Did I just destroy my new computer?

[Red Oak]

Boy do I feel dumb!

 

I just connected my old g4 to my new hack via firewire and the hack went dead!

 

I cant power on or anything.

 

The g4 was turned on and not yet in target mode so my fear is that I fried the motherboard? Fried everything? I have no idea how to proceed so any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

the g4 is OK it is just the hack that is dead

 

I fear the worst.

[zarac]

have you tried clearing CMOS of your hack motherboard?

check your manual for the location of the CMOS CLEAR jumper.

 

alternatively, try removing your motherboard battery, wait for a few minutes, and then power up the machine without the battery.

if it boots, power it down and put the battery back in its place.

 

if none of this works, i'm afraid you did somehow manage to hurt your mobo.

 

EDIT: do not forget to unplug your power cable before touching your mobo with fingers. even after that some pc power supplies still have some power in them, so press again the power button with the power cord unplugged to drain the power out - on my machine it manages to spin all fans for a second before it completely goes quiet.

 

also watch for that static electricity, here's a good quote on how to avoid static damage:

To avoid the ravages of static damage, your body and the components you're working with (add-in card, RAM, PC case, and so on) must be at the same electrical potential. And the easiest way to do this is to make sure that all static charges are drained to ground, an object connected to the Earth, which can harmlessly absorb the static charge. Until recently, that wasn't difficult. Since all standard AC wiring includes a common ground, you used to be able to ground yourself by touching the case of your PC while it was switched off but still plugged into the wall outlet. However, since today's PCs have voltage flowing through their motherboards whenever they're plugged in (5 volts direct current are used for switching the PC on and off), it's all too easy to accidentally short something and zap your motherboard, without static being involved at all. That's why it's essential that PCs be unplugged when you work with them.

[Red Oak]

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

I can reach the cmos jumper, shorted it out and nothing

 

Later i will try to remove the battery but I cant manage to do it.

 

How many components have I potentially ruined?

 

Video card?

Processor?

Power supply?

 

Can I test any of them?

 

thanks

 

if it is just the MOBO then I will have to buy another and chalk it up to a learning experience.

[zarac]

How many components have I potentially ruined?

If you have ruined anything, it's most likely to be only the mobo, but you can never tell.

when it happened to me it was just the mobo, but i killed it with static electricity.

 

no way to check if your video or any card is working if you only have a dead mobo - check them on some other computer (if available).

[vaporATX]

You get nothing at all? Sounds like the power supply went t*ts up to me. What's you setup, and what's the wattage and manufaturer of the PS.

[Red Oak]

It is a corsair tx650w

 

When I turn on the computer with the power button I get a momentary flash from the power light then nothing. Even if I press the button again nothing but if I turn the powersupply off and on I will be able to get that momentary flash from the power led the first time I press it.

 

thanks

[vaporATX]

That really sounds like a PS issue to me. Sound like the supply is trying to start up and the protection circuit is kicking in and shutting it down. Almost sounds like a short somewhere. The firewire port that started this mess, is it the built-in one on back plane, or is it a case mounted one connected to the firewire riser on the board? If the latter try disconnecting the cable and try to start up.

 

Do you have another supply handy you can try out?

[Red Oak]

The firewire port is a built in one.

 

I just disconnected the power supply from all of the hardware and tested it as Corsair suggests on their website. They wanted me to short the green and black wires. The fan spins on which, according to them, is a sign that all is well.

 

It is possible that by shoving in the firewire cable I flexed something causing a short.

 

Is my theory possible that the FW cable from one computer to another is capable of frying a MOBO?

 

thanks

[vaporATX]

It is possible that by shoving in the firewire cable I flexed something causing a short.

 

Is my theory possible that the FW cable from one computer to another is capable of frying a MOBO?

 

thanks

 

1) Not likely, but it's possible.

 

2) No.

 

Troubleshooting this kind of stuff in an art, and if you don't have spare components to switch around to narrow down the culprit it's next to impossible. Having done this stuff for many years my gut says the mobo if the PS checks out like you say. If you just bought the board you should be able to RMA it for a replacement. Just don't get pissed at me it it turns out it's not the mobo. Troubleshooting from a distance is hard.

 

Pull the board and check underneath it. Check the stand-offs. Check you didn't drop a screw behind it (done that before myself) or for a piece of loose metal from the case stampings. The fact that it happened when you plugged in the cable could be a coincidence. Wish I could help more. Sorry.

[Red Oak]

Thanks,

 

I Will start to take it apart. I have ordered another mobo, I feel that this was my mistake so I am not sure that I will be trying to RMA the original. I will be happy if I ever get back up and running.

 

Just to be clear- It is unlikely that a firewire cable connected to a running G4 could cause a catastrophic failure in a Hackintosh when plugged into one of the onboard firewire ports (both computers on and not sleeping)?

 

Thanks for all of your help

[Red Oak]

I replaced the MOBO and I am now back up and running.

 

Many thanks for the troubleshooting suggestions

[DesolationRow]

I replaced the MOBO and I am now back up and running.

 

Many thanks for the troubleshooting suggestions

 

Hey, I had nearly this exact situation last week. (Documented here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=174042). I'm waiting for my new mobo to get back to me, but I thought I'd ask you if you determined if the problem was related to Target Disk Mode? (Did you ever dare try it again?) Do you use other firewire devices on your hack with confidence? I'm a little freaked out by this thing, so any info you can offer would greatly ease my mind.

 

Thanks.

[audio geek]

I just had this happen with my EP45-UD3R mb.

 

I hooked up my firewire cable to my G5 and then to my hackintosh freshly installed 10.5.

The hackintosh shut down immediately and the Gigabyte mb was useles and would not post.

I also smelled something funny near CPU after it shut down. There were no visible burn marks.

 

 

My guess is that firewire has the ability to send power to devices and maybe Macs have a protection

circuit that other manufactures don't so that the voltage from firewire will not fry the mb on the mac.

But maybe PC firewire circuits do not have any protection from a voltage being sent to the PC's

firewire port.

 

 

The $120 question is,

 

Can these ports work on other standard drives and other connections besides using it as a target

disk?

 

I just had this happen with my EP45-UD3R mb.

 

I hooked up my firewire cable to my G5 and then to my hackintosh freshly installed 10.5.

The hackintosh shut down immediately and the Gigabyte mb was useles and would not post.

I also smelled something funny near CPU after it shut down. There were no visible burn marks.

 

 

My guess is that firewire has the ability to send power to devices and maybe Macs have a protection

circuit that other manufactures don't so that the voltage from firewire will not fry the mb on the mac.

But maybe PC firewire circuits do not have any protection from a voltage being sent to the PC's

firewire port.

 

http://pinouts.ws/firewire-1394-pinout.html

Maybe snip pin 1 on the firewire cable so that no Voltage is sent for power.

 

The $120 question is,

 

Can these ports work on other standard drives and other connections besides using it as a target

disk?

[fraxinus]

I just had this happen with my EP45-UD3R mb.

 

Me too. Today. GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P board dead.

 

I decided to share the internet connection from my perfectly-functioning HackPro across to my 2007 iMac 24. It worked fine, but within a minute the HackPro just died completely, shut down, gone. Have tested the power supply, cleared the CMOS, removed the battery, waited, tried again, still nothing.

 

Seems like this is not an uncommon problem, there are a few reports of it now, but I only found them after the event. My feeling is it must be related to the 30V line in the 6-pin FW400 connector. When the iMac sends that voltage across to the EP45 it destroys something important.

Next time (if there is one) I'll use the 4-pin firewire port...no voltage on that.

 

The most annoying thing is not the fact that I can't get these boards in the UK (I had to buy from the US and ship across), or the extra cost, but that it's a waste of a perfectly good piece of hardware.

[rancormac]

I just fried my board today too, I think, the same way. GIGABYTE EP45 UD3R. Had it up and running for past few weeks, and finally decided to migrate my data off my old g4. Had the hack up and running, plugged FW cable into hack and unpowered G4 tower, then turned G4 tower on. The G4 powered up, and the hack powered off.

 

I removed the hack from the wall to a separate outlet, and tried to power up. No go. The fans spin up for about half a second, and the LED lights blink, and then everything dies. I removed the battery and put it back in, no luck. There does not appear to be any physical signs of damage though.. nothing smells burnt either.

 

Sucks. Guess I gotta get a replacement mobo now.

[Georgiles]

Boy do I feel dumb!

 

Hey RED, thank you for posting this. I did it too. My details here.

[audio geek]

I am tempted to cut the 30V wires on a FW cable to see if it still works. But I don't care for loosing $200

[rantanplan]

I did it, too

 

What a shame i didn't read this thread before...

 

I just checked the block diagram of my mobo and i'm now going to desolder the TSB43AB23 chip. This one is responsible for the firewore ports. If something has been fried on the board, it should (hopeully) only be this chip!