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What will happen if a cable touches a graphics card?

Andy Brown
By Andy Brown
in Graphics Cards
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Recently my power supply overheated, this caused something to melt and produce a very bad smell. After ordering a new 550W power supply and wiring up all the connections, when turning on the computer a capacitor decided to ignite, causing a smoke cloud and destroying the graphics card (GTX 760). After reviewing what went wrong and plugging in a 630, the new graphics card worked fine. I do remember a cable was touching the graphics card and the area of damage was the same area where the cable was touching.

 

Was the cable touched the graphics card the issue or was it something else?

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You mean the pci-e power cable going to the gpu touched another wire? If so that should not have caused the problem, as all those wires are insulated...

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Wires shouldn't have caused it as they have insulation. If the insulation was damaged and the bare wire was touching something, that would cause a short. 

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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Could you re-read your OP and make sure you actually mean GPU when you say GPU. I'm certain you mean't PSU by a new 550W graphics card and I'm questioning you about a few others...

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1 minute ago, Andy Brown said:

I have a picture here of the damage and the wire type.

 

 

Looks like its a wire that connects to a fan

Would you post that photo please?

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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1 minute ago, Darel321 said:

wow.. you cant see anything from that blury photo xD

I can concur with that view. That photo could be anything with how blurry it is.

 

@Andy Brown Can you post a better photo please?

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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UMTzgRu.jpg?1Sorry for the bad quality, I am trying my best.

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@Godlygamer23

That cable in the picture above was touching here :

nK8pRyD.jpg

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3 minutes ago, Andy Brown said:

@Godlygamer23

That cable in the picture above was touching here :

Can you see any damage in the wires at all?

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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The cable was heated, causing it to melt a little bit however I can not show that due to bad camera quality.

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2 minutes ago, Andy Brown said:

The cable was heated, causing it to melt a little bit however I can not show that due to bad camera quality.

But can you see bare wire?

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

But can you see bare wire?

No

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1 minute ago, Andy Brown said:

No

Is there any way that you can show the damaged insulation on the wire? The insulation shouldn't have melted at all. 

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

Is there any way that you can show the damaged insulation on the wire? The insulation shouldn't have melted at all. 

I believe you are correct, I was not in the right frame of mind when the capacitor ignited. After checking now, I see no damage  

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Just now, Andy Brown said:

I believe you are correct, I was not in the right frame of mind when the capacitor ignited. After checking now, I see no damage  

I'm not sure what happened that the capacitor would do that, but I do not believe that it was caused by the wire touching it as they're insulated to prevent that sort of thing. 

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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1 minute ago, Cela1 said:

The capacitor or whatever component may just have went coincidently an have nothing to do with the wire?

I'm almost 100% certain that's what happened. 

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

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Just now, Cela1 said:

The capacitor or whatever component may just have went coincidently an have nothing to do with the wire?

That is what I am trying out as the power supply did fail so it could of overcharged the graphics card. 

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I am trying to narrow down all the options so when I get a new graphics card, I don't want the same to happen.

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Wait, you said you got a new power supply then this happened, what PSU did you get and where did you buy it from? Also what was the old one?

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4 minutes ago, Cela1 said:

Wait, you said you ot a new power supply then this happened, what PSU did you get and where did you buy it from?

 

I got the https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CP-9020102-UK-CX550M-Semi-Modular-Bronze/dp/B01C3FFLZ8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1462102900&sr=1-1&keywords=cx550m+corsair

 

When connecting everything, I pressed the power on button and the component ignited. When putting in another graphics card that had no connectiong to the PSU the card was working fine. 

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Just now, Cela1 said:

What about the old one? was it just the same or did you get a different one?

The old one was different. It was a cooler master rs-500-psar-j3

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