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EVGA 970 GTX GPU Fire

The Sausage Man

The Sausage Man

The Sausage Man

Associate
Joined
11 Mar 2018
Posts
5
Was playing Counterstrike earlier when the computer turned itself off. Turned it back on and a plume of black acrid smoke was ejected from the back of the GPU and a small fire started. What are these chips that have failed do? Looks like a bad time for a GPU failure :eek:.

 
They're MOSFETs, and are parts that make up a VRM (voltage regulation module).

If you're handy with a soldering iron, you could give a repair a crack, it looks like you can acquire those components inexpensively. I'd be inclined to replace anything that looks dodgy, so from your picture the obviously blown Q22, and the bulging/half burst Q13.
 
Devlish said:
Its never a good time, but seems to be getting common! How old was yours?

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/anyone-know-why-my-970-caught-fire.18812177/
Click to expand...

3 years and 4 months, a while but you'd hope it would last a bit longer.

Zefan said:
They're MOSFETs, and are parts that make up a VRM (voltage regulation module).

If you're handy with a soldering iron, you could give a repair a crack, it looks like you can acquire those components inexpensively. I'd be inclined to replace anything that looks dodgy, so from your picture the obviously blown Q22, and the bulging/half burst Q13.
Click to expand...

It is tempting due to the insane GPU prices at the moment.

I may just put the old 470 GTX back in for a while however.
 
ubersonic said:
This is what happens when the VRAM usage goes over 3.5GB :p
Click to expand...

I see you're getting good mileage out of this joke!

pastymuncher said:
Seeing as it's a EVGA card it should have a decent warranty so is it still covered? If so start a RMA with them. You never know, you may get a 10 series card back if they don't have any 970's left over.
Click to expand...

Looks like it's 4 months out of warranty.
 
I expect EVGA will replace it. Customer service and RMA is excellent. I wouldn't buy any other make of GPU now and in fact would buy all EVGA parts if I could and they sold them (Just have GPU and PSU)
 
Devlish said:
Its never a good time, but seems to be getting common! How old was yours?

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/anyone-know-why-my-970-caught-fire.18812177/
Click to expand...

the 970 sold insainly well so the law of numbers would say we would see more 970 fail threads than normal.

That being said I've not seen mostfest bow up like this in while and to have 2nd that looks like its going to blow sucks.

Even my mate with a Gigabyte Z170 board had a mostfet blow like this taking his CPU with it
 
The Sausage Man said:
3 years and 4 months, a while but you'd hope it would last a bit longer.



It is tempting due to the insane GPU prices at the moment.

I may just put the old 470 GTX back in for a while however.
Click to expand...

VRM's don't tend to have any direct cooling but can run extremely hot.

It's likely been caused by insufficient case airflow tbh.

What you need to do is mod a 120 mm fan into the case blowing fresh air over the gpu or at the gpu. then make sure you set up in afterburner a custom fan curve, the stock ones are built for silence rather than effective cooling.
 
KungFuSpaghetti said:
I'd still contact EVGA about an RMA... never know!
Click to expand...

Guest2 said:
I expect EVGA will replace it. Customer service and RMA is excellent. I wouldn't buy any other make of GPU now and in fact would buy all EVGA parts if I could and they sold them (Just have GPU and PSU)
Click to expand...

I've seen quite a lot of posts about how EVGA's support goes above and beyond but they've treated me no better or worse than what they are required to. 3 years and 4 months may as well be 10 years. Computer says no.

Hi,,

Thank you for coming back and letting us know about registration.
The product seems to be out of warranty at this moment as per the registered details.
We will not be able to assist you with warranty, Unfortunately.
Please feel free to contact if you need any further information.



Regards
EVGA
Click to expand...

I pressed a bit further but no non-warranty repair or replace options are available.

Psycho Sonny said:
VRM's don't tend to have any direct cooling but can run extremely hot.

It's likely been caused by insufficient case airflow tbh.

What you need to do is mod a 120 mm fan into the case blowing fresh air over the gpu or at the gpu. then make sure you set up in afterburner a custom fan curve, the stock ones are built for silence rather than effective cooling.
Click to expand...

This is a possibility. I replaced everything but the GPU about 6 months ago. Same fan configuration (2 in, 2 out) as before but maybe it's not quite as aggressive.
 
Given how ridiculous pricing is at the moment your best bet is probably something like a 2nd hand R9 280X or GTX780 or something for £100 - something still pretty decent but cheap to tide you over.
 
The Sausage Man said:
I've seen quite a lot of posts about how EVGA's support goes above and beyond but they've treated me no better or worse than what they are required to. 3 years and 4 months may as well be 10 years. Computer says no.



I pressed a bit further but no non-warranty repair or replace options are available.



This is a possibility. I replaced everything but the GPU about 6 months ago. Same fan configuration (2 in, 2 out) as before but maybe it's not quite as aggressive.
Click to expand...


you want a fan directly blowing at the vrm's. it doesn't matter if you have 1000 fans if none of them are blowing over the VRM then it's pointless.
 
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