I/O shield tabs lost on motherboard

Hey everyone,

So, I feel like an idiot. I bent some of the I/O shield tabs out a bit too much trying to install it after I had placed in the motherboard. As a sidenote, why don't ANY of the guides I've read or the motherboard's installation manual tell you to put the I/O shield in first??

Anyway, some of those tabs got loose and are in my motherboard. At least one is stuck, under one of the case USB plugs, and another two may be lost somewhere on the motherboard, though I can't find them. This is a new build, and I'm afraid to turn it on for fear of shorting the whole thing.

What I'd like to ask is, what should I do?

to OCForums!

My suggestion would be to pull everything out, find all the tabs, get them off the motherboard (trash them), and then reinstall.

Thank you, Matt. If that's my best option, how do I go about it? One is definitely trapped under the hookup to the case USB, but another may be trapped in the north bridge. It could also be under one of the pci or pci-e slots, based on where it was when gravity took it's course. Luckily, I think the main slot, the one I'm actually using, was spared.

I'd take out the motherboard, just to be sure you got them all. One of them shorting the motherboard to the case could possibly fry the whole board.

Yes, make sure you check every single part and that you have them all. You don't want those things to open the magic smoke's box.

I was looking at the manual for some of my MB's and case, and it does not say to put shield in 1st, I think it should for 1st time PC builders, I've never thought about the order to put the shield and MB in as I always put the shield in 1st then MB.
If it was me I would RMA that board and get a replacement, don't take the chance of shorting something and letting out the magic smoke like txus.palacios said, don't you know all IC's run on magic smoke?

violence does help if u really need to pull it out

Decided to cut and run

Thanks everyone.

After talking to others and your suggestions, I decided Whitehawk's advice was best. This is not something I should do myself. Much better to lose the board by playing it safe than to lose everything trying something foolish. I traded in the asrock z77 for the msi, and frankly i'm happier with the size of the board... didn't know the asrock was slightly smaller than atx.

Not sure what I'll do about the asrock. Will probably send it back.

Thanks again!