Vintage motherboard jumped sparks because i put the RAM stick in the wrong way \ VOGONS

Vintage motherboard jumped sparks because i put the RAM stick in the wrong way

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by _StIwY_

Posted on 2023-07-03, 14:53

_StIwY_ Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 137
Joined: 2022-11-20, 13:00

UPDATE: That was me, putting the RAM stick in the wrong way -__-"

Hello everyone, i have no knowledges about fixing hw / electronics / soldering / replacing things and whatever.

Anyway that happened, my motherboard Acer S61 ( Via Apollo Pro 133 + Pentium 3 500 mhz ) broke. I used that as test bench for months, i used to try video / sound cards / hdds / ram sticks. The motherboard was always perfectly rock solid under stress tests too.

Today i had some spare RAM sticks which i was about to try as i usually do, but something went wrong.

Immediately after the powering on, i seen a little flame and some sparks from the middle zone of the RAM stick, these are the damages and some burn plastic smell. I noticed that the RAM stick was becoming hot in a few seconds.

After this fail i thought was the RAM stick defective, so i tried another one, this time no sparks but the RAM again was becoming hot in a few seconds, the motherboard is now doing a long beep....blank screen, and i immediately shut down the power supply. ( The power supply is fine i tested it with other hardware ). What do you think happened ? I know it's old hardware and failures are always around the corner but still.....weird, suddenly like that.

Attachments

Filename

IMG_20230703_164635.jpg

File size

1.32 MiB

Views

673 views

File license

Public domain
Filename

IMG_20230703_164602.jpg

File size

1.68 MiB

Views

673 views

File license

Public domain

Last edited by _StIwY_ on 2023-07-04, 09:28. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 9, by shevalier

Posted on 2023-07-03, 15:05

shevalier Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 456
Joined: 2023-02-26, 16:35
Location: Kherson, Ukraine

Most likely you put the stick of memory contrariwise.

Aopen MX3S, PIII-S Tualatin 1133, Radeon 9800Pro@XT BIOS, Diamond monster sound MX300
JetWay K8T8AS, Athlon DH-E6 3000+, Radeon HD2600Pro AGP, Audigy 2 Value

Reply 2 of 9, by appiah4

Posted on 2023-07-03, 15:07

appiah4 Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 9177
Joined: 2017-02-19, 07:36
Location: Sea of Sorrows

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-03, 15:05:

Most likely you put the stick of memory contrariwise.

You can't do that with SD-RAM.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3 of 9, by shevalier

Posted on 2023-07-03, 15:11

shevalier Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 456
Joined: 2023-02-26, 16:35
Location: Kherson, Ukraine

appiah4 wrote on 2023-07-03, 15:07:

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-03, 15:05:

Most likely you put the stick of memory contrariwise.

You can't do that with SD-RAM.

There are no incompatible standards, there are insitent users.
Try it yourself, the latches perfectly be fitted into place.

Aopen MX3S, PIII-S Tualatin 1133, Radeon 9800Pro@XT BIOS, Diamond monster sound MX300
JetWay K8T8AS, Athlon DH-E6 3000+, Radeon HD2600Pro AGP, Audigy 2 Value

Reply 4 of 9, by mkarcher

Posted on 2023-07-03, 15:46

mkarcher Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2682
Joined: 2019-01-19, 16:29
Location: Germany

appiah4 wrote on 2023-07-03, 15:07:

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-03, 15:05:

Most likely you put the stick of memory contrariwise.

You can't do that with SD-RAM.

It won't perfectly fit, but it well make contact well enough to short out power traces. Looking at the pictures of the OP, you can see that the burnt pin on the DIMM is on the un-split half of the module, but the burnt area on the socket is on the split half. This is a strong indication that the module has indeed been forced into the slot in reverse.

Reply 5 of 9, by _StIwY_

Posted on 2023-07-03, 15:54

_StIwY_ Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 137
Joined: 2022-11-20, 13:00

I can't believe this, it was ME! I put countless ram sticks, but never happened before, i don't even know how the heck i did this mistake, looks like i was distracted......🙁

So yes, i put the ram stick in the opposite way....

Last edited by _StIwY_ on 2023-07-03, 18:51. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 6 of 9, by kaputnik

Posted on 2023-07-03, 16:26

kaputnik Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 819
Joined: 2016-01-12, 11:00
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

shevalier wrote on 2023-07-03, 15:05:

Most likely you put the stick of memory contrariwise.

Yep, at a glance it looks like that if you cross reference the keys and the burned contacts. There's of course some uncertainty when you only have pics to look at though, but it would be easy enough for OP to find out for sure 😀

Reply 7 of 9, by _StIwY_

Posted on 2023-07-03, 18:09

_StIwY_ Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 137
Joined: 2022-11-20, 13:00

Funny thing is, I remember that I closed the two clips in the slot correctly and easily....when, on the other hand, they must have been hard to close .... maybe I had only closed one at this point, I don't know what to think, but I certainly made a mistake as I was distracted

Reply 8 of 9, by aaronkatrini

Posted on 2023-07-03, 18:48

aaronkatrini Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 400
Joined: 2018-05-28, 14:32
Location: Italy

Sorry to hear, don't worry though, it can happen. It was a board used for testing in the end, it's what was meant to be used for.

Reply 9 of 9, by _StIwY_

Posted on 2023-07-03, 19:47

_StIwY_ Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 137
Joined: 2022-11-20, 13:00

Oh, a good news, the third ram slot works and the motherboard boots fine, so i can still use that for testing.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches