[ale] Pictures of the culprit (was OT: Diagnosing HW problem)

[Michael B. Trausch]

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John Wells wrote:
> Guys,
> 
> After examining the mb with a flashlight, I found the culprit.
> 
> See:
> 
> http://www.sourceillustrated.com/mb_1.jpg
> http://www.sourceillustrated.com/mb_2.jpg
> 
> Ok...now for real technical lingo here...
> 
> Of the four square thingies with the silver circle in the middle, notice
> one is most definitely *not* like the other.  First, what is this fried
> and charred thingie?  Second, does this look like it may have resulted
> from a lightning strike (we had some good ones here this weekend).  I have
> the box behind a good surge protector and UPS, but like a DAU I have cable
> running directly into a tv tuner card with no surge protection, so I'm
> wondering if that may have provided a clear path.
> 
> Interested in learning your thoughts.  Thanks again for the help!
> 

Wow... that's most certainly interesting.  Anything is possible,
however.  I can't tell you if a TV card could provide that type of
connection; you'd need to look at the PCI slot it was in and see if you
could trace one of the buses back to that unit; as unlikely as it is, it
is possible.

Then again, it's less likely that a powerspike would come in through the
main power line if it was that well protected (e.g., by the UPS).

The last time I seen something like that happen, it was a capacitor on
an 8088 motherboard.  Blew itself up into shreads.  *shrugs*

	- Mike

- --
Michael B. Trausch                                     fd0man at gmail.com
Web: http://fd0man.theunixplace.com/        Jabber: mtrausch at jabber.com
Phone: +1-(678)-522-7934                  FAX (US Only): 1-866-806-4647
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