GPU on Fire!!!

[camalbitboy]

Hi All,

I've just had my GPU go up in smoke and i'm rather worried that it might have taken my mobo or poss other components with it.

My gpu's are off at the manufacturers for replacement due to failing fans and so for today i shoved the old 7800 GTX out of my wifes pc in my box so I could listen to some music while I worked on my works lappy.

It had to reboot it as it locked up but when i went to make a cup of tea while it did I came back to a room full of smoke.

The gpu is completly blackened just above the PCI-E slot connector, and has the circuit board has bubbled out. Whats even worse is that it has partially melted the pci-e connector, blackened the 1Xpcie slot beneath that, and blackened the pci and creative sound card that was plugged in below that.

I worry what might have happened if I hadn't popped back into the room and powered it off when I did!!

So while I wait for a new low spec gpu to replace the one I just melted (and wait even longer for my 460's to come back) I'm rather worrying that I may have killed something else? Anyone else any thoughts or experience of something like this?

I'll try and work out how to post some images of the burnt gpu and mobo.

Cam

[camalbitboy]

[camalbitboy]

Other odd thing was that out of interest I'd benchmarked it earlier in the day to see how bad it was compared to 2X460's, and the temps only got to around 75degrees. Odd that it then catches fire an hour later or so while playing music and the screensaver on

[kalniel]

Well I wouldn't be using that slot again. If that's the primary graphics slot for the motherboard then get a new one.

[Rob_B]

You might get away with using it if its only surface burns on the slot but I'd be worried why it burst into flames in the first place. Personally I'd bin the board unless you have a cheap GFX you don't mind killing to test it with (even then I'd be wary)

[shaithis]

Sheesh....it went up a day early...it's not the 5th until tomorrow!

Seriously though......test it with a crummy gfx card......but personally I wouldn't feel happy using that slot again even if a card tested fine in it :S

The good news is, I doubt anything else on the mobo is broken.

[camalbitboy]

Sheesh....it went up a day early...it's not the 5th until tomorrow!

Seriously though......test it with a crummy gfx card......but personally I wouldn't feel happy using that slot again even if a card tested fine in it :S

The good news is, I doubt anything else on the mobo is broken.

Got a £40 gpu arriving on Monday so will test it with that. Wish I had something even worse to test in there tbh.

When eventually my 2 X 460's get back I will have to use that slot though as the other pcie slot on my mobo isn't for gpu's I believe. Asus P8P67 Pro. Fingers crossed.

[camalbitboy]

Hmm any ideas on how to clean all the burnt crap out of the slot?

[shaithis]

I'd probably try and use rubbing alcohol.

[Steve]

The mobo looks OK insofaras the traces are OK and there's no bubbling. The metal of the connectors looks OK, even if the plastic has succumbed to the heat a little.

That said, I would not attach anything to that system that a cared about... it may not have been the cause but who knows what damage may have been done.

[camalbitboy]

You might get away with using it if its only surface burns on the slot but I'd be worried why it burst into flames in the first place. Personally I'd bin the board unless you have a cheap GFX you don't mind killing to test it with (even then I'd be wary)

Well its a £150 board so don't want to bin unless its really a duffer.

The gpu had locked up a couple of times on my wife's pc recently, and the only issues i'd been suffereing from was noisy fans, so I don't think the mobo caused the gpu to burn, but I do wonder what that has done to it.

I'll try to get the board out of the case over the weekend to have a beter look at it, and test it with a new £40 gpu on Mon. Rather blow that than my 460!

Worried that thats at least another £150 down the swanny though

[camalbitboy]

Got the board out of the case and had a closer look. There is no damage showing on the board itself on either side, but the plastic inside the slots has melted a fair bit at either end. I can get the old card in and out and it looks like it connects well but that melted plastic worries me somewhat. Makes me worry what its done to the traces where I can't seem them under the connector.

Hmm the more i look at the melted plastic inside those slots and then look at my 2 little kids running round the house, the more £150 for a new mobo seems a bit insignificant vs a poss housefire. If it was just a bit of smoke damage maybe, but with the melted plastic, its just not worth it.

I wouldn't run a washing machine or telly looking like that so this ones going in the bin.

[GoNz0]

i would use part of the new mobo budget on a smoke alarm.

[camalbitboy]

i would use part of the new mobo budget on a smoke alarm.

Got smoke alarms up and downstairs but not in the study. Something to consider.

If you meant get a smoke alarm instead of replacing the mobo, well a smoke alarm doesn't stop everything burn down now does it. Just gets you out the building.

[GoNz0]

Got smoke alarms up and downstairs but not in the study. Something to consider.

If you meant get a smoke alarm instead of replacing the mobo, well a smoke alarm doesn't stop everything burn down now does it. Just gets you out the building.

as well as unless u know of a £5 mobo

[Jay]

very odd, looks like too much voltage some how?