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koslov · 01-17-2003, 02:22 AM

Here's the deal: I broke someone else's mobo while attaching a new fan to the heatsink (sounds crazy, don't it?). Well, after powering it on, I began to smell the acrid stench of smoldering PCB. Well, after an hour of troubleshooting, I found the problem was that metal washers on the socket holes had shorted some adjacent traces. They were charred when I got 'em off. I did not install this heatsink, and the ignoramus who did obviously does not understand conductive metals and exposed traces do not mix. I must have jiggled the washers around a little when screwing on the new fan, so that they touched the traces. And this is why they supply you with nonconductive plastic washers with the heatsink.

Well, the owner was quite upset and now it looks like I'll end up paying for a new mobo, despite not actually having broken the mobo through my own fault.

So, help a Pro/Cooler out and sell me your old mobo. It doesn't have to be fancy, as long as it supports DDR. The one I am replacing is an Asus A7M266(AMD 761 chipset), so practically any recent mobo beats that. The cheapest ones I can find online are $55 plus shipping, and I can't pay that much for someone else's hardware.

01-17-2003, 02:22 AM	#1
koslov Cooling Savant Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Posts: 264	WTB: Cheap Athlon DDR Mobo <$50 Here's the deal: I broke someone else's mobo while attaching a new fan to the heatsink (sounds crazy, don't it?). Well, after powering it on, I began to smell the acrid stench of smoldering PCB. Well, after an hour of troubleshooting, I found the problem was that metal washers on the socket holes had shorted some adjacent traces. They were charred when I got 'em off. I did not install this heatsink, and the ignoramus who did obviously does not understand conductive metals and exposed traces do not mix. I must have jiggled the washers around a little when screwing on the new fan, so that they touched the traces. And this is why they supply you with nonconductive plastic washers with the heatsink. Well, the owner was quite upset and now it looks like I'll end up paying for a new mobo, despite not actually having broken the mobo through my own fault. So, help a Pro/Cooler out and sell me your old mobo. It doesn't have to be fancy, as long as it supports DDR. The one I am replacing is an Asus A7M266(AMD 761 chipset), so practically any recent mobo beats that. The cheapest ones I can find online are $55 plus shipping, and I can't pay that much for someone else's hardware.