Help: 12V short on MSI 6800 Card

[xtal]

I've been trying to trace down a failure on my card; however it's almost impossible to figure out what goes where on the board.

The card has a short circuit between the 12V line and ground. I've confirmed this on the bench with a seperate supply. I can't identify an obvious fault, but am assuming a voltage regulator would be a good start.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[four4875]

is the card under warranty? if so.. rma it. other than that... its probably screwed. sorry. i would think it would take someone with an EE degree to track down the prob over the net, and then some.

[xtal]

Actually, I am an EE.. I design FPGAs and embedded systems. :)

If someone could point me at any resources for how the voltage regulation systems work, that would help a lot.. I am going to check the switching FET on the card, my guess is that is what failed.

It's out of warranty, so I'm pretty much SOL I think..

[four4875]

well... it basically works like any other SMPS circuit would. i too would look towards the switchers, but i would think that if they went they took somethin else with them. if you have something that can take the load (maybe a much lower voltage supply) you could give it a little power and see if any components get hot, then that would be a start in the right direction, fan out along the traces from the hot component and see where you get. the ****ty part is that with multi layered PCBs you're blind to like 3/4 the traces it seems.