Had a motherboard short out on a simple RAM upgrade job yesterday

I was just swapping out some old DDR3 for a client's home office PC, nothing fancy. Had the power off, used my anti-static strap, the whole routine. The moment I clicked the new stick into place, there was a tiny pop and a whiff of that awful burnt electronics smell. The board was completely dead, no lights, no fans, nothing. It was an older ASUS model, but still, I've done this exact job maybe a hundred times without a hitch. I checked everything twice, and the only thing I can figure is maybe a tiny bit of conductive dust was in the slot or something. Now I'm out a board and have to explain the delay to the client. Has anyone else had a simple upgrade just blow up on them out of nowhere? What do you even tell the customer when it's not really your fault but it happened on your bench?

4 comments

4 Comments

waderamirez1mo ago

I just ate the cost and replaced the board to keep the client happy.

fionat551mo ago

Been there. I keep a couple of cheap, tested boards on the shelf for exactly this. Swapping it out takes twenty minutes and the client never knows. It's cheaper than losing their business over a fifty cent battery.

casey2681mo ago

That tiny pop sound is the worst. I had a Gigabyte board fry on me last year from a CMOS battery swap. @waderamirez has the right idea, I just eat the cost too. Telling a client their old board was a ticking time bomb never goes over well.

blairm7713d ago

Whoa, wait. A CMOS battery swap actually fried the whole board? I have never heard of that happening before. That seems almost impossible unless something else was going on with that board already. I have swapped out hundreds of those little coin cells over the years and never had anything close to that happen. Were you maybe touching something you shouldnt have been at the same time? I am genuinely shocked that a simple battery swap could take out a whole motherboard like that.