PS2 ports fried my motherboard ?

[Noahtuck]

Dear Abby

Boy i tell you lately, if it was not for bad luck i would have no luck at all!!



Okay, can a bad PS2 keyboard/mouse set fry a mobo and take a PSU with it ?

This is what happened.

I was building a system for a friend and it has pretty much been done and working fine for the last week.

I used PS2 & USB keyboards and mice i have laying around, anyways, i went to a local PC shop to buy her a new keyboard and mouse.

I was going to buy a logitech set for $22.99 then i saw a set that came with amplified speakers for $24.99, some brand called "ADESSO", never heard of them before and the guy at the shop goes, we have been carrying them for about a year and never had a problem with them so i bought them.


Came home, turned off the PC, plugged in the PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard.

I went to turn it back on and it would not start....
I tried 3 times and nothing, the 4th time i hit the ON button, BOOM!!!!!!!!
I have never seen so much smoke come out of a PSU in my life!!!!!
It was like a tire fire!!!

Okay, $h!t happens, i pulled another PSU out, put it in, tried turning it on, nothing... WTF!!!
I turned off the power, unplugged the KEYBOARD and MOUSE, it started to turn on, no loading of windows or anything, so i shut it back down right away within like 2 seconds, plugged the keyboard and mouse back in and it would not start ???
So i pulled the PS2 keyboard and mouse back out, turned it back on, this time letting it load to windows, as soon as it passed the post, BOOM!!!!

Good bye PSU #2

Now the only changing factor here is the new PS2 keyboard and mouse and the system would NOT start while they were plugged in!!!

I have always know you could wreck a mobo or the PS2 ports by plugging in and unplugging stuff while the PC was on, but if the keyboard and mouse were bad or shorted inside somewhere, could it actually fry everything this bad ?
This was just too much of a coincidence!!

I don't dare throw in another PSU just to watch a 3rd one go up in smoke!!

Signed
SUPER PISSED!!

[redwudz]

That is very odd. AFAIK, the PS2 connectors just have +5VDC on them and if you were to short them out, it would likely just shut down the PC. From: http://pinouts.ru/Inputs/KeyboardPC6_pinout.shtml



The PS2 connector would be getting power through the MB, not directly from the 5VDC rail. But from your description is does sound like the PS2 is involved somehow. I would check the PS2 connector on the MB. If it blew the PS, it should have melted the connector. You might open up the first PS and see what fried. Usually with smoke like that, it's the primary 110/220 VAC side of the PS, not the part that supplies low voltage. That side is usually fairly well protected, unless the ATX connectors themselves shorted out.

I think I would recheck all the internal PC connectors and the MB mounts. I had one PS blow because a loose screw was caught under the MB.

[Noahtuck]

Yeah it's just a hell of a coincidence that everything decided to blow only when the new keyboard/mouse was plugged in.
And it instantly started refusing to even start up, then BOOM!!
And twice in a row with 2 different PSU's.

I figure it shorted out the PS2 ports and maybe fried something on the mobo that shorted back to fry the PSU.

A friend who is the head IT guy at a company & maintains all the equipment, said it's something he never saw either.

He's gonna check it out and throw in another PSU to test it because i don't want to throw away a 3rd PSU!!

Then the attitude little jackass at the shop where i returned the keyboard/mouse set had a ******* attitude and saying yeah it could have wrecked the mobo but it would not wreck the PSU, and i said yeah i know that, but if a mobo is bad or fried your telling me it could not take out a PSU ?
And if you can wreck a mobo by plugging & unplugging in keyboards into it while turned on, you're going to try and tell me if something is shorted in the KB/Mouse and is plugged in when the PC is turned on it could not do damage to the mobo just like if you plugged it in or pulled it out while it is turned on

And the little ****** goes "i've been doing this for 20 years" and i go, how old are you ?
He goes sarcastically, yeah i'm 12, and i go, you don't look a day over 25, 30 tops, and you're going to talk shit to me and say you've been repairing PC's for 20 years!?!?!?!

He seriously need's a boot up his @$$ in a bad way!!!!!!

[Noahtuck]

Just an update and FYI,

The original PSU that had smoke pouring out of the rear exhaust fan, is still good!!

I can't figure it out because i put it on a PSU tester and it started right up and shows all the plugs and voltage are working fine.

But i stood right there within 12 inches of it when the PC blew the first time, with the side off and there was a massive amount of smoke coming out of the PSU front and back!!

Unless something right at the top of the mobo fried bad, right under the PSU and it was sucked directly through the PSU ??

But i do know the second PSU i plugged into ti popped and is dead.

So those cheap ass crappy PS2 keyboard/mouse fried just the mobo.

I have not had time to pull the mobo out and look it over so i guess i will have to do that later this week and see if i can visually find some burn damage.
There was so much thick smoke something HAS to be visibly burned!!

[aedipuss]

the ps2 ports on the m.b. are right under the psu. i'd be looking at the m.b. front and back around there.

[Noahtuck]

the ps2 ports on the m.b. are right under the psu. i'd be looking at the m.b. front and back around there.

Actually i just did.... i have one of those large bench magnifying glasses with a circular flourescent bulb around it, on a swing arm.

I could not find one single burn spot!!

Now this is the kicker!!!!!

I figured, okay, i know the PSU is good now, or so the tester say's.

If the board is bad i guess it won't hurt to hook it back up again, if i fry the PSU oh well.

I hooked it all up, threw on a 40gb HDD i have with windows already installed and the damn thing started right up!!!

WTF!!



Where the hell did all that smoke come from ?? Inside the PS2 port ?
It sure the hell would not start after all that smoke and now all of a sudden all put back to the original setup, it works ?!?!?!


Now i want to try a different PS2 mouse and keyboard that i know is good, but if the PS2 ports are bad and i fry something else.....

Well, either way, that baby smoked like a mofo when the original PS2 mouse and keyboard were plugged in!!
So something definitely fried!!!
Now to figure out what!!

WTF is going on here?!?!
This has me way baffled!!!

Thank god it is working though, i was just gonna scrap it!!

I just don't even know what to think!!

[aedipuss]

open up the psu and check it.

[Noahtuck]

open up the psu and check it.

I did that before throwing it on a PSU tester, thats why i decided to use a PSU tester, i could not find anything burned in it either.

This is really weird.

The new USB keyboard works to get into the bios, and i checked and the onboard USB is enabled, but after it starts to boot windows, the optical mouse light turns off and the keyboard don't work.

Now i am going to test a known working PS2 keyboard and mouse and see if they will still work into windows.

[Noahtuck]

Okay, i just went back over to it, and the light on the USB optical mouse is now lit up, but it still won't work, or the keyboard.

EDIT:

Yeah, this is weird!!

The PS2 keyboard and mouse work, but not the USB keyboard and mouse!!

It was a bad PS2 keyboard and mouse that started all this!!

But now the USB does not work and the PS2 does !?!?


Gonna test the USB headers on the mobo next.

[Noahtuck]

Yeah this is strange.

The onboard USB jacks under the PS2 ports, they work when i throw in a thumb drive but not for the mouse & keyboard.

I put in a PCI slot USB plate and plugged it into the USB headers on the mobo & the keyboard and mouse work through that.

[redwudz]

I had a PS burn up a few years ago, first sparks shot out the back along with a nasty 60Hz hum, then dense white smoke and the PC shut down. The sparks landed on a curtain, but didn't catch. But it was really lucky I was sitting there. I pulled the PS apart later and the primary power lead had came loose and touched a transformer. That was what was smoking. Unfortunately that put 110VAC on my 5VDC bus and fried everything but a floppy drive and one of the HDDs, no idea why they survived. It was a really cheap PS and that taught me a lesson as the $10US power supply did about $400 damage and could have burned my place to the ground.

Keep us updated, especially if you pull the MB. Something must have melted down in there somewhere.