X800 Graphics Card catches fire

[cwebster1234]

:eek:
AMD X2 Dual Core Athlon 64 3800
Asus A8N-SLI Premium nFORCE4
x2 400MHz 184Pin 1GB PC3200 DDR RAM
Sapphire X800GTO 256MB GDDR3 TVO DVI PCI-E RETURN PRODUCT
550W ATX Power Supply

I had been encoding a DVD when the system died. I tried pressing the power button nothing happened. I thought I could smell buring. So I opened the system to check everything was seated properly, and then pushed the power button again. This time the X800 GTO card caught fire. It looked as though a chip was actually burning. The computer still kept running. Switching off the power fortunately stopped the fire. I'd hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't been around.

Up til this point the system had operated with issue, the system isn't overclocked in anyway. Reported temperatures have been fine even when running games.

The chip that is burnt out is one on top corner on the rear side of the PCB behind one of the chips labelled 1R8BA 5915Q. Its next to the chip labelled q232.

Any ideas what could have caused this? Is it just a one off fault with a card or are there likely to be any other issues I should consider?

 

[Addis]

I've never heard of any card catching fire like that, I can imagine it if it was seriously stressed and overclocked, but at stock settings that shouldn't happen.

Check that the power connectors been installed firmly and all the connections were secure, that may have contributed. RMA your card back to where you bought it, or get a refund.

 

[ninja fetus]

A good buddy of mine's 9800pro did the same thing. Power supply and motherboard were dead too which led to me thinking it was the power supply. Which brand/model power supply are you using? The power supply could have done in your pc.

 

[cwebster1234]

A good buddy of mine's 9800pro did the same thing. Power supply and motherboard were dead too which led to me thinking it was the power supply. Which brand/model power supply are you using? The power supply could have done in your pc.

It is/was a no name power supply, I was also thinking that maybe this caused a problem and so wasn't willing to take any chances so I just installed a new HIPER 580W BLACK LABEL PSU and tried the power without the card installed (RMA'd) and it seems to boot with only a no VGA card POST error. So I'm hoping that the rest of the system is ok.

Cheers