On the attached picture you can see the blown component. It is designated as EC4. There is another similar component as EC4. On this component (a diode???) are the letters "AA8G".
I am very unfamiliar to those SMD components and their designations. Can someone tell me what these two components (EC4 EC5) are? Thank you...

 

They are Electrolytic capacitors.

 

It's a diode. Looks like u5 and a couple of tracks have blown too.

 

From the EC designator, I'd go with electrolytic capacitor.

 

Thank you very much. The two are connected across the positive supply and ground at the input and output of the regulator so they are probably electrolytic capacitors.

 

I would go with tantalum capacitor 100uF/10V. It's kind of ambiguous, though.

 

Agree, EC makes a cap more likely. From my understanding of the code, A is manufacturer (no idea who), A is 1, 8 is 10^8pf, no idea of G. So that works out as EC5 being 100uf, EC4 may well be the same.

Remove the short on the pins at the bottom first though.