[SOLVED] Motherboard short trobuleshooting

I have issue with my sketchy erying motherboard. It shorts when I install it in this case.

From the start I couldn’t get it to work in this server case. I’ve moved it to different, bigger case with different psu and it worked there without any issues for months.
I’ve tried to move it back into this smaller case and problems have have returned.

Symptoms are really strange.

  • motherboard works with this PSU while outside of the case.
  • motherboard works in this case when just standing on the standoffs
  • motherboard shorts and fails to start then I screw in any of the motherboard screws.

Short happens on the lower right side. I can feel that mobo is getting really hot.

Bottom of the server case is covered in plastic, it shouldn’t be possible to short back of this case.
I’ve tried to put cardboard under the mobo to give it more space but it didn’t help.

I’m out of ideas.
Can you give me any theories what could cause this issues?
And why would problems wouldn’t occur in different server case?

Only thing I didn’t test is screwing mobo in and using different psu not mounted into the case. I don’t have spare PSU to test it right now.

edit:
psu model: seasonic SSP-500ES2

Are you sure all standoffs line up? There’s at least one missing mount point (lower left corner)

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yep… that “missing” standoff few cm too low but high to still touch back of the motherboard.

I feel like a grade A regard.
I’ve ripped it off and issues disappeared.
Thanks

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I suppose you are using an older case and there for also some older motherboard screws.
Back in the days those screws had a rubber (or something) washers on them,
before you screwed them down to prevent shorts.
Looks to me that you are using the wrong screws.
Another possibility could also be that it is shorting around the io shield area,
since you are missing a screw there.

edit: i see you already fixed it. :+1:

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Nice spot and fix!

Bonus picture of finished build.
The most cursed storage server build. (It’s just for testing)

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Huh, I have a case real similar to that!

The front fans, sit/came on a kinda cage thing, and there is not much clearance from the PSU to the back of any drive cage you plug in the ODD bays, but nice Lil case.

I got myself a long necked screwdriver, because the screws for the HDD and ODD cages are down some Narrow gaps…

In my case fans are bolted to the front of the case. ( case model number netrack NP5107)

This case is quite bad imo.
I would not recommend if anyone is looking for 2U case with 3.5 hdd mounts.

Replacing 3.5 HDDs is a major pain. Requires long and thin philips screwdriver

HDD clearance is awful, I could barely plug sata cables into mobo because of HDD power connectors.

ATX power supply touches top and bottom of the case. Most modern PSUs have fan on the bigger side which is completely covered here.
You have to buy almost non existent these days flow through design like this SSP-500ES2. Or get SFX with an adapter.

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Yeah, it is tight.
With the HDD mounts, I started with two right side up in on holder, and flipped the other two, so I could run a single x4 power line for all 4 drives.

The front fans, were bolted to a cage holding the front filter on. The whole cage cane off, and I could fit a single 120mm fan at front

Later I switched a 5x hot swap HDD cage and moved the drives.

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I had this happen on my first Pentium4 build, one of the stand-offs was in the wrong place, so when I turned it on for the first time, there were sparks and flames out of the VRMs! Luckily it just needed a replacement board, all the CPU/RAM/GPU etc were fine (amazingly).

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