2000 996S wont start?

My friend's 996 wouldn't start today; said he tried to turn it over, wouln't go, then a little white puff of white smoke bellowed out from the battery area, after which nothing could come on (no oil light, headlights, no fuel pump) and the bike was dead. Oh and he just replaced his batter about a week ago with another YUASA.
He said he checked the fuse boxes and that the fuses were all good.
I'm going to go take a look after work, any ideas on what to start looking?
I told him it may be the voltage regulator - anything else?

I'm no electrical expert. With that said, the white smoke was probably plastic melting due to a short. Double check the fuses and look for melted wires in the battery area.

is he, or are you handy with a electrical meter?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mrgrn &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">is he, or are you handy with a electrical meter?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Could be -where should we look?

Did you guy's check the big 40A fuse next to the battery?

Since he just replaced the battery, I’d check those connections first.
Sounds kinda like a loose connection to me.