Electrical short: motherboard, PSU, or case?

[zaneyard]

So after having my computer finally decide it didn't want to boot on me today I pulled it out of my HAF 932 case and put it in a cardboard box. After setting my BIOS up again it booted into windows right away.

Things I've had problems with in the past: Computer was on desk; freezes when desk is bumped with dropped phone. Today same thing happened but I only pushed the left hand side of the case (the side that's not near the back of the mobo.)
Also, random blue screens for the first couple boots of the day. After a couple restarts it usually runs pretty well. This is almost always accompanied by some programs telling me that they are uninstalled, only to run fine after the blue screens stop.

What do you guys think? I don't even know what to look for to figure this out. I can't see anything wrong with my case. Standoffs are in the right place too.

Something to possibly note, I looked at the back of the motherboard where the standoffs make contact, and the silver stuff around the holes are worn off in several places.



Notice how the screw hole has copper color around it? Could the screw possibly wore though whatever that silver stuff is and the motherboard material and caused a short?

[HeK]

no. Don't worry about that. It is for grounding only.

1) Clean the boards. Get a can of air and get that dust off.
2) Insulate the feet of your cooler. Just take the cooler off and put a large square of electrical tape over the cooler mount holes. Both sides. Poke a hole in the tape and reinstall the cooler.

[zaneyard]

2) Insulate the feet of your cooler. Just take the cooler off and put a large square of electrical tape over the cooler mount holes. Both sides. Poke a hole in the tape and reinstall the cooler.

the CPU fan?

[rumbot]

yup.

and make sure your cpu heatsink/fan is properly attached to the CPU. some of the behavior also sounds like I'd want to rule out overheating. With all the movement you've had (bumping, moving out a case), it's possible the union between the cpu and HSF isn't as tight as it ought to be.

[zaneyard]

This one just clips onto the CPU socket. I just gave it a wiggle and it doesn't move freely from the motherboard at all.

Prime95 brought the core temp up to 70 degrees. Wiggled the heatsink a little bit and it didn't influence this at all. Seems to me like my symptoms were a lot more instant than an overheating issue.

When I had my case on my desk I once dropped my phone onto my desk, my computer froze. To me that just seems like something had to have physically moved and made contact where it shouldn't have.

[zaneyard]

So I went to go wedge some cardboard under the motherboard to raise it up a little so the graphics card didn't shift out of the slot on accident and now I can't get it to display anything. So I until I can get home to get my 4890 to test, I killed my GPU. As far as I know the HDD, RAM, and CPU are all in perfect condition so maybe I'll do some sort of a rebuild this summer. I'm kinda pissed off about the idea of busting my graphics card though, this was one I got a year or so back to rule out my graphics card being the source of my problems. Maybe if my roommate will let me drop it in his box to test it. This isn't something I want to be stressed about right now.
I think I'm going to put it back in the case and hope for a miracle, and if one doesn't happen, I'll have it all ready for transport back home where I have room to store non-working parts.

[Versus]

i've done that cardboard to raise mobo thing plenty of times before and idk how that could have possibly killed your gpu. that's really, really weird if it actually did kill your gpu

when i did a partially new build (just swapping out dead mobo/cpu + cpu cooler for new ones and also put everything into new case) it wouldn't post at all initially, and i couldn't find anything that might have been shorting it (case has built-in mobo standoffs so it wasn't that); after rebuilding it outside of the case it worked, and after i installed it in the case again without changing anything it started posting and i haven't had any problems since (???). basically computers are voodoo

[zaneyard]

I just put it back in the case with the intention of preparing it for transportation and now it's working fine. I don't fucking know anymore.

[Didzo]

I just put it back in the case with the intention of preparing it for transportation and now it's working fine. I don't fucking know anymore.

Probably just bumped something loose. It's happened to me before.

[Versus]

I just put it back in the case with the intention of preparing it for transportation and now it's working fine. I don't fucking know anymore.

it worked

[zaneyard]

Getting random blue screens again.
Since the 30th, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

At least it isn't freezing up although I haven't bumped it yet.
Yep, locked up when I punched the top of the case. When I booted it back up POST asked me to enter BIOS to redo my settings or select the default values. What could that mean?

[Didzo]

Getting random blue screens again.
Since the 30th, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

At least it isn't freezing up although I haven't bumped it yet.
Yep, locked up when I punched the top of the case. When I booted it back up POST asked me to enter BIOS to redo my settings or select the default values. What could that mean?

Don't fucking hit your electronics.

[Versus]

[quote author=zaneyard link=topic=7233.msg277508#msg277508 date=1396635410]
Getting random blue screens again.
Since the 30th, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

At least it isn't freezing up although I haven't bumped it yet.
Yep, locked up when I punched the top of the case. When I booted it back up POST asked me to enter BIOS to redo my settings or select the default values. What could that mean?

Don't fucking hit your electronics.
[/quote]

[zaneyard]

[quote author=zaneyard link=topic=7233.msg277508#msg277508 date=1396635410]
Getting random blue screens again.
Since the 30th, PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED, SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

At least it isn't freezing up although I haven't bumped it yet.
Yep, locked up when I punched the top of the case. When I booted it back up POST asked me to enter BIOS to redo my settings or select the default values. What could that mean?

Don't fucking hit your electronics.
[/quote]
well it shouldn't lock up with a little bump. It literally had frozen when I dropped my phone on my desk.

[FlyingMongoose]

Sounds like a bad contact, dead, or loose mobo/bios battery or something is hitting your BIOS jumpers

Sent from my subdermal neurological implant.