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Opened a game, PC shut down, GPU emitted burning smell

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11 Jan 2011
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So I opened a game, as soon as it opened the PC shut down. It wouldn't boot up. I opened the case and smelled burning coming from the GPU, I turned the PC on for a second to see what would happen and beneath the area where you connect the PSU to it, I saw a brief moment of fire and smoke. I turned everything off.

It's a 1080Ti from Zotac, Purchased May 2017 from OCUK, 5 years warranty.

I'm assuming this is a straight forward RMA?
 
Take lots of photo evidence incase its damaged other parts of your computer incase u need to put those parts in the claim with gpu as if the gpu caused it they should cover the other parts too.
 
Take lots of photo evidence incase its damaged other parts of your computer incase u need to put those parts in the claim with gpu as if the gpu caused it they should cover the other parts too.

I did not think of that, thank you for the tip. I have been using my PC without the GPU fine so I don't think anything else is damaged thankfully. But I'll take some pictures just incase.
 
Take lots of photo evidence incase its damaged other parts of your computer incase u need to put those parts in the claim with gpu as if the gpu caused it they should cover the other parts too.

Is that you being hopeful or is it a real thing that sellers might do? (genuine question)
 
As aretak said mainly but it never hurts to photo the damage just incase, i know aio coolers can cover dmg through leaks etc, i think psu damaging other components is covered. Gpus due to them being connected to a psu though cables must have some sort of cover incase if the wires at the connection on the gpu goes bad and causes sparks or what not. Plus gpus can have water cooling setups on them which some companies ship them out at a premium, if they leaked ud think the gpu maker would cover dmg to any liquid damaging other things under it.
 
I was thinking more along the lines that the gpu was drawing too much power through the single lead. Ideally these top end cards should be powered from seperate pci-e leads.
 
I was thinking more along the lines that the gpu was drawing too much power through the single lead. Ideally these top end cards should be powered from seperate pci-e leads.

Ah I see, that makes sense. I will do that for the next card. Zotac have said to send them the card to test out and then replace hopefully. So will be doing that shortly. Very good customer service so far, nice to have a British person on the other end of the phone!

The bloke said that they don't have many 1080Ti AMP Extreme Core models so may have to have a 2080 instead, which is on par with the 1080Ti but there is a 3GB VRAM difference so not sure what to think if they have to replace it with a 2080.
 
I saw a brief moment of fire and smoke

where did this come from the gpu or the psu, as others above have said it could be the daisy chain cable thats caused a overload which has damaged either the gpu or psu or in the worst case both, best thing to do is take the gpu and psu out and look closley at both and give both a good smell, that will be your best indication if one or both emit a pungent smokey smell you'll have your answer.

you could try the paper clip method for the psu and locate the correct wires and try jump starting the psu, if you get nothjhing from it then the unit is dead, just bear in mind that it COULD'VE damaged the gpu too, if you have a freind who would let you test your card to check would be best
 
No reputable power supply vendor is going to supply daisy-chained cables if the output on the PSU isn't rated to handle it, and I'd certainly call a 1000W unit from EVGA and manufactured by Super Flower more than reputable. It wouldn't have overloaded due to drawing too much power, unless the PSU outright failed in some way. It isn't ideal to use daisy-chained PCIe cables from a cable temperature point of view, but even then it comes down to a "how reputable is your PSU vendor" question regarding the guage of the wire and the rating of the insulation used.

 
No reputable power supply vendor is going to supply daisy-chained cables if the output on the PSU isn't rated to handle it, and I'd certainly call a 1000W unit from EVGA and manufactured by Super Flower more than reputable. It wouldn't have overloaded due to drawing too much power, unless the PSU outright failed in some way. It isn't ideal to use daisy-chained PCIe cables from a cable temperature point of view, but even then it comes down to a "how reputable is your PSU vendor" question regarding the guage of the wire and the rating of the insulation used.

Problem is we know some vendors are more reputable (stringent) than others about specs, ratings and reliability. Pushing a system to behave at the edges of safe ratings introduces risk. If the cable is slightly under specced and the card is slightly over rated, and is pushing a big overclock say, small differences add up.
 
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