OMG! MB started on fire!

[Lazarus52980]

Ok, two nights ago I was playing Bad Company 2 with my brother in law when my seconday system powered off during play and would not turn back on. I was like "crap, power supply died". Tonight I purchased a power supply and when I put it in, the system would not power on at first. I reseated all of my connections, started it up and the fans spun, and then my mother board STARTED ON FIRE! I quickly yanked out the cable from the wall and the fire went out, but that was quite disturbing. I have never done any overclocking on that machine, so do you think this would be covered by warranty? If you are curious, its an MSI 785GM-P45 MB.

The photo is not great, but I circled the part that lit on fire and has burn marks on it:

 

[postmortemIA]

it appears to be MOSFET that regulates voltage/current supply to CPU.

 

[Iron Woode]

wow, for a minute there I thought I was having a flashback to docsmarts and his flaming cpu.

 

[masteryoda34]

so do you think this would be covered by warranty?

Should be.

 

[Rifter]

did you roast any marshmellows on it?

And yes it should be covered, the CPU might be toast though as thats the voltage control for the cpu thats on fire.

 

[Lazarus52980]

And yes it should be covered, the CPU might be toast though as thats the voltage control for the cpu thats on fire.

Assuming its true that my processor is fried, would I have any recourse with MSI for the loss of that processor due to their product failure?

 

[Rifter]

Assuming its true that my processor is fried, would I have any recourse with MSI for the loss of that processor due to their product failure?

Its possible but unlikely, my recommendation would be deal with them as politely but firmly as possible and hope for the best. While i have not read MSI's specific warranty I would think they have to replace the mobo but they dont have to replace the CPU. Test the CPU in another known working board, it might be fine.

 

[Lazarus52980]

Test the CPU in another known working board, it might be fine.

Easier said than done, since I don't have another AM3 board...

 

[airdata]

Nice!

I actually set fire to my first computer. It was a pentium, and I had zero computer hardware knowledge at the time and thought I could just slap an AMD cpu into the board.

Well, I did. Then I powered it on and went to the bathroom to let it boot up. Started smelling something and turned around to see my computer in flames.

/party on wayne

 

[ther00kie16]

Nice!

I actually set fire to my first computer. It was a pentium, and I had zero computer hardware knowledge at the time and thought I could just slap an AMD cpu into the board.

Well, I did. Then I powered it on and went to the bathroom to let it boot up. Started smelling something and turned around to see my computer in flames.

/party on wayne

Nice, didn't even know the physical sizes were the same, not to mention the pin counts/layouts.

In the dorms, a guy's psu caught and blew fire out and smoked the wall. PC & flamethrower combo anyone?

On topic though, wouldn't the failure most likely be due to the psu if it was the psu that crapped out first? If so, maybe the psu company's warranty will cover any parts it kills.

 

[Dark Shroud]

I've had PSUs commit sucide before and shoot flames out the back and I've replaced burnt mobos but I've never seen one catch fire.

 

[Seero]

.. so do you think this would be covered by warranty?

I definitely think so, although I don't know which warranty shall it be responsible, PSU or mobo.

 

[whitesammy]

what PSU did you buy? probably a smart idea if not cautious to test new PSU on other computers before yours luckily RMA is handy. just a blown capacitor. if they dont rma you can always be a surgeon and fix it yourself :]

 

[Brother Ali]

What CPU were you running and was it overclock or unlocked?

 

[Evadman]

Nice!

I actually set fire to my first computer. It was a pentium, and I had zero computer hardware knowledge at the time and thought I could just slap an AMD cpu into the board.

Well, I did. Then I powered it on and went to the bathroom to let it boot up. Started smelling something and turned around to see my computer in flames.

/party on wayne

Nice, didn't even know the physical sizes were the same, not to mention the pin counts/layouts.

In the dorms, a guy's psu caught and blew fire out and smoked the wall. PC & flamethrower combo anyone?

On topic though, wouldn't the failure most likely be due to the psu if it was the psu that crapped out first? If so, maybe the psu company's warranty will cover any parts it kills.

Yep, the CPU's were pin and board compatible for the socket 7 (or super socket 7), but were different voltages between the AMD k6 series and the pentium series I remember some designs of refrigerated (freon) coolers being able to run at something like -40c so that crazy high vcore voltages could be used to drive the CPU frequencies pretty high. The 'normal' overclock of the day was from 300 to 450 mhz by changing the bus from 66 to 100 mhz with the stock 4.5 multiplier. 50% more speed for $0. Not bad.

 

[masterbm]

You would be surprise what CPU will live though.

 

[BoozeCompany]

I have never seen this before. One of my friends once burnt his 4 pin cpu power plug.It turned out that not all of the pins of the auxiliary cpu power plug made contact.

This is just a crappy vrm i guess. And it should be covered by waranty

 

[Lazarus52980]

What CPU were you running and was it overclock or unlocked?

I was using an AMD Phenom II 965 and no, no overclocking (its my secondary PC, I only do that sort of fun stuff on my primary PC).

 

[lavaheadache]

I have seen these kinds of things a few times. Not one has killed a CPU too. I think it will be fine

 

[Lazarus52980]

Ok, additional drama now. I tried to remove the heatsink and processor and when the heatsink came off, it took out the processor with it! Now the processor is stuck on the heatsink and I can't get it off. What is the best way to remove it without damaging the processor?

 

[Rifter]

Ok, additional drama now. I tried to remove the heatsink and processor and when the heatsink came off, it took out the processor with it! Now the processor is stuck on the heatsink and I can't get it off. What is the best way to remove it without damaging the processor?

this is epic! now you are really screwed! just kidding! this happened to me with the stock thermal compound and heatsink of a phenom 1 quad. I removed the fan and heated up the heatsink with a torch for a min till it was fairly hot, this made the compound soft enough to remove by hand. acetone might work too havent tried though.

 

[Lazarus52980]

this is epic! now you are really screwed! just kidding! this happened to me with the stock thermal compound and heatsink of a phenom 1 quad. I removed the fan and heated up the heatsink with a torch for a min till it was fairly hot, this made the compound soft enough to remove by hand. acetone might work too havent tried though.

Yes, that worked. I was able to remove the processor after heating up the heatsink. Thank you for the advice.

Early next week when I get a new board for this processor, I will let you know if the fire fried the processor.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Again, why is it that it seems only MSI boards catch on fire? This is like the 7th or so that I've seen reported on these forums.

Edit: Google "msi motherboard caught fire".

 

[Brother Ali]

I was using an AMD Phenom II 965 and no, no overclocking (its my secondary PC, I only do that sort of fun stuff on my primary PC).

There is your problem, 140W CPU on a board that can handle upto 95W

 

[Lazarus52980]

There is your problem, 140W CPU on a board that can handle upto 95W

Seriously?? It says right on the box it can handle a Phenom II processor. Do you mean that it can only handle SOME of them? I have the box in front of me and I don't see anything like that listed...