I am so very stupid.

[BlueAcolyte]

Install the standoffs, people! I just lost about 4 weeks without my computer and $100 because I didn't.

God.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

you actually fried the board? I'd say at least 3/4s of the ones I've seen have just shorted at the 24pin and won't boot, sorry for your loss.

 

[Zepper]

Sounds like a plan to me...

.bh.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

No, it's the cost of the "repair" at the shop my dad took it to. Never mind I could just buy another board, case and standoffs with that money.

 

[tigersty1e]

What happened?

Are you talking about the nuts that go behind the motherboard?

 

[aigomorla]

standoffs: The thing that elevates your board off the motherboard panel.

How on lord did you get the backplate to fit without standoff's. Not to mention your pci cards.

And yeah that kind of repair can get expensive. You need to pull everything out and screw those back in. Basically its a rebuild.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

It was a bit off, let's put it that way...

 

[QueBert]

I have messed up some computers in my time, only fried 1 MB (weird accident) but I can be careless. I applaud your ability to get a MB to screw in and have the cards fit in the slots without the standoffs. That really is a feat, I think if I was purposely trying to do what you did by accident I would have had a hard time accomplishing it. Which just goes to show it's easy to mess up by accident but hard to do it willingly.

 

[Zepper]

Watch the language, Que. This is an open forum that kids can read. You'll need to edit that out or the new moderator will do it for you.

.bh.

 

[Tim]

A few years back I installed an MSI mobo (intel 845 chipset) without the stand-offs.
The system actually worked fine and ran for about 1 year before I did a rebuild on it and discovered my blunder. I guess I got lucky that nothing went awry.

 

[core2slow]

let me get this straight, some of you guys neglected to screw in the nuts that raised the motherboard? How in the world did u secure your board? Tie wraps?

 

[Tim]

Originally posted by: core2slow
let me get this straight, some of you guys neglected to screw in the nuts that raised the motherboard? How in the world did u secure your board? Tie wraps?

It screwed into the holes just fine... tyvm! No tie-wraps necessary!

(the hole size is the same allowing a screw to hold just fine, which is why you might notice you can screw two stand-offs together. Makes perfect sence really)

 

[Zepper]

Actually on many cases, the male part of the standoff has the same thread as the female part, but that's not necessarily so. I've had 6-32 for both, M3 for both, M3 on the male with 6-32 female and vice versa. New builder's should read Mechbgon's builders' guide on http://www.mechbgon.com and avoid such traumas.

.bh.

 

[Tim]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Actually on many cases, the male part of the standoff has the same thread as the female part, but that's not necessarily so. I've had 6-32 for both, M3 for both, M3 on the male with 6-32 female and vice versa. New builder's should read Mechbgon's builders' guide on http://www.mechbgon.com and avoid such traumas.

.bh.

It was the first time I ever pulled that mistake, not even sure what I was thinking, or drinking at the time. If I recall, that particular case I was working with might have had raised holes coming off of the MB tray, wouldn't be the first time I saw that, and it could be what saved the board. I've read that mechbgon guide, but I don't think that guide was around when I first got into slapping components into cases.

BTW zepper how's that rocketfish review coming along? I'm taking some of the information from your thread and using it in this project here. (yes I just pimped my thread, hope that's okay)

 

[thegisguy]

On one of my first builds I did just the opposite. I screwed extra standoffs in to "Better Support" my motherboard that didn't line up with mounting holes in my motherboard. Pretty much the same result OP had. I shorted the board. Costly mistake on a Tyan dual P3 board! Doh!

 

[Tim]

Originally posted by: thegisguy
On one of my first builds I did just the opposite. I screwed extra standoffs in to "Better Support" my motherboard that didn't line up with mounting holes in my motherboard. Pretty much the same result OP had. I shorted the board. Costly mistake on a Tyan dual P3 board! Doah!

lol good stuff.
All of us computer techies live and learn

 

[thegisguy]

Originally posted by: thepladfad

Originally posted by: thegisguy
On one of my first builds I did just the opposite. I screwed extra standoffs in to "Better Support" my motherboard that didn't line up with mounting holes in my motherboard. Pretty much the same result OP had. I shorted the board. Costly mistake on a Tyan dual P3 board! Doah!

lol good stuff.
All of us computer techies live and learn

Yeah Thankfully the last 25-30 builds have been a little smoother!

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Man, 30?

 

[thegisguy]

I worked IT for 6 years at small computer research lab at a university. We had 10 servers, and 10+ workstations. Because budgets were tight I built all the stuff myself, and we upgraded every year or two. Unfortunately I now work for a company that buys Dells in bulk. So my pending upgrade to my personal computer is the first I've built in over a year...

 

[angry hampster]

I did the same thing with an M2A-VM last fall. It was my first build and I didn't even know about standoffs. It wasn't until I had it up and running that I realized I should've put some in. 30 minutes later I had the motherboard out and installed fresh gold plated standoffs. The board never failed and ran great until I sold it.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Im all good now. PC got returned from the shop.

Just need to install the ethernet driver (don't ask how I'm typing this)

The repair guy's wiring is bad, but I suppose thats not a high priority.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
Im all good now. PC got returned from the shop.

Just need to install the ethernet driver (don't ask how I'm typing this)

The repair guy's wiring is bad, but I suppose thats not a high priority.

you forgot to put standoffs and have the AUDACITY to criticize another mans wiring job? wow just wow. lol just joking. Glad it's back and working.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

so now what do we talk about?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
so now what do we talk about?

If you're bored, head to P&N or OT. Then, come crawling back to the sane forums.

BTW thanks for posting about your experiences. I've seen other posts like yours, and have seen systems in RL that were like that. All the snickering aside, hopefully your post will remind the next guy building their system to install the standoffs.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

mmk, no problem