MiniDSP - Part 2

I've had the MiniDSP equipment for a few days now and I've only been able to use the MiniSHARC, VOL-FP and DIGI-FP accessories. I haven't been able to test the DACs because I didn't have the right power supply. I found a 9V DC wall plug and as the miniSHARC can accept anything from 5V to 24V I thought I'd use that to power the MiniSHARC + accessories and then the 5V power supply to power the DACs. I plugged it in and the LEDs came on. I then successfully synced it with the software but about 2 minutes later it lost connection and I noticed some smoke above the boards! PANIC! I unplugged the power straight away but any damage was done. I plugged it back into the 5V supply but it wouldn't sync. I tried it again about 5 minutes later and it started working again! FHEW!

I think I was lucky not to brick it. I'm not sure where the smoke was coming from because I instinctively blew on it. I'm not going to plug it back into the 9V supply to find out which thing it was either... I think I've worked which component it was, take a look at this picture:

The component in question is about  1.5 mm long, its tiny! I have no idea what it is either. Possibly a resistor. Here's another photo from the side:

Here's a zoomed out picture to get some perspective. The silver box in the bottom left is a USB port.

I should have just kept on using the standard power supply but unfortunately MiniDSP don't sell a power supply for their DACs so I was trying to use it for the DACs. Obviously the accessories have different voltage requirements than the MiniSHARC, which is fine but they don't specify them or even warn the user. In the MiniSHARC manual it states that if you are using the AN-FP accessory you must use 5V. I'm not using that so I thought using something a bit higher than 5V would be fine. I guess not.

Connection of MiniDSP to Amplifier

The whole reason I was using a different power supply was so I could use the 5V one to power the DAC. I wanted to test one of the DACs with the amplifier and a woofer, so I wired the amp input to one of the DACs outputs and put the amp on my table and plugged it into the mains. When I switched it on the MiniSHARC lost its connection with the software. I tried it a few times to no avail. After calling my uncle (the electronics expert) he said I should try disconnecting the earth from the plug (not permanently) to see if it was some sort of ground loop causing problems. It seemed to work and I managed to get the DSP online AND the amp switched on and wired to the DAC. There was no sound though, not even any noise or hum coming from the speaker. By this point I was quite frustrated so I thought I should put it all away for a day and come back to it later.