I'm pretty sure my motherboard is shorted out, but I want to just get a few more opinions before I send it in for replacement. I just built a new system. My motherboard is the Tyan K8W. After I install everything I plug in the PSU, the CPU fans start spinning like they should, but it doesn't power up when I press the power button.

I called Tyan tech support to get some help. I was given the instructions to take out the heatsink and processor in the CPU2 slot, and leave the processor and heatsink in the CPU1 slot. I also took out a RAM stick, leaving only one, and a firewire PCI card, leaving it down to the bare bones. Now, I plug in the power supply, and when I switch it on, I hear some sort of spark, and then I see some smoke floating up from the motherboard. The smoke was coming from somewhere toward the botton the of the mobo (farthest from the PSU). I called tech support back and the guy, the same one who gave me the instructions before, said my mobo was shorted out and that I need to send it back in for replacement.

Anything else I can do, or is it just totally f*cked?

For now, do as the technician says. If you damage the board some more they might refuse to replace. Even if you get it working, I wouldn't want to use a board which was smoking at one point. :giddy: