Steep (and expensive) learning curve

[wazzickle]

In the name of my experiments I think I just fried my i7 7700k - motherboard leds saying that the CPU is the reason it now doesn't boot, after I was trying to get a USB into my rear IO and it wasn't seated quite right and i jammed the usb in (having done so many times with no ill effects) and suddenly i saw a whiff of smoke and it turned itself off. Never had a whiff of smoke before. That's not fun.

Is there any further way to test this or rescue the situation or do I now have a rather attractive paperweight?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Check the underside of the CPU to see if there are any burn marks. It could also be the motherboard which has partially failed too,and TBH jamming a USB plug into a motherboard shouldn't cause a problem like that IMHO!!

[wazzickle]

No physical signs of damage at all. Do you know of any way to troubleshoot whether the motherboard is at fault without getting a replacement cpu?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

No physical signs of damage at all. Do you know of any way to troubleshoot whether the motherboard is at fault without getting a replacement cpu?

You would need another motherboard to test it with,and also ideally try a different power supply as well. Either a B250 or an H110(with a newer BIOS) would work.

[Sparx]

Hang on, so you somehow shorted your motherboard by being a bit heavy handed with the rear IO USB? Seems rather odd...

Where did the smoke come from? The PSU or mobo? Can you smell any burning in a particular place? Or see any physical damage on the mobo if a capacitor has gone?

[protagonist]

Probably worth trying to see if the things could power up with a different PSU initially

[Hasnain]

That seems extremely unlucky tbh, I have even broken a usb port before and not had anything happen.

[Waynehwc]

First off i think one should not be jamming anything into anything with electricity flowing through it.
As for smoke it could be the usb individual fuse blowing if it has one. Your Motherboard should be fine if it can still show led that your cpu the problem.
Did you upgrade your bios before installing cpu? When your first got it when your mb shut off it might have rest is bios to a earlier version which might not recognise your cpu.
I might be wrong on the bios thing since i not too sure off if all intel cpu has there own motherboard since i use amd which has a upgradeable cpu motherboard which requires bios update sometime.
Beat to unplug non essential reset your motherboard by taking battery out and putting it back in then power it on check if there any smoke or strange smell and what error code your getting.