Asus P8P67 Pro caught on fire

[peterb]

Thank you kalneil for raising the point, and thanks to Chris P for clarifying the situation in this case.

But as I said, this is NOT a thread about Scansure, and I do not wish the thread to go off topic and detract from the OP's situation.

[Allen]

OK, so I got a reply back from Asus..... basically they said:

a) they are clueless about the products they make and don't know why this happened
b) I am apparently the first person who has ever made this mistake in the whole world
c) it is not possible to make two completely different connections have differences in the design to stop this from happening
d) since it mentions "damage" in the manual, screw you even if it burnt down your house

Hey ho, looks like decent customer service doesn't exist these days as no-one is willing to answer my questions or confirm exactly what caused the fire. I just now for sure that if I made a product that has the potential to cause some serious damage, I would want to investigate it and try my best to make sure it didn't happen.

So... it looks like I have to throw £150 out of the window and get a new motherboard. Couldn't have happened at a better time, I am about to move flat which is costing me nearly £2k, most of which I can't afford anyway!

[Pob255]

I'd just like to comment on point C, yes it is impossible two make the two connectors different when they are not responsible for the connector standard.
Asus could of used non-standard headers on the motherboard, but then no one would of been able to plug anything in, which sort of makes the headers pointless.
There is however an argument for the addition of some type of automatic cutoff/breaker/fuse to prevent this.

Your PSU is a single 12v rail unit isn't it? that's one downside of single rail psu's they can let a heck of a lot of current through before OCP kicks in and shuts it down.
The Fact that you used it for a while before it died would lead me to suspect that something more than just a basic short was going on.

[shaithis]

Yes, it can cause that kind of damage...

A number of years ago I built my freind a HTPC......one night he came home fairly drunk and decided to transfer some music off of a freinds USB stick......he had the USB stick upside-down and managed to force it into the socket......I was told "it made a rather loud bang and then a nasty smell and smoke came from it"

So yeah, don't plug stuff in incorrectly

[Saracen]

....

Hey ho, looks like decent customer service doesn't exist these days as no-one is willing to answer my questions or confirm exactly what caused the fire. I just now for sure that if I made a product that has the potential to cause some serious damage, I would want to investigate it and try my best to make sure it didn't happen.....

Just to comment on that, I'm not surprised they won't confirm exactly what caused the fire. I'd be sceptical about anyone that would without, at the very least, physically examining the board, and even then, it may not be entirely clear.

Also, in reference to an earlier point about whether there was a "fire" or not, I can tell you from experience that when electrical and electronic components "burn", an extremely small amount of burning can result in an extremely powerful, and persistent, smell.

For instance, I had a PC short out years ago. My guess is a mains spike, but that is a guess. Nonetheless, the only visible damage was a chunk about the size of a matchstick head blew out of a chip on an HDD board, leaving a little hole and singes around the edge. That tiny little bit of burning left a horrible, acrid burning smell that kept me out of that room for a couple of days, and was still detectable as a residual about three weeks later. Yet, you could have been sitting two feet from the PC and not noticed it as an actual fire. Did it "burn"? Yup, though very hot and very fast. Was it a "fire" in the conventional sense? Not really, as my guess is it was all over in less than a second. It made a noise like a cross between a pop and a crack, and it was over. Apart from the stink, that is. And in my dim and distant youth, in my days of electronic design and fabrication, I had that same experience on several prior occasions.

As for what can be done about it, it really rather depends on what caused whatever failed to fail.

If your cable mishap was a contributing factor, or worse, a direct cause, you don't (IMHO) have a leg to stand on.

But if it had nothing to do with the "fire", then you do. If you do, the issue would be with Scan and almost certainly not Asus. Basically, IF the failure was as a result of a fault inherent with the product at the time of purchase, the retailer is liable (sale of Goods Act, etc). But, if the fault was as a result of anything, including the cable mistake, you did, then they aren't.

For 6 months from purchase, the retailer has to prove the fault wasn't inherent, or by default, they're liable. After 6 months, that burden of proof switches and the default is that they aren't liable unless you can prove (on balance of probability) that the fault was inherent.

I'm not an electronic engineer, but I certainly wouldn't want to take the stance, in a court case, that a fault such as you experienced was nothing to do with the earlier short, unless I had very convincing reasons for arguing that.

So, in my view, for you to be able to pursue it, you'd need an engineer's report (which you'd have to pay for) detailing what the fault was and why your mistake was neither cause nor a contributing significant factor, and I don't envy your chances of finding an engineer prepared to write such a report.

If nothing else, your earlier mistake may have substantially weakened a component that, while it took a while to fail, failed because of that short. An analogy might be a climbing rope, or an anchor rope. If you cut through 80% of the rope, it'll perhaps still hold of the load placed on it is relatively small, but over time, a few more strands will go from time to time. Eventually, it'll fail, and far, FAR quicker than it would have without that initial damage. Could you convince an engineer to write a report that the cutting of 80% wasn't a factor?

A cynic would have kept quiet about the initial mistake, sent it back and hoped. It's gratifying to see you're too honest for that, but I'm, sorry to say that I think it likely that you'll be the one paying for the mistake you made.

As for Scan, well from Chris's remarks, I guess this highlights an advantage of Scansure. The premiums are a pretty small price to pay for protection against that kind of mistake, whether made through lack of knowledge or lack of concentration. Personally, I'm surprised even Scansure would cover such an obvious user error, but if it does (and I take Chris's word for it), then for many users, it's probably a good bet to take it.

Sorry, Allen, but from what you've said about the circumstances, I think you're going to end up eating the cost of this one.

[DrATty]

I've seen a quite a few components that have failed due to anything between 'wear and tear' and blatant negligence but I've never seen damage like this. I suppose it's why I'm not supposed to wire a plug anymore but I'm still surprised that what is a simple and understandable error can result in this. Someone took the battery out of their laptop when using the mains supply a year or so ago, hoping to increase its life. Somehow, they shorted the terminals. It charred and melted but didn't burn.
Is there anyone that does PAT testing where you work? That's where anything that goes 'bang' is sent from my office, though I don't whether they would be able to help. I might even send an item like this to Trading Standards, not to seek a refund but to be sure that there isn't a widespread flaw.