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Smoke/burning Pci-e cable when benching....

win8.1

win8.1

win8.1

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30 Apr 2014
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I decided to a do a bit of benching of dirt showdown and Unigine Valley again last night but when running Unigine Valley (card clocks of 1240/1700) I started to smell a burning smell and smoke filling the room. Shut down the PC and looked inside only to find out that the modular pci-e cable and the Psu were solidly burnt together. This actually happened before and on both occasions I was overclocking to the max I could go on air putting +200v through the card (My Vapor-x 290 is volt limited so it will not go past that) and power limit of +50. . The other part of the cable which attaches to the card seems to be fine. I thought the first time it happened (6 months + ago) the cable might have not been pushed in right (made sure it was this time) and even though I have done various benches since at the same clocks it did it again.

My Psu is a Seasonic-X 850W (should be more than enough for one card even a 290 with a 3770K [email protected]) but it seems the cables are having a hard time when pushing my overclock to the limit. What I was wanting to know is if anyone has experienced the same thing and what their solution to it was? Using two cables might indeed work to spread the load between them so one does not get as hot but is there another solution?

Two of my Psu pci-e connectors are now unusable so I think I will try to rma the Seasonic and not overclock as much but I would like to know if this sort of situation can be avoided even when overclocking to the cards/systems max.
 
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I think when people were GPU mining there was issues with PCI-E connectors melting with Seasonic PSU's so it is not unheard of. I would contact OCUK and see if you can RMA it.
 
I think I'd be asking the retailer if they would let me swop the PSU for a different one if I had 2 that melted cables :O
 
slick rick said:
I think when people were GPU mining there was issues with PCI-E connectors melting with Seasonic PSU's so it is not unheard of. I would contact OCUK and see if you can RMA it.
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Yeah I noticed that when googling about it. Did not buy it from OCUK but will Rma it.
 
new boy said:
I think I'd be asking the retailer if they would let me swop the PSU for a different one if I had 2 that melted cables :O
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Not 2 different psu's just 2 cables melted on the same psu when pushing the overclock to the limit I can go on air.
 
win8.1 said:
Yeah I noticed that when googling about it. Did not buy it from OCUK but will Rma it.
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Might be best to RMA straight through Seasonic if the retailer is not as helpful as OCUK. As for why it happens, I am not sure. I would have though that if the card was drawing to much current that the PSU's on-board protection would shut the machine down?

And as others have said, use two separate cables for each PCI connection on the card and not one double cable.
 
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win8.1 said:
The seasonic cable has one connector to the psu on one side of the cable and two connectors on the other side connecting to the cards connectors. It's the one connecting to the psu that it the problem.
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I have a seasonic modular 850watt psu I think mine is a v12 or something but I have 4 cables with mine with 4 seperate plugs on the psu end, so I have 2 seperate cables plugged into 2 of the psu connectors.

I have seen overloaded cables before and it's the amount of juice being put through one pcie cable at the psu end as all it is is a splitter.

Late to the party as ever :)
 
slick rick said:
Might be best to RMA straight through Seasonic if the retailer is not as helpful as OCUK. As for why it happens, I am not sure. I would have though that if the card was drawing to much current that the PSU's on-board protection would shut the machine down?
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Yes probably will go straight through seasonic. It's a good job I did not leave it unattended. :eek:
 
Ian Evey said:
I have a seasonic modular 850watt psu I think mine is a v12 or something but I have 4 cables with mine with 4 seperate plugs on the psu end, so I have 2 seperate cables plugged into 2 of the psu connectors.

I have seen overloaded cables before and it's the amount of juice being put through one pcie cable at the psu end as all it is is a splitter.

Late to the party as ever :)
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Think I will be using 2 cables from now on if I decide to bench as it's not worth the fire risk. :)
 
I always use 2 seperate cables to power a GPU,just seems like a logical thing to do lol :D

Hope OP gets an RMA no problems tho,as it shouldn't be happening either-way and is potentially dangerous
 
MrMD said:
I always use 2 seperate cables to power a GPU,just seems like a logical thing to do lol :D

Hope OP gets an RMA no problems tho,as it shouldn't be happening either-way and is potentially dangerous
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Thanks. I think its dangerous for seasonic give cables out with two connectors on the card end and one on the psu side if the cable can't handle it. Under normal circumstances it would be fine but if overclocking and yet well within the rated watts for the psu it melts the cable they would be better giving two cables with one connector on each side and then there's less risk of melting.
 
I read Seasonic X 850W review, surprised the PSU has 4 PCIE cables with 1 6/8 pin connector for each videocard! My old Corsair AX850 PSU was manufactured by Seasonic and also the same model as Seasonic X 850W but with different external body. AX850 has 4 PCIE cables with 2 6/8 pin connectors for each videocard capable to power Quad SLi.

It shocked Seasonic supplied cheap or low quality PCIE cable provided maximum 150W with 1 connector while Corsair supplied superior high quality PCIE cable provided maximum 300W with 2 connectors.

Best to avoided Seasonic and get Corsair instead.
 
AthlonXP1800 said:
I read Seasonic X 850W review, surprised the PSU has 4 PCIE cables with 1 6/8 pin connector for each videocard! My old Corsair AX850 PSU was manufactured by Seasonic and also the same model as Seasonic X 850W but with different external body. AX850 has 4 PCIE cables with 2 6/8 pin connectors for each videocard capable to power Quad SLi.

It shocked Seasonic supplied cheap or low quality PCIE cable provided maximum 150W with 1 connector while Corsair supplied superior high quality PCIE cable provided maximum 300W with 2 connectors.

Best to avoided Seasonic and get Corsair instead.
Click to expand...

Might try Corsair the next time though using 2 cables should get around this problem.
 
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