Any way to tell if mobo is damaged from installing bad cpu and powering on?

[Neuron]

OK, here's what happened: My system shut down once and wouldnt turn back on. I smelled something burnt, and thought the cpu may have fried. Or maybe it might have been the mobo. I took the cpu to my friends house and installed it in his board which was able to run the cpu that I had (he was running the same as mine). I wanted to insert the cpu in his board and turn it on to see if it boots, that way i'd know if it was my cpu that was fried or my motherboad. Well, after i installed it and booted, it didnt turn on and apparently I think his mobo may have been fried from putting my (unknown at the time) bad cpu in the slot, because when I put HIS good cpu back in and turned it on, the cpu apparently fried, so he got a new cpu. He now wants to install it in the same board but I'm very wary of doing so. Now what I'm wondering is, can something like this this actually happen, or did something else happen I'm not aware of, and is there a way to "test" the motherboard yourself to see if it's functional or not? MSI is being ridiculous about returning the board, he said he checked the manual and the website and found an email and he keeps emailing it and all they give him is a pretyped general message about complete nonsense. So we were wondering if there's a way to check the board ourselves.

[Tahoe]

Did you use thermal paste on the core when switching processors back and forth, If not you might have fried the good processor when you put it back in your friends system. You might have been lucky if the MB had some kind of thermal shut down feature (Turned it on but shut down right away). Check the processor and MB for burn marks or burnt smell. If not try putting some thermal paste on the core and repalce the heatsink, see if it boots up.

[Neuron]

he does not have the old cpu it got sent back for rma, but yes there did seem like a burning smell. The kind you just want to keep smelling cause it smells so good.

[Tahoe]

LOL, (On the smell thing that is), My point was that if you don't use thermal paste you will either fry the processor or the MB will just shut down (kinda like a thermal shutoff safety feature, if the mother board supports it).

[Blakhart]

huh?


Sometimes if you unplug the rig, remove the battery, and jumper the cmos to clear, you can get back from things like these.
Pressing the reset and on buttons may be a good idea as well.

[Neuron]

Teahoe: yeas i know what ya mean hhe, come to htink of it, that might have been the problem. GAH! He was using the factory amd fan with the paste and I pulled the fan off the cpu and just put it right back on ..

[Tahoe]

Yeah, I have heard of other people doing this before and it caused probs. Some we lucky and put some paste back on and all was good, and others have just fried the first time they did it. When you do the new processor, remember to get youself some artic silver. Don't use too much (about have the size of a BB), just spread a real thin layer across the core. Good Luck to ya.

[Neuron]

i have arctic sliver but hes going to be using another amd stock fan with that stuff on the bottom. should that be good enough? hes not going to be overlcocking or anything

[Tahoe]

That should be fine