I think i fried my motherboard?

Hey

Well, I think i toasted my motherboard cuz I failed to actually think before I went and did something stupid. I purchased a usb cable for a project that im working on today, a usb powered lamp of sorts, and was going to cut off onw of the ends so get to the 5v and ground lines but for some reason I decided to plug one end into my computer. After plugging it in I commence the cutting witha pocketknife and right as I get thru my computer freezes and my speakers begin to emit a low whine, thinking that this must not be a good thing I hit restart on my tower and to my surprise I get no video. The fans spin and the cd drive lights up as well as the lights on my NIC but my monitor will not turn on and I do not notice the HD activity light....so I think i fried something, my bet is my motherboard, this is what i get for doing something like this though lol. Any thoughts as to what I fried or how to fix it if thats even an option?

If it is fried, no real way to fix it unless you know the exact spot where it fried and knew how to replace a node or transistor or something...which would mean that you pretty much work for a MoBo manufacturer and are high up in the R&D dept.

Bottom line is: If the mobo is fried, then you can do nothing shy of replace it. Just to make sure it is the motherboard, does the computer make that internal computer "beep" noise when you start it up? If not then its probably the motherboard.

Well I dont have a internal speaker, when I got the case one of the wires had ripped off the paper and also rippe a decent sized hole in it as a result which rendered it usless so I threw it out...plus the beeping noise kinda irratated me. But if it was the motherboard would the cpu heatsink fan still turn on and would power still get to the pci slots...it seems that just my video and audio are affected but thats all I can really test because I remember the speakers themselves doing a little beep and of course video cuz I could see it, but now my monitor doesnt switch from the 'idle' position to displaying a picture and I cant hear a beep. I would think that just my usb stuff would be fried if anything. One of the wires musta hit another one during the 'cutting incident'or the blade caused a bridge across all the wires...basicly cutting a wire while its pluged in is pretty stupid, I thank ADHD for that move :thumbsup: If i have to replace it I will, but if its fixable then id rather fix it cuz i dont really have spare cash, as of today I am officially unemployed :D

If it is fried, no real way to fix it unless you know the exact spot where it fried and knew how to replace a node or transistor or something...which would mean that you pretty much work for a MoBo manufacturer and are high up in the R&D dept.

Not quite but still fixing motherboards can be tricky work if you aren't experienced.

And I agree you'll probably just need to replace your motherboard. The fans on like the CPU can still power up if other components on your motherboard aren't working properly. From what it sounds like, your system isn't even POSTing and the culprit is most likely the motherboard.