Fried xylotex board will Gecko fix the problem

I have a 4 axis shop built CNC using a Xylotex parallel 8 wire stepper motors. I am using Mach 3 for the controls. Here what happened. I was using the machine all was fine. While the machine was idle (not moving for a few minutes, less than 5) one of the motors started to hum. It was loud enough to get my attention. I used the arrow keys and move all the motors, the noise stopped immediately. A few seconds later, the noise started again. As I investigated which motor was the issue, I hear a snap from my drive board and the motors went dead. The board no longer works. My question; what happened... I checked all the connections to make sure there wasn't a crossed wire or some type of fault/short. everything was tight and in the proper place. Did the board just give up? There was a small amount of wood dust on the board, but not a lot. Wood dust is non conductive so I assume this was not the problem. Is one of the motors bad, how do I test them. If i get a Gecko, will the same thing happen? anything I can do to protect the board. I am a newbie at the CNC work, but greatly enjoy it. I have made several project that have turned out well, but this has me really bummed out. your help would be appreciated.

It's really impossible to know what caused your problem. It's possible the motor has an intermittent short, but if it did, it would kill the Xylotex the first time it shorted.
While it's possible that you have a bad stepper, it's unlikely.

Do you have a fan blowing on the Xylotex? It may have overheated?

It's also possible that you have a broken wire, or intermittent connection somewhere.

My Xylotex has been running fine for over 5 years, but there are plenty of people that have killed theirs.

Gecko's are far more tolerant of poor connections and/ or miswiring.