What happened? No power then spark!

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2003
Posts
3,383
Location
South East Coast
Hello,
I built a second computer a while ago. H81M motherboard, 4670k, 8GB Ram, Superflower 550w PSU and one of my old IceQ 7950's. The computer is only used intermittently when a mate is up and we fancy playing two player and it has worked flawlessly until yesterday and had definately had at least 100 hours use.

I plugged the computer in and turned it on to install some game updates before my mate arrived. Worked fine, the computer was on for about 45 minutes when it suddenly shut off with no input from either of us. Tried turning it on, didn't work, tried a diferent plug socket just in case, nothing. Opened it up, motherboard light was on which was a bit of a relief, tried turning it on again the CPU fan started going but then power off again, nothing seemed loose. Tried unplugging, flicking the back switch etc and when I pressed the button again a spark came up from what i'm 95% sure was between the graphics card board and the cooler (I say 95% as I was pretty close at the time and not expecting it so it was more of a shock than a chance to observe :p). But it then booted up fine. I turned it off quickly just in case but thought i'd chance it again and it booted fine and worked flawlessly in games until I turned it off about 4 hours later.

Obviously i'm happy it appears to be working fine but also concerned that it could potentially happen again and cause more damage next time. I am wondering if possibly the graphics card positioning in the slot could be something to do with it, as I use HDMI the slot was so close to the case bracket that I couldn't get a cable in so had to wiggle the card a bit when first installed to get the HDMI port accessible (and I still had to cut off part of the cable end to get it to fit) but as mentioned it had been working fine.

I'd rather not have to get a new card if possible, especially as it now seems fine but has anyone else experienced something similar?

Any input appreciated.
 
You need to find where the spark came from, strip it down and look for burn marks. Even though its working now, it might no longer be working at its designed spec, so running it again could increase the chance of other stuff breaking on it.
 
The room has no damp and is used everyday so I don't think it could be that.

I'll have a look over the weekend but am not keen on removing the cooler from the graphics card as have never done it but will try and look down with a torch to see.

Cheers for the help.
 
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