My motherboard caught on fire
I know this isn't my blog, but this is just too weird not to share. Today, my 3-day old motherboard caught on fire. There was flame, and the most acrid smoke you can imagine. Yes, I'm serious.
Every two years I upgrade my motherboard, RAM, and CPU. After running across some sales, I went ahead and upgraded a few months early and ordered everything for my new setup this week. Three days ago I got all of the parts for my new i7 based system in the mail from NewEgg:
EVGA x58 3-way SLI motherboard
Intel Core i7 930
Corsair H50 water cooler
Mushkin 6GB DDR3 1600mhz
EVGA GTX 480
Coolermaster Cosmos full-tower case (re-using the case from my Intel Core 2 Quad build, it's a great case)
The shipping boxes were very banged up, and even the i7 and x58's actual boxes were dented and bent with lots of crinkles, so I took a lot of pictures as I unboxed. The board and everything else looked to be ok, so I went ahead and set everything up. Temps were high (50*C idle, 70*-93*C load), but it was stable for 3 days.
Today my system was under heavy load, and I made the mistake of leaving the room for a little while. When I came back, the PC appeared to be off. I pulled the plug, and then plugged it back in and tried to start it. There was a strange sound, a puff of something rolled out of the top fans in my case, and I smelled an extremely strong smell of acrid smoke, so I quickly pulled the plug.
Let me tell you, my stomach dropped...I only upgrade every 2 years, and I definitely can't afford to lose as much money as I've just spent on this system. I pulled everything apart and inspected it, and as far as I can tell my RAM, CPU, video cards and everything else are ok. On the x58, however, it looks like there are several blown capacitors and some scorch marks. The capacitors are crammed up under my H50's radiator and behind the northbridge (?) heatsink, so heat could have been an issue as well. Or, maybe UPS's unkind handling of the packages made the board a ticking time bomb.
I pulled one of my hard drives out, and it's ok, so I'm hoping and praying that the only thing that got fried was the motherboard and not my CPU or RAM (or the GTX 480...ugh).
EVGA's support is great though. They have a 24/7 help line for North America, and in 2 minutes I was talking to a rep. I told him what happened, and he set me up with a ticket for the RMA. I bought Advanced RMA coverage with the motherboard, so EVGA will ship a new board out to me within a few days.
Has anyone else heard of anything like this happening? :poly115: I'm still kind of in shock, haha.
/coolstorybro
-Sent from my laptop, currently not on fire
Every two years I upgrade my motherboard, RAM, and CPU. After running across some sales, I went ahead and upgraded a few months early and ordered everything for my new setup this week. Three days ago I got all of the parts for my new i7 based system in the mail from NewEgg:
EVGA x58 3-way SLI motherboard
Intel Core i7 930
Corsair H50 water cooler
Mushkin 6GB DDR3 1600mhz
EVGA GTX 480
Coolermaster Cosmos full-tower case (re-using the case from my Intel Core 2 Quad build, it's a great case)
The shipping boxes were very banged up, and even the i7 and x58's actual boxes were dented and bent with lots of crinkles, so I took a lot of pictures as I unboxed. The board and everything else looked to be ok, so I went ahead and set everything up. Temps were high (50*C idle, 70*-93*C load), but it was stable for 3 days.
Today my system was under heavy load, and I made the mistake of leaving the room for a little while. When I came back, the PC appeared to be off. I pulled the plug, and then plugged it back in and tried to start it. There was a strange sound, a puff of something rolled out of the top fans in my case, and I smelled an extremely strong smell of acrid smoke, so I quickly pulled the plug.
Let me tell you, my stomach dropped...I only upgrade every 2 years, and I definitely can't afford to lose as much money as I've just spent on this system. I pulled everything apart and inspected it, and as far as I can tell my RAM, CPU, video cards and everything else are ok. On the x58, however, it looks like there are several blown capacitors and some scorch marks. The capacitors are crammed up under my H50's radiator and behind the northbridge (?) heatsink, so heat could have been an issue as well. Or, maybe UPS's unkind handling of the packages made the board a ticking time bomb.
I pulled one of my hard drives out, and it's ok, so I'm hoping and praying that the only thing that got fried was the motherboard and not my CPU or RAM (or the GTX 480...ugh).
EVGA's support is great though. They have a 24/7 help line for North America, and in 2 minutes I was talking to a rep. I told him what happened, and he set me up with a ticket for the RMA. I bought Advanced RMA coverage with the motherboard, so EVGA will ship a new board out to me within a few days.
Has anyone else heard of anything like this happening? :poly115: I'm still kind of in shock, haha.
/coolstorybro
-Sent from my laptop, currently not on fire
Replies
So you had water cooling yet you were still hitting 93C on load. Something wasn't right. What thermal paste did you use on the heat sink?
Also don't see powersupply mentioned, was it a reuse as well? What you listed sounds like a huge power draw.
The thermal paste I used was what came with the H-50, which I read at several places is better than the Artic Silver 5 that I also have on hand. It's possible I didn't have the H50 tight enough as well, which could have contributed to the heat problems.
The power supply is re-used as well. I went big back in 2008 and got a Thermaltake Touchpower 850 watt that cost me something like $250 back then. It's been very clean over the last two years, but the original one I got back then died after a week and had to be replaced with the one I have now. The CPU was at 100% when the computer powered itself off originally, but the GTX 480 was idle. The system had also survived a couple of hours of Bad Company 2 Friday, which pushes both the CPU and GPU pretty high.
I bet you flipped your lid when you saw smoke!
no flame but heavy smook & smells.
Hmm. Check what revision of that MB you have 3d and then check some forums. Personally, I would have bought a better known companies product like Asus, MSI, or Gigabyte.
Yep all manner of stuff blown, mainly PSU's and monitors, including an entire laptop to a lightning strike just as I was unplugging everything to be safe! Oh the irony. I'd do some serious bench tests with the gear you're re-using though, because you don't know what caused the burnout you're potentially running the risk of using damaged parts which could take the whole lot out.
Did you test the kit before running? Was this your first WC install?
he taught me how to build in future, possible things that could go wrong, general do's and dont's.
2 days later, my girlfriend is staying over, and decides she wants to turn the pc on. instead of flipping the on/off switch at the back (it was big and black and said ON/OFF), she flipped the small red one which changes the power conversion from 240 to 110 volts.
now, i dunno if anyone's ever tried running 240 volts through 110 converters... there was a bang, a big puff of smoke, and HORRIBLE smell.
total damage:
dead PSU
fried mobo
fried GPU (tried using it with the replacement mobo)
fried RAM
CPU, and HDD were fine though... weirdly. i got make sex for a while lol.
LOL good for u man hahaha
PS: I burnt my hand. Gief pity
EDIT: My laptop has now been revived. Woop woop. Do the happy dance.
Support was great, I was talking to a real person in less than 3 minutes (on a Saturday!). After I told him what happened, he set me up with an RMA number. Now I'm just waiting for approval, and they're going to cross-ship a motherboard that should get here around Wednesday.
And yes, I think I lost a few years off of the end of my life when I saw fire in my computer case haha.
@Burtzum: Thanks for the reference points, something was definitely up with my temps. Yeah, I had carefully planned out my build so that all of the parts arrived on the same day despite being from 3 different orders/places. I just ordered some 120mm 2000rpm fans, and I'm going to be redoing my case's airflow to account for the H50 I think. Feel free to add me as well: EvilViking
@oXYnary: I have the second revision of the board, but it doesn't look like the problem is very common. Two people getting the same thing is too much though. EVGA is pretty well known (at least in the US) - I've been buying their graphics cards for years. Their support is the best around, including cross-shipment of replacement parts and 24/7 tech support.
@Yozora: No flames, eh? I guess I win then!
@ToothyMang: Hahaha, awesome
@Nitewalkr: NewEgg is usually great, other than their dependence on UPS for shipping. They did pack my motherboard and CPU pretty poorly this time though, I wasn't happy to see that.
@fullofclovers: No kidding man, I was out of the room when it originally shut down by itself. If the capacitor had blown then, things could have been much worse.
@kat: I can't even begin to describe the smell! My sinuses are still kind of scorched, ugh.
@Zipfinator: Good call with FedEx for fragile stuff. I'm going to make a note of that for the future.
@Lamont: I think there were voltage issues with the motherboard, but there could have been airflow issues as well. It's not a full water-cooling kit, just a pump and radiator for the CPU. I did test it, and the pump and fan were working 100%. The computer was stable for days, but Saturday my temperatures were climbing higher before the shut-down and fire.
I think I'm going to redo the airflow for my case, as the H50 water cooler's fan threw a wrench into things. It's now an intake fan where there used to be an outtake.
@almighty_gir: Ouch dude, ouch!
@Wahlgren: Gah! This is starting to look like the computer apocalypse. Congrats on the job though man!
rofl
http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb134/EvilViking13/New%20PC%20Build/2010%20update/Motherboard%20fire/
There you can see the terrible packing from NewEgg (c'mon guys, really? One strip of paper?). The motherboard and CPU boxes were just sitting in the bottom against the outside of the box, all bent up. You can also see the usual craptastic handling from UPS.
There are also a few pictures of the final assembled system when it was working and stable. The intake fans are the main one in the bottom of the case and the one on the H50's radiator on the back. The outtakes are the two 120mm fans at the top as well as the 3x 30mm fan block by the graphics cards.
Finally, I have a few pictures of the blown capacitor and the flame scorch marks. I'll be getting some better pics later.
And here I thought that was just an urban legend!
Just do it if you got nothing to lose though. My card was messed up already sooooo yeah.
I'm no stranger to close lightning strikes, as we get some pretty decent thunderstorms here, but this was unreal. I'm fairly paranoid about lighting, so I'll usually turn off/unplug any expensive electronics when a violent storm passes overhead. In this case though, the skies were completely clear in my immediate area. Positive lightning strikes can travel an incredible distance though, which is what happened in my case. One moment I'm just sitting peacefully at my computer, and then I see a bright flash and hear what sounds like a bomb going off right outside my window. It struck the electrical/cable hub on the side of the house and did some pretty serious damage. Killed my computer, router, cable modem, elliptical bike, and a bunch of other stuff. Insurance covered most of the damage, but it was still a huge pain. Mother nature can be very cruel.
Gah! Reminds me of when one of my past girlfriends dropped one of my guitars on a hard concrete basement floor. Grrrrr...
her nephew dropped my first guitar, my Ibanez RG 550, was discontinued and a beautiful instrument. hairline crack between two of the neck bolts meant that if i tried to string it it would probably fall apart.
it now sits in its case, longing to be played... =[
and
ouch.
But lucky a piece of hardware is replaceable while a child is not.
Back to your tech shenanigans.
Wait, what's a heatsink???
(kidding
I pulled the H50 cooler off to check for damage on the CPU and so I could get to where the smoke came from (near the 12v CPU power plug).
I'm still waiting on EVGA to approve my "2-day" Advanced RMA... the good news is that all of my hard drives appear to be ok, and a friend check my RAM sticks for me and they're all working just fine, so it appears that only the motherboard is dead thanks to the capacitor.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/In-FaultyComputer-Suit-Window-nytimes-2375403564.html?x=0
Curious if your still gun ho about them? That certainly doesn't seem professional. EVGA is in the same lineup with say Biostar IMO.
Still, a 6-day turn around from "motherboard caught on fire" to "new board is here" is pretty good, given that NewEgg would have needed me to send the old one in first.
Soon, I find out if the i7 930 survived the Great MotherBoard Fire of 2010.
Not something you ever want to see in your computer. :poly115:
anyway i didn't know this could happen to a mobo
The system has been rebuilt, and now I'm working on getting a nice overclock with good temps. I'm keeping a VERY close eye on the VREG on the motherboard, and I'm monitoring temps like my life depends on it.
I'm now paranoid about leaving my computer running when I'm not there, haha.