PC build help

Muddycat

Honorable
Jun 18, 2013
6
0
10,510
so i got my self a PC about 4 month ago the specs are

CPU:AMD athlon x4 860k
CPU cooler: ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti OC
motherboard: ASUS A-88XM-A FM2+
RAM: 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport
PSU: CX Series Modular CX430M
case: Corsair spec-01

now i had this PC running fine up to about 2 week ago were it set its self on fire at the PCI-E slot, and in doing this its burnt my motherboard and GFX card. iv sent them back and got replacements that will get to me some time today but i don't know if it was just the motherboard having a fault or the GFX card or some think that my have just gone wrong in the case (like dust or dog hair).

but is there away to my be stopping this happening again as i dont wish to have to send them back if it does happen to set its self on fire one more time, and what will be the best way to test the PC to see if every think is working as it ment to.

PS tested the PSU/RAM/CPU and all are working fine.


 
Solution
Should be the motherboards fault... 😛 Man, imagine Asus blundering the quality in such fashion! xDDD Nope, looks like something with the PCI-e slot that began frying or something.


i think it was the PSI-E slot that set on fire as when i pulled it out it looks like the fire started there.

but this fire ended up burning the GFX card as well and had to be sent back to get replaced
 


my guess was it my have been a fault on the board as in the 16 years on using a PC id never had this happen before at all, but ill find out in the morning when i get to rebuilt it.
 
I would replace the PSU as well.

When you have an electrical failure the psu could be the source EVERY TIME. while this time it's likely the motherboard failed, there is nothing proving the psu didn't cause the fire by giving bad power, or get damaged by the interrupted power circulation when the fire started.

I'd replace the PSU as well as the motherboard
 


easy, if the psu fails, the resulting power surge can blow things on the motherboard and cause a fire. I actually had that happen to me 5 years ago. You should have heard the noise the PSU made when it went. sounded like a grenade, lit the room up with a blue flash, then my pc nearly burnt my apartment down. all the fire happened at the motherboard, none of the fire came from the psu. but it was 100% the psu that failed first.

Setting aside my own experience.

The psu is the one part in your system which CAN burn your house down. take the psu out of your system and NOTHING in your computer is a fire hazard. We are also talking about the only part of your computer which can kill you (of course you'd have to be a complete tard to get killed by a psu, but it HAS happened, because some people are complete tards). Overall my rule of thumb has always been the following.

1) is it an electrical problem? find the problem, replace the failing part and replace the psu
2) is the psu 4+ yo? replace it
3) is the psu low quality? replace it
4) fire started in my pc? put out the fire, replace all the damaged parts and make to damned sure you replace the PSU too, get a flippin surge protector while you're at it.
5) lightning hit my house, killed most of my electronics, don't have a surge protector but my pc started? replace the psu now

see? my rule of thumb is pretty simple and straightforward, if you have any cause to suspect the psu was negatively affected by an event OR may possibly been the source of an event, replace the darned thing.

The OP has an average at best psu not known for it's dependability, and just had a major electrical fire inside his pc. I would replace the PSU in addition to anything obviously damaged by the fire before powering it back on and finding out what else was toasted. because if it WAS the psu behind the computer fire, powering it back on with new parts won't make everything better. you'll just risk burning your house down again.
 


well i will think about replacing it but at the moment i cant, tho there was no bang when the fire happened as the PC turned off so i looked at my town and seen a light in it (burning parts).

i did try the PSU/CPU and ram in a mates, it all worked fine tho i was not able to test its for very long at all my be 30/40min
 
easy, if the psu fails, the resulting power surge can blow things on the motherboard and cause a fire.

Very illogical. Not every problem is caused by a bad PSU. For this case, mainly this:
PCI-e slot on fire caused by the PSU? No. If the GPU got rippled out, then the GPU, not near the PCI-e slot, would be blown, but that's not the case.

The PSU's not nearly as bad as those Hercules or Ace power supplies. It shouldn't blow provided that the rig OP build is very reasonable with power consumption. So this shouldn't be the first thing to blame.
 


I'm not saying they're "bad" I'm saying the risk presented by a bad psu is sufficiently high enough to justify replacement when you reach the level of "suspicion" something is wrong. You don't have to apply my standard, but i think ultimately in the long run, while it is a little bit wasteful in time and money, you and your computer components be much better off practicing it.

note, at no point in any post in this thread do i tell the OP he must replace his psu because his psu 100% is broken. I say nothing of the sort. I simply suggest to the OP that he might want to consider to replace the psu in addition to the burnt up motherboard/gpu because there is the possibility that either the psu caused the problem in the first place OR was damaged by the problem. I do not tell the OP anything more definitive then hypotheticals.

This is an advice forum, I gave mine. He does not have to read it any more then he has to follow it. While I have an immense amount of knowledge about pcs and how they work and fail, if there is one thing I'm 100% certain of, is there ARE no certainties when helping a forum member solve their pc issues over a message board. We're limited by the information they supply, and their technique/ability to follow the instructions we give. I'm not looking at his damaged pc, nor is anyone else in this thread. So even the best advice given is little more then an educated guess. You'll notice that in my origional post, I clearly state your first post was likely correct, and that it was most likely the motherboard that caused it and requires replacement. Because it probably was the source of the problem, it certainly was the most likely from the information provided by the OP. Still, I stand by my opinion that the OP should consider replacement of the PSU alone even though the motherboard was likely the cause, for all of the reasons above.

Furthermore, my advice in this thread is pretty solid and grounded in 30~ years of experience working on and around computers. I don't know why you're so flippant in dismissal and adamant in rejecting it out of hand, but it does seem like strange behavior from someone with that "herald" banner in their signature, especially since it's certainly not bad advice, if anything it's advice steeped in CAUTION, which in my experience is some of the best advice you can get.
 
i'll nip any argument in the bud right here by stepping in here...

second, given that it was a fire it would not be a bad idea to have the psu replaced. while it was likely a motherboard or graphics card problem with failure, the psu can not be ruled out completely and so if it can be replaced it likely should.

while the cx430 isnt a high end psu, it should certainly work for this build.