Motherboard Caugh Fire Help!!!! 1

[mingyar]

I just received an Asus A7V8X-X with an Athlon Xp 2400 CPU. I have a 350w Power Supply and a GeForce4 MX 440 Graphs Card. I installed everything correctly including a brand new 80GB 7200 RPM Wetern Dig HDD. When I tried to boot for the first time my mobo started throwing sparks and the a small flame came out of it. Of course nothing booted, I couldn't even get to the bios config screen. I have put together systems before but have never seen this happen. Any ideas on what happened and if there is any solution or is my mobo permanently dead?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!

 

[shaner66]

If fire came out of your MB, it's dead, and if by some fluke it's not dead, it will die very shortly.

Send it back and get another one.

 

[Freemansweb]

Check for screws or standoffs that may have fell in the mother board, you might get lucky.

 

[Grenage]

If it is new Send it back for replacement, if it's not new then you are almost certainly going to need a new one.

 

[mingyar]

I took the mobo out of the case and no screws or standoffs had fallen on it or were underneath the mobo. Is there anything alse that migth have caused this. I pretty sure everything was connected correctly but Could something connected incorrectly cause this??

Any comments would be appreciated.

 

[mainegeek]

I have seen this twice with faulty power supplies. In both cases there where large sparks coming out of the back of the power supply. Try swapping out the power supply with a new one.

 

[edfair]

I've seen it once with a M/B and once on a hard drive. Neither were that big on flames. But it did pop the top on a 1488 linedriver (old M/B obviously) and the result was the remains of a charred chip. In both my cases the power supply was fine.

Generally there is nothing that you can do that will cause it. Requires a partial short of something to drag power. An absolute short would crowbar the supply.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[mingyar]

There were no sparks at all comming out of the power supply. All the sparks came out of the center of the mobo where a couple of seconds later the flame came out. I did see a litlle bit of smoke come out of the HDD cable or around the HDD area but my HDD is brand new (out of the box).

Thanks,
Any help will be appreciated.

 

[LordGarfield]

You are shure you putted the switch on the power suply corectly according to your country's voltage?

like if you have 220V in and have a switch standing on 110V (our what is it exactly) the adapter wil convert 110V to 5V so 110/110 * 5 = 5 but 220/110 * 5 == flames and smoke.

greets

 

[mingyar]

The switch was never changed. I had another motherboard connected to the same power supply and case before I got this one and I never had this problem. Is there anything else that could have caused this? Would this happen if one of the case connectors was hooked up incorrectly?

Thanks,
Your input will be greatly appreciated.

 

[smah]

I don't have an answer for you, but this thread reminded me of a saying my old college roommate had.

He was an electronics major and used to say that manufacturers put smoke in IC chips when they built them. And they stop working if you let the smoke out.

 

[edfair]

Case connectors have only normally open contacts so they wouldn't be shorting anything. And if you did short something it would make the dropping resistor work a little harder, thats all. And the LEDS don't conduct if they are backwards , so no possible problem there.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[mingyar]

The company that sold me the mobo is telling me that there is no way the mobo could have caugh fire unless I connected something wrong. I think that those *@$**& are just trying to deny that their product defective. They say that if the mobo has visible damage (caugh fire) they cannot exchange it even though I bough a 1-year extended warranty.


Thanks,
Any more comments will be appreaciated.

 

[shaner66]

Well don't settle for that answer. Phone them if you can (e-mail isn't as effective) and ask to speak to a manager or supervisor of some type.

Tell them everything was connected just fine but the board just blew up.

I worked for Dell and HP, I've seen my share of components smoking and/or catching fire the very first time the PC was turned on. And those machines are built at the factory. It happens sometimes.

Just let that company know that their defective board was a huge safety hazard and they could be looking at a lawsuit.

You'll get a refund if you try hard enough.