lol, my sister woke me up a few nights ago after I had gone to bed to tell me that her computer had froze and that she smelled something burning. So, I ran downstairs and by the time I got there, the PC was off. "Uh oh" I thought. This is not good... And indeed it wasn't. Here's a picture of what I found: Yep, a big hole in the Intel ICH5R(?) chip on her Asus P4P800-E Deluxe motherboard. I haven't discovered if anything else fried with it, but her HD is good as I booted my dad's PC off it so that she could do some homework off her HD. And yes, it's covered under warranty (thak goodness, it'd cost $110 to replace). Waiting on my RMA request to be approved now.
I haven't tried, but just by looking at it, I'm pretty sure it's not gonna start up. And the motherboard & PC is ~18 months old. She built it at the same time as me. Funny thing is that her's isn't on all the much and mine is never turned off. lol
She has the same PSU as me -- an Antec TruePower 550W, so it's not like it's a cheap PSU or anything.
Yeah, I was actually messing around in the case about 12 hours before, but I doubt that woulda done it as it had been on the whole time since (with no problems) and I didn't change anything. Was just making sure the front USB was hooked up.
Woah.. How did that south bridge chip fry??? I don't think it was a lightning or any power surge.. Otherwise, other parts would fry as well.
