Did I just fry my board?

I had an accident when i was removing a soundcard from my comp. I thought the power was off but it wasnt. The tip of the soundcard touched the card that was below it and it made a lil spark and the comp screen went black then i turned it off. Now i can only get to the windows welcome screen where i have to click my user name and when i do it just says logging off and takes me back to the same screen. Anyone know what the problem is and how it can be fixed? Worst case I have to buy a new board

 

If it powers up the board is not dead

 

Any idea how I can get my desktop to come on? Or things to try?

 

Did this only occur once you removed the pci card if so insert the card again but make sure the power is off this time if it boots uninstall the drivers for it please eply asap

 

I dont think sparks is a bad thing ive went to plug in usb pens and other things and ive seen sparks but the hardware still works ok. As for having the power on (but the pc off) i dont think makes any diff wat so ever, static is wat will fry your board.

 

"Did this only occur once you removed the pci card if so insert the card again but make sure the power is off this time if it boots uninstall the drivers for it please eply asap"

Yes it occured once it was removed, I just took all the cards out of it after it happened

 

put every thing

 

Thanks for all the help yal. Im on the way home now to try what i was told.

 

P4_tt - that is some crazy advice mate...of course sparks are a bad thing as ddp said can kill your board

it does...plugging your mains plug into the pc while socket power is on is a big no no.Apart from the safetey aspects a power surge could easliy mess up almost all your components.
Electricity can kill,be careful when working with it please - wouldnt wana lose an aD member now would we?

 

Ok it was a bit stupid but its never scewed anything of mine up, As for the pc being pluged in, i was always told that unless your using one of them static bands your more likey going to do static damage to hardware due to the fact that its just had loads a electricity running in the hardware, ive been doing that for over 5 years without getting dead or frying hardware and everyone else i know does it.

I have one of them anti-power surge thingys so no chance of that.

 

Yeah forgot to add that, thats the way i was told to do it and always have, i guess its just one of them things that stick with you.

 

Well trying to put the cards back in didnt work.

"static & sparks will both kill or damage your motherboard so when installing/uninstalling hardware disconnect the external power cord as some boards still have power when windows shuts down. see if can go into safe mode & if so than possible software problem. took the mandatory esd & card handling course that you have to get 100% before working on circuit boards at celestica for 4yrs"

Would try what you said but i cant even get on with safe mode

 

My suggestion is to shut down for a few miniutes then use the two jumpers on the mother basrd and it should restart everything

 

Anyone know if reinstalling windows would work? I have been hearing to uninstall windows but i cant get on to do that. But if i reinstall windows from boot.. all those drivers will be gone

 

i would give it a go fixed my problems before

 

Well i have a couple more questions cause i have ran into more problems.

I tried to go the reinstall windows route but there wasnt enough space on my main harddrive. Can i have 2 harddrives connected and both have windows xp installed to them? And does it matter if one is in ntfs format and the other in fat32? I have a messed up xp disc and a file that i need for ntfs will not read. Which leads to something else if i may have to do it. I was trying to figure out how to move the file i needed from one harddrive to the other with windows repair. Not sure if i chould do it though