-ATX mismatch between your PSU and mobo? ... did you add/change any hardware before sparking? ... have you stripped the mobo down to only essential hardware before testing?
1) Check mobo battery, 3V CR2032 ... maybe removing/installing/replacing it will mysteriously revive your mobo after the CMOS/NVRAM has cleared. Probably won't work, but a reasonable price to pay for the hope of salvaging the mobo.
2) If possible, attempt BIOS firmware recovery using the floppy method; avoid problems by ensuring that you use the same or newer BIOS version if possible.
3) Check if the mobo has any blown fuses. All mobos have onboard fuses (typically near the PSU connectors and/or VRM parts). A 15-cent part which failed (as it was designed to do) can often kill the mobo until replaced ... I used to see this a lot (pre-2005) when mobos were costly enough that people often paid for repair before replacement.
4) Checkout the processor and RAM from this mobo in another one to tell if these parts are cooked; they might not work but can't possibly cause hardware damage. I'd be hesitant to plug this PSU into another mobo or another PSU into this mobo (before diagnosing the parts) ... it's possible that you could smoke the other PSU or mobo if you don't isolate whatever caused your first sparky failure.