[SOLVED] PC boots up fine, but when sata connected shorts out and sparks

Apr 8, 2021
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Just built a new PC, everything was running fine until I decided to set the Corsair h100 aio pump and fan speed to extreme to test. I reboot the pc and it shorts out, dead. I swapped the psu and the mobo leds lit up, pressed power and everything started sparking and sizzling, I shut off power from the psu

At this point I smelled burning from the aio and commander pro controller. I replaced the aio and tested with just the 24 pin mobo connector, cpu and gpu pcie and it works fine. So I plugged in the sata connectors and the same thing, sparks and sizzling sounds. I’ve isolated the issue of to the sata connection cable to the psu as the culprit, but how do I fix this? My fans and hdd can’t run without it. Do I need to rma the mobo?

specs
ROG Crosshair viii dark hero mobo
ryzen 5900x
RTX 3080 founder edition
Samsung 980 pro ssd
corsair rm850x

lian li 24pin and 8 pin vga strimer cable
lian li uni fan 120 x3
asia horse matrix 360 fans
lian li led strip
 
Solution
You threw gasoline onto a fire by swapping out the psu and not replacing All the cables. Can't now be exactly sure what the original issue was, there shouldn't have been an issue with the aio speed settings, but since everything is now unreliable....
Apr 8, 2021
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Sapped between what 2 PSU's?

Dare I ask if these are modular, and you used only the specific cables that came with each?
Initially used a Corsair rm850x. Then swapped out for a gigabyte pgm850. I must admit I swapped all the cables except for the cpu pcie. I realized this after booting and seeing/hearing sparks and quickly installed the correct cable
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
You threw gasoline onto a fire by swapping out the psu and not replacing All the cables. Can't now be exactly sure what the original issue was, there shouldn't have been an issue with the aio speed settings, but since everything is now unreliable....
 
Solution
Apr 8, 2021
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You threw gasoline onto a fire by swapping out the psu and not replacing All the cables. Can't now be exactly sure what the original issue was, there shouldn't have been an issue with the aio speed settings, but since everything is now unreliable....
I should just rma the motherboard right?
btw thanks for the help
 
Apr 8, 2021
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"RMA" is not to cover YOUR mistake.
It is for warranty defects.

Your "only option" is to buy a new motherboard. And maybe other things.
You smoked it, you bought it.
I’ve been having issues with this board since building it, there’s no physical damage on the mobo, should I at least try to rma? Sorry if it sounds dumb, it’s a $500 motherboard I’d really like to at least try and get it replaced.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I’ve been having issues with this board since building it, there’s no physical damage on the mobo, should I at least try to rma? Sorry if it sounds dumb, it’s a $500 motherboard I’d really like to at least try and get it replaced.
Any "problems" you may have had before were negated when you fried it.

They will inspect, discover the damage, and know it was you.
"$500" is irrelevant.


And...
"Just built a new PC, everything was running fine until "
Would seem to be contrary to:
"I’ve been having issues with this board since building it"


You can try an RMA.
Don't expect things to go your way.
 
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Apr 8, 2021
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Any "problems" you may have had before were negated when you fried it.

They will inspect, discover the damage, and know it was you.
"$500" is irrelevant.


And...
"Just built a new PC, everything was running fine until "
Would seem to be contrary to:
"I’ve been having issues with this board since building it"
True, I should have clarified things were mostly running fine but little things like the hdd dissapearing after sleep mode and rgb headers acting funny now and then we’re apparent since the beginning, but the rest of the experience was fine.

You can try an RMA.
Don't expect things to go your way.
Thanks for your honesty, will buy a new mobo in the meantime and hopefully the rma works out
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
And then you'll have 2 motherboards. RMA is a swap, they'll repair/replace but the chances of the third 'r', that being refund, are slim to none unless you get lucky with the vendor.

If you got it from Amazon (for instance), they'll ship you a refurb if they have one or a new board if the don't. They'll take your board and ship it back to Asus for credit. Total loss on a $500 board is a few $ shipping. Or they refund you $500 after spending out on shipping and receiving in the first place, then restocking. That's a $500+ loss. Guess which one you'll get.

So if you buy another board, you'll end up with 2 and no chance of refund for the second.

Then you'll need to figure out what to do with the AIO and the RMx and the Gigabyte, all are good units, but what went wrong in the first place, was it the mobo or or the Aio or was it the RMx and did the cable snafu mess up the Gigabyte too.

And how much faith do you now have in any one of those units on a new $500 mobo, or do you risk the chance, and possibly blow up a second board.

My guess would be that none of the actual hardware was initially at fault, I'd be more inclined to believe it was builder error from the start, somewhere in the wiring, and that extreme test finally gave the wiring enough power flow to short out.

I'd start out with a really good inspection of every single wire, back of the motherboard, the case frame, motherboard tray etc and look for scortch/burn/weld or melting.
 
Last edited:
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Apr 8, 2021
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And then you'll have 2 motherboards. RMA is a swap, they'll repair/replace but the chances of the third 'r', that being refund, are slim to none unless you get lucky with the vendor.

If you got it from Amazon (for instance), they'll ship you a refurb if they have one or a new board if the don't. They'll take your board and ship it back to Asus for credit. Total loss on a $500 board is a few $ shipping. Or they refund you $500 after spending out on shipping and receiving in the first place, then restocking. That's a $500+ loss. Guess which one you'll get.

So if you buy another board, you'll end up with 2 and no chance of refund for the second.

Then you'll need to figure out what to do with the AIO and the RMx and the Gigabyte, all are good units, but what went wrong in the first place, was it the mobo or or the Aio or was it the RMx and did the cable snafu mess up the Gigabyte too.

And how much faith do you now have in any one of those units on a new $500 mobo, or do you risk the chance, and possibly blow up a second board.

My guess would be that none of the actual hardware was initially at fault, I'd be more inclined to believe it was builder error from the start, somewhere in the wiring, and that extreme test finally gave the wiring enough power flow to short out.

I'd start out with a really good inspection of every single wire, back of the motherboard, the case frame, motherboard tray etc and look for scortch/burn/weld or melting.
Thank you so much for time and help. I just swapped the surge protector and tried a new outlet, so far been using my pc for a few hours now no issues so far. I’ve inspected the inside thoroughly and didn’t find any scorch marks. The Corsair aio and rm850x were returned to Amazon and I bought a lian li Galahad aio from Microcenter which is also working fine.
I’m pretty sure the spark was contained on the Corsair aio faceplate. Regarding the wiring, my cable management could definitely be better but I followed the manuals to a T during the initial build.
I’ve been benchmarking and running system performance checks and everything seems normal. CPU is running at 40 degrees Celsius, mobo at 34 degrees.
My only fear is once I hookup the sata connection the system will become unstable. I’ll try plugging one at a time and see if I can find the source of the issue.
 
Apr 8, 2021
8
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10
Any "problems" you may have had before were negated when you fried it.

They will inspect, discover the damage, and know it was you.
"$500" is irrelevant.


And...
"Just built a new PC, everything was running fine until "
Would seem to be contrary to:
"I’ve been having issues with this board since building it"


You can try an RMA.
Don't expect things to go your way.

Hey, so thought I’d give a quick update, my main components have been running stable the past few hours. Motherboard shows no error codes. Gaming experience no crashing.
I believe the issue was too many accessories daisy chained to the argb header but not entirely sure. So far I’ve been using the PC barebones with just an ssd and no sata components, I’m still a little concerned about plugging back the fans and lighting. I’m thinking about just dropping off the PC at Microcenter and let them test it in a safer environment.

I’ve linked a update pic, main components running fine with no error codes on the led qcode but all accessories have been unplugged