Hello everyone. My gaming computer released the magic blue smoke today when I plugged in a faulty DVI cable into the onboard graphics. This cable had given me troubles before when I used it on my normal graphics cards, but the cards just simply shut off instead of exploding things. I decided to mark the cable as defective using the Photonicinduction method that way I wouldnt mix it up with my other 50 spare cables.
Anyway, when the cable was plugged in, after about 10 seconds I smelled the smell that we are all familiar with. However, the PC kept going. My eyefinity monitors weren't disturbed, and the audio I was playing continued to play. I shut the machine down immediately and unplugged the cable once I smelled smoke.
Is this machine still safe to operate? Or should I desolder the blown component? I have had SMD soldering experience. If I desolder anything, what should replace it? The failed component appears to be D8, a diode? I have some low-tech marco photos of the only visibly failed part as well as the annihilated cable in a .zip file, and they can be found full size here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-LjUeh-cirIeVJTbEYwa1pUMnc/view?usp=sharingMotherboard is an Asrock Z77 Extreme4 if anyone has the same board.
Thanks!!