Molex to Sata Cable Caught Fire!

sWiZzLe · 15 Oct 2014 at 18:39

Hi,

On Saturday I was happily playing Defense Grid 2 when i smelt burning plastic.

Unsure whether it was coming from my computer i quickly turned it off. I then turned it on again for a second and smoke poured from it.
I took the back cover off to see discover that the cable connected to my SSD was on fire :eek:

Never seen anything like this before, I would have thought that the PSU would have shut the pc down for something like this, but didn't.
Luckily I was at my pc at the time! I'm now rather worried about leaving my pc on when i go out.

Fortunately after scraping the melted plastic off the pins, my SSD is fine

Could this just be down to a dodgy molex to sata cable? Why didn't my psu shut my pc down? It was happy to let my continue playing a game whilst a fire raged inside my pc

wazza300 · 15 Oct 2014 at 18:41

you were lucky you caught it in time

no idea why that happened tbh,poorly made molex cable? power surge? idk

short circuit?

Hyburnate · 15 Oct 2014 at 18:47

That's why I don't use the GPU cables

andy_mk3 · 15 Oct 2014 at 18:56

Ouch

Strange how it didn't trip the PSU?

bradUK · 15 Oct 2014 at 19:24

Have PSU's got short circuit protection in them?

Divine Pain · 15 Oct 2014 at 19:44

Wow... surprised your ssd is still fine after all that :/

Where did you get that cable from? Was it supplied with your psu or?

Morfinel · 15 Oct 2014 at 19:45

And this happen with Corsair PSU ? :eek:

sWiZzLe · 15 Oct 2014 at 19:47

"The AX1200i features a comprehensive array of protection and safety features. This includes Over-Voltage Protection (OVP), and Over-Current Protection (OCP) on the 12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails, Over-Temperature Protection (OTP), and Short-Circuit Protection (SCP)."

Errm, apparently so :confused:

sWiZzLe · 15 Oct 2014 at 19:52

Divine Pain said:
Wow... surprised your ssd is still fine after all that :/

Where did you get that cable from? Was it supplied with your psu or?

No some adapter cable i was using as the sata power adapters provided with the AX1200i all had right angle connectors and I have the Silverstone FT02 and the SSD goes on the back off the case and I couldn't use them.

It's now in one of my front caddy bays... need to find a key for the caddy now so I don't accidentally disconnect it!

P4Clock · 15 Oct 2014 at 20:03

now that is a close call. i real eye opener to cheap cables.

valkynaz · 15 Oct 2014 at 20:06

sWiZzLe said:
No some adapter cable i was using as the sata power adapters provided with the AX1200i all had right angle connectors and I have the Silverstone FT02 and the SSD goes on the back off the case and I couldn't use them.

It's now in one of my front caddy bays... need to find a key for the caddy now so I don't accidentally disconnect it!

So it was basically a poorly made knock off sata cable from China?

If so I think that explains all.

sWiZzLe · 15 Oct 2014 at 22:37

No idea, been using it for years without a problem.

darael · 15 Oct 2014 at 23:09

Considering I use those SATA power adapters myself, that's pretty scary. :eek:

cwgk91 · 15 Oct 2014 at 23:26

Thats scary, now worried about my 2x molex to 6 pin cables

Sasahara · 15 Oct 2014 at 23:56

If you have the AX1200i set as a single rail, overload protection will only kick in if it overloads the 100 A, that's not likely to happen on a sata power cable short as it will more like burn out before it can hit that level of power.

If you set the multi rail mode(bad use of terms as this should be called line limits) then it's more likely to cut out as the limit will be much lower.

The fire risk should be extremely low as the plastics "should" be fire resistant.

100 A is Arc Welder territory at a lower voltage.

Winchesterton · 16 Oct 2014 at 01:05

I get a bit worried about the speed reducers that come with fans. They're running really, really hot in my rig.

DynoDaz · 16 Oct 2014 at 01:08

Wow, I'm amazed your SSD survived. :eek:

*goes off to check connectors*

Tealc · 16 Oct 2014 at 12:48

I've seen it dozens of times while in my old job. We used to buy a similar cable from China for cheap and got field returns, sometimes after a year of continuous use in hot medical equipment boxes.

The pins, which are quite close together corrode slightly, possibly reacting with mould release agent, and the resulting copper oxide forms a bridge between the 12v or 5v and the ground through the small cavities in the SATA connector mould. The bridge will have low resistance and will cause the contacts to warm up. The current draw won't be massive enough to cause overcurrent on the PSU to trip as only a small amount of current will warm these up enough to melt the PVC given enough time.

Nothing you can do really besides not using cheap connectors, but any you buy will likely be made in China so it is hard to judge good form bad.

NMBlack · 16 Oct 2014 at 15:18

Tealc said:
Nothing you can do really besides not using cheap connectors, but any you buy will likely be made in China so it is hard to judge good form bad.

Are there any computer cable and connector/adaptor manufacturing companies based here in the UK? I suspect not, but it would be good to know for those of us who like to buy British...

Luke_Bowman · 16 Oct 2014 at 15:35

This is why I never use adapter cables