Get the static of my chest

Here is the story from the beginning.

A student slides the SD Card into the LCD screen/SD Card Slot, she said a spark of static leaped from her finger into the slot. Then the LCD screen becomes unreadable. We order a new LCD screen and install it but had the same result, an unreadable LCD. Support at Lulzbot then suggested we purchase and install a new motherboard. We ordered one and installed it carefully and on a static mat. Now the LCD screen works perfectly but the thermistors in both of my heads blew out. We are getting read outs of 200 C at the hot end from the machine but our thermometer says 115 C. So right now I have a very complex and expensive paperweight.

We are out of warranty and the techs don’t have any answers.

Has anybody dealt with any of this?

Also, after our last firmware update we couldn’t set the temperature from the computer anymore. We have to set it on the machine. Did we do something to cause this or is this the new functionality of the software?

For an educational institution, Lulzbot sells extended warranties and you might want to go that route https://www.lulzbot.com/store/parts/lulzbot-taz-extended-warranty

That being said, first off, did anyone replace the two small rice grain sized fuses on the old board before you pulled it? It might not actually be dead. and second, it is possible the thermistors blew, but not from a static discharge. Something else happened if it melted them. Thermistors are cheap though. A new hexigon thermistor is $8, a heater cartridge is $6. https://itworks3d.com/product-category/parts/taz-6-parts/ A bed assembly is going to be around $80. Chances are the wire harness is intact, but it is possible you have the thermistor leads swapped so heating extruder 1 never registers an increase because it is wired to extruder 2’s thermistor, etc.

You should always be able to set the temperature from an attached computer, if you can’t, there may be something in the gcode overriding it.