[SOLVED] Graphics card sparks and smokes after attempting to boot PC with new PSU. Reason for that?

tom.klingst

Commendable
Apr 30, 2018
2
0
1,510
Recently I was playing OSU! a game that doesn't really require a lot of graphics work. In the middle of my play session my PC randomly turns off as if the plug was pulled. A simple black screen is all I'm left staring at and there's no noticeable smell or anything. It just looked as if my PC had turned off for no reason. (I have a big window in the side of my tower and was able to observe the inside of the PC) 2 weeks before this happened the on/off switch on my PSU stopped working and wouldn't let me turn off the PSU which always resulted in me pulling the Plug a few seconds after Windows has shut down. (Normally I'd use the switch on the back of the PSU because I don't like keeping my PC connected to the outlet when I'm not using it) This was the first sign for me to think that I had to get a new PSU soon even though everything worked just fine whilst using the PC. Now that the PC doesn't work at all, I decided to go and Purchase a new PSU to which I ended up buying a bequiet! Straight Power 11 750W PSU. My previous PSU was the Zalman TX Series ZM700-TX. After replacing the old PSU with the new one and starting the PC, my graphics card (iChill Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070ti) started making a clicking noise and a bright flash emitted through the top of the card where the cooling metal plate sits and right after I pulled the plug to the PSU I could see smoke still coming from that exact point where I saw the flash come out of. I am not too unexperienced in building PC's but I believe that my cable work might have been a problem or that my Card was broken from the beginning and my old PSU was totally fine except for the on/off switch. I used a provided PCIe to VGA cable that I inserted into the modular PSU and my GPU. Without my card the system runs fine with the onboard graphics provided by the MB. (Asus Maximus VIII Ranger) I contacted the support at bequiet! providing all my specs and information to see if they might know the cause of this issue. I have not received a reply just yet and was wondering if anybody could help me out on this one.

Any reply is appreciated. I have not been able to use my PC for the gaming it was built for for around a month now and I'm looking to get it fixed somehow without having to drop a lot more money than I already had to for the new PSU.

My Specs are:

Mainboard: Asus Maximus VIII Ranger

Graphics card: iChill Geforce GTX 1070ti

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4

CPU: Intel Core i7 - 6700k running at 4.20 GHz

PSU: (old Zalman TX Series ZM700-TX 230V EU) <-- This is the one that the PC randomly turned off with

--> Current new one: bequiet! Straight Power 11 750W
 
Solution
This:

" I used a provided PCIe to VGA cable that I inserted into the modular PSU and my GPU. "

VGA? Typo? Did the provided cable come with the PSU or the GPU?

Did you mix and match the modular power cables between the two PSU's?

It does appear to me that a cable was incorrectly connected or that the wrong cable was used for a connection.

Thus frying the GPU.

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
This:

" I used a provided PCIe to VGA cable that I inserted into the modular PSU and my GPU. "

VGA? Typo? Did the provided cable come with the PSU or the GPU?

Did you mix and match the modular power cables between the two PSU's?

It does appear to me that a cable was incorrectly connected or that the wrong cable was used for a connection.

Thus frying the GPU.
 
Solution