MOBO On Fire!! Can someone tell me what caused this? Pics Included!!

[Walay]

Hi, about 3 days before the insdent, I noticed my computer was shuted down when I woke up in the morning.
then the same night I was using it, I smelled something buring, but since the computer still runs fine I didnt give it much thought.

Yesterday the computer automatically shuts down again while I was using it, so I decided to take it apart and see if anything was actually burned, and this is what I found out.

Amazingly everything still works, the mobo, the power, video, hd, nothing broke!
and therefore I have no idead what might have caused this burn? mobo fault or ps fault?
Is hard to say since both still works fine.

Anyways, I took some pic and hope someone can tell me what might have caused this?????
It won't be a power failure cause I use both a backup ups and a surge protector.
the powersupply is a Antec True 380, and the Mobo is a Epox 8K7A+ (both are alittle over 1yr old)
with AtI9600, PioneerDVD, LiteOn CDR, herculesGTX.

So anybody can think or guess whos fault is it...PS or Mobo? or something else?

Here is the link to the pics Click Here To See Mobo and PS Connector Burned!!!

 

[caivoma]

damn, that is look nasty, you are lucky man. is the wire burned too ?

 

[Walay]

Originally posted by: caivoma
damn, that is look nasty, you are lucky man. is the wire burned too ?

Some wires near the PS connector to the Mobo connector are half melted....

 

[yhelothar]

I once accidently shorted my mobo, and one of those small transistors on the mobo burned up in flames. The computer just froze, I reboot and everything runs fine, except the onboard sound stopped working.

 

[Slik]

Originally posted by: Walay
Amazingly everything still works, the mobo, the power, video, hd, nothing broke!
and therefore I have no idead what might have caused this burn? mobo fault or ps fault?
Is hard to say since both still works fine.

LOL

 

[Hyperlite]

lol dude that looks nasty. pretty amazing that everthing still works. any idea how it happened?

 

[gotensan01]

Could it be that you got a spike in the power coming out of the socket in the wall? I don't know if PSU's sorta clean the power but when I was selling the backup batteries for computers, one of the main selling points was that it cleans the power coming out of the wall therefore eliminating spikes as well.

 

[Walay]

Originally posted by: gotensan01
Could it be that you got a spike in the power coming out of the socket in the wall? I don't know if PSU's sorta clean the power but when I was selling the backup batteries for computers, one of the main selling points was that it cleans the power coming out of the wall therefore eliminating spikes as well.

Nope, it is connected behind a surge protector and a backup battery(ups) unit.

 

[Muzzy]

Walay, what did I tell you? No free-basing near the computer!!! Joking aside though, that does look nasty, and I'm amaze that stuffs still work!!

 

[cwpc]

I had a similar problem. My PC is plugged into a Surge Protector into a UPS, and then into A Ground fault outlet, and i heard a pop, and my PC died. I thought it was the MB, but after RMA'g the Board and they found no problems I looked at the PSU, and the whole thing was black. I called antec, and they replaced the PSU.

On a side note it popped so hard that the screws holding the PSU together were blown apart, and the PSU was open.


Call them - they will help

 

[Gothgar]

then the same night I was using it, I smelled something buring, but since the computer still runs fine I didnt give it much thought.

that was your mistake...

burning smells are never good...

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

nice, leave a burning comp running. voltage surge/crappy psu went haywire

 

[quakefiend420]

wow thats crazy...hope my comp never does something like that...i'm amazed it still works...you got lucky man!

 

[Marsumane]

I had this EXACT same thing happen to me. It turned out to be the motherboard. Basically the motherboard is kinda screwy but it still boots. It messed up something in the northbridge because only one of them works now and 3d on any agp cards also turns into a fragmented mess after 5-30 mins of gaming.

 

[Zepper]

. Looks pretty bad - I saw another one either here or on techimo.com a few days ago and the plastic on the PSU side around the 5V contacts was completely melted away... On one of my machines I had a 12V drive contact get hot like that and it melted the insulation on the yellow wire halfway back to the PSU!
. This phenomenon is almost always due to high (relative to 0 Ohms) resistance contacts due to corrosion, poor wire crimps on the PSU side of the connector or slightly loose contacts or a combo of all 3. It takes just the right range very small values of resistance to create that much heat in a high-current circuit. If your PSU is in warranty, RMA it for manufacturing defect (poor crimps and/or cheap contacts that loosened from heat/cool cycles).
. Clean up the male contacts in the mobo connector shell (I use a doubled pipe cleaner and good contact cleaner fluid to clean mine - a small brass gun cleaning brush works well too) and it'll work fine when the replacement PSU comes in. You might consider using a contact enhancer on that connector as well. Caig Labs Pro Gold is the stuff I use and recommend and they have another type that's specifically for very high current contacts but I've forgotten the name. Caig Labs . You can also use a flat blade jeweller's screw driver to keep the female 5Vcontacts tight (in the PSU side shell).
. A good reason NEVER to buy a mobo that doesn't have the P4-12V connector to power the CPU. Would never happen on such a mobo as the current is drastically less in the 5V circuits. Lucklily they are getting more common. Not to mention that AMD has recommended running the CPU off the 12V rail at least ever since the Athlon was introduced.
.bh.

Damn it gets dark early now... :moon:

 

[DrCool]

you might want to take out the motherboard and check out the pins on the backside of the motherboard, where the burning seems to be taking place.. there might have a layer of dust that caugth the pins near that connector, and caused that burning.. dust has been known to cause strange problems in the past.. burning included. it may not be the fault of any components, but lack of overall system care.

 

[TwoBills]

On a side note, that ups might be an sps. Uninterupted Power Supplies run your box off of inverted battery power, thus "cleaning" the power. Standby Power Supplies run your box with straight 110v power and switch over to battery when needed. They don't provide any regulation. Both are sold as ups, especially the discount ones.

A voltage spike can and will get thru an sps, where a ups can stop it.

 

[Walay]

Originally posted by: TwoBills
On a side note, that ups might be an sps. Uninterupted Power Supplies run your box off of inverted battery power, thus "cleaning" the power. Standby Power Supplies run your box with straight 110v power and switch over to battery when needed. They don't provide any regulation. Both are sold as ups, especially the discount ones.

A voltage spike can and will get thru an sps, where a ups can stop it.

wow...I didn't know that...

so how do I know in the future that I bought a UPS not a SPS ?

 

[nortexoid]

that's brutal.

luckily u included 10 essentially identical pictures for easier interpretation.

 

[WT]

The perfect icon for the OP here

then when you get tired of that one, use this.

 

[fuzzynavel]

try reading your mobo manual and see exactly what the burnt out pins are for.....then phone the insurance company and get an upgrade on them!!

Not dishonest as there has been a fault and board may be dangerous to use......that's what insurance is there for!

 

[Walay]

sorry double post

 

[Walay]

Originally posted by: WT
The perfect icon for the OP here

then when you get tired of that one, use this.

Hi, can you clarify on this...

I have car insurance and home owner insurance both with over $500 deductable....
How is it, that they gonna upgrade my mobo?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Walay

Originally posted by: WT
The perfect icon for the OP here

then when you get tired of that one, use this.

Hi, can you clarify on this...

I have car insurance and home owner insurance both with over $500 deductable....
How is it, that they gonna upgrade my mobo?

Well, I don't know what your car insurance would have to do with it -- but I doubt your homeowner's insurance would cover this, unless you could prove it was an electrical problem in your house that caused the damage. But you should talk to your insurance company; obviously, nobody here knows the specifics of your insurance coverage.

Of course, if you have a $500 deductible, you might not get anything even if it's covered, if the retail on that MB/PSU is under $500 (which it probably is).

 

[VirtualLarry]

$500 deductable? Unless it burned out HDs and a 6800 in the process, it would be far cheaper and less hassle to just replace the mobo/PSU, and maybe the RAM/CPU if they went too.

But that's interesting. I wonder if those caps near the connector had anything to do with it, although they don't look bubbled on top from the pics. I was wondering if they overheated, and possibly dumped some electrolyte onto the board surface, which drifted over the ATX PSU connector pins, shorted them out, and generally triggered a mess.

It certainly looks like *something* shorted out on the mobo, at least, because if the PSU itself shorted, you wouldn't likely see burnt connector pins on the mobo connector, it would be limited to inside the PSU itself. I'm curious whether or not the PSU should have had some sort of current-limited feature though, so that it wouldn't have started a fire if something external to it shorted it.

At least it wasn't an MSI board.