GPU caught fire, cant enter mobo bios

Jettesnell · September 11, 2019

Had a rather eventful evening with my pc.

So, have a bit of info to share before getting to the issue. I got two computers, one that I use as my personal, and another one used as a server for a minecraft and gmod server, just a little hobby thing with friends.

Now, my own pc dies while I was sleeping, as I started troubleshooting I came to the conclusion that my psu had died. I got worried that other parts might've gotten damaged, so i took the psu from the server pc and used it in my own to see if anything broke. Everything seemed to work fine and the pc booted without any issues.

Due to me being a bit low on funds, I decided to just switch over and use the server pc as my main one, still treat it as a server, but add my gpu into it so I could at least join up and play with friends occasionally. This would be my temp solution until I had saved up for a fully new pc, my old pc needed an upgrade on ever part anyways.

I decided to rebuild the server into my own case, as that case was a lot better and I could add some more fans. Moving everything over went smoothly and I felt confident that everything was done correctly.

As I booted it up, the gpu caught fire instantly. Luckily I had the side panel off and quick access to a switch to break all power. I instantly did it, blew the tiny fire out and removed the gpu. On the surface nothing looked damaged, not even the gpu but it did have a burnt electricity smell.

I decided to try and boot the pc up without the gpu, and as a relief I saw everything boot up, all fans turned on, screen turned on and no weird beeping sounds were made. Sadly thats where the next issue came. The pc now gets to the manufacture boot screen (asus in my case) and the instructions on how to enter bios shows up. After that nothing happens, it freezes in that screen. It wont boot up automatically, and I cant enter the bios as I get no reaction when pressing the keys on my keyboard. The keyboard do light up so I know its connected. After looking more closely on the mobo I can see the boot_device_led is glowing red.

After a lot of googling I have tried using other ram sticks, remove the cmos battery, boot without hdd, switch keyboard and usb ports, nothing. The pc still boots normally to the point of the asus windows, but after that it freezes and the boot device led turn on with a red light.

Any idea on what might be wrong? Can it possibly be fixed?

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k
MOBO: ASUS Z97-a
RAM: 4x 4 GB Corsair Vengence 1 600 MHz
GPU: EVGA GTX 960 SC
PSU: Corsair VS 650

berberries · September 11, 2019

unfortunately, a fire in your pc is never a good sign. it is usually caused by a short circuit or a large voltage surge. either ways it may have burnt or fried pcb traces in places more than your gpu. I would first start by throwing the GPU out of the window and replacing the motherboard. PSU seems pretty old so consider using a new one too.

Jettesnell · September 11, 2019

7 minutes ago, berwynhan said:

unfortunately, a fire in your pc is never a good sign. it is usually caused by a short circuit or a large voltage surge. either ways it may have burnt or fried pcb traces in places more than your gpu. I would first start by throwing the GPU out of the window and replacing the motherboard. PSU seems pretty old so consider using a new one too.

Thank you very much for the quick reply, really appreciate you taking the time and trying to assist me!

While the PSU might be an old and cheap model, it still quite new as I bought it 2 months ago. Everything else is rather old, just spare parts me and a friend and lying around. Felt bad if the mobo broke since that was not mine originally.

But is there a way to tell if the PCB traces fried? I mean, it's rather confusing and hard to tell since everything start up rather normally. I can upload a video on it if that would help.

Once again, thank you for replying.

berberries · September 11, 2019

26 minutes ago, Jettesnell said:

Thank you very much for the quick reply, really appreciate you taking the time and trying to assist me!

While the PSU might be an old and cheap model, it still quite new as I bought it 2 months ago. Everything else is rather old, just spare parts me and a friend and lying around. Felt bad if the mobo broke since that was not mine originally.

But is there a way to tell if the PCB traces fried? I mean, it's rather confusing and hard to tell since everything start up rather normally. I can upload a video on it if that would help.

Once again, thank you for replying.

some pcb traces are hard to see as they may be covered by some mobo components etc. but you can use a torchlight and shine along traces and look for burn marks. that is the easiest way to tell afaik.

Jettesnell · September 12, 2019

Well I solved it somehow.

I had the keyboard connected before when I tried to start the pc, once I removed it, the pc suddenly worked.. I guess it thought my keyboard was a bootable usb, and it just got stuck in a loop or something. My gpu is probably toasted, not even gonna try it, but every other part seems undamaged.