EVGA 970 GTX GPU Fire

The Sausage Man · 11 Mar 2018 at 16:21

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:

.

https://preview.~ibb.co~/c2Uphn/gpufire.jpg

Devlish · 11 Mar 2018 at 16:25

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/

Zefan · 11 Mar 2018 at 16:26

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.

Kelt · 11 Mar 2018 at 16:32

Ouch, that looks nasty.

Good excuse to blow a grand on a 1080Ti!

ubersonic · 11 Mar 2018 at 16:38

This is what happens when the VRAM usage goes over 3.5GB

pastymuncher · 11 Mar 2018 at 18:43

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.

The Sausage Man · 11 Mar 2018 at 18:44

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/

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.

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.

Kirby Wurm · 11 Mar 2018 at 19:48

ubersonic said:
This is what happens when the VRAM usage goes over 3.5GB

Hahaha!

A lifespan of less than 4 years isn't good though.

scubes · 11 Mar 2018 at 19:53

My 970 is still going strong thank god.....

The Sausage Man · 11 Mar 2018 at 21:40

ubersonic said:
This is what happens when the VRAM usage goes over 3.5GB

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.

Looks like it's 4 months out of warranty.

Devlish · 11 Mar 2018 at 21:50

Mine was two. That's them apples.

WantoN · 12 Mar 2018 at 14:57

That is indeed an easy repair job if you're so inclined.

I would definitely have a crack.

KungFuSpaghetti · 13 Mar 2018 at 13:17

I'd still contact EVGA about an RMA... never know!

Guest2 · 13 Mar 2018 at 21:58

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)

KillBoY_UK · 14 Mar 2018 at 09:28

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/

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

MrRongCar · 14 Mar 2018 at 09:33

The Sausage Man said:
Looks like it's 4 months out of warranty

You should definitely contact EVGA still - it's fair to expect that a GPU shouldn't go up in flames while playing counterstrike!

Psycho Sonny · 14 Mar 2018 at 12:13

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.

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.

The Sausage Man · 14 Mar 2018 at 16:49

KungFuSpaghetti said:
I'd still contact EVGA about an RMA... never know!

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)

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

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.

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.

Terrorfirmer · 14 Mar 2018 at 16:52

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.

Psycho Sonny · 14 Mar 2018 at 17:08

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.

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.