PSA: don't buy aliexpress PCI adapters.

[RollinLower]

So I have a little warning for all of you guys looking at these:

 

I recently bought them for my rig, and I ran them on 2 RTX 2080 GPU's. They do look awesome, and they clean up the cables real nice.

 

So I put my PC on standby and go to my parents in law for Christmas. About 2 hours later I get a call. The apartment is on fire!

 

Basically what happened, the PC went out of sleep because a cat probably jumped on the desk or moved the mouse around a bit. The PC booted and idled for a little while.

Then the bottom 8 pin adapter either shorted, or got so hot that the foam on the back caught fire.  

Lo and behold, a couple minutes later the entire PC is an inferno.

 

The neighbors notice, and thankfully manage to put out the fire with a powder extinguisher. Sadly the powder also destroyed all my network and server equipment in my rack. As well as all my peripherals and custom keyboards.

 

The fire department managed to confirm the fire started in the bottom adapter. It's also almost completely gone, while the other 3 are still somewhat intact.

 

Be careful people!

 

[Windows7ge]

I'm curious to know. In what manor did the powder destroy all your server equipment? I'm not familiar with exactly what that powder is but is it in some way conductive? is it somehow corrosive? Can you not just tediously clean it out of the rack equipment and start them back up?

[RollinLower]

5 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I'm curious to know. In what manor did the powder destroy all your server equipment? I'm not familiar with exactly what that powder is but is it in some way conductive? is it somehow corrosive? Can you not just tediously clean it out of the rack equipment and start them back up?

The powder is corrosive, and corrodes all metal it comes in contact with basically. So all electrocal contacts in the equipment is pretty much dead.

If not now definitely by the end of the month.

[akio123008]

Holy crap.

 

How do you know the fire started in the adapter apart from them being cheap AE crap?

[Lurick]

1 minute ago, akio123008 said:

Holy crap.

 

How do you know the fire started in the adapter apart from them being cheap AE crap?

Fire departments will usually investigate that stuff and can generally figure out where the fire started from.

[RollinLower]

1 minute ago, akio123008 said:

Holy crap.

 

How do you know the fire started in the adapter apart from them being cheap AE crap?

The PC ran fine for years, untill I put the adapters in.

Also the fire department confirmed the place it most likely happened was the bottom adapter. I trust those people know what they're saying.

[spwath]

Damn that really sucks.

 

Im surprised no protection in the power supply kicked in or anything.

 

Really sucks though, looks like you had a real nice rig. At least your neighbors caught it though and you didnt loose more.

[Tristerin]

F

 

These are being sold at places like Amazon as well (just looked them up cause you are right, love the cable cleanup.) - chenyang store kind of indicates Aliexpress to me, but Id be careful using these after seeing your story.

 

Amazon.com: CY ATX 8Pin Female to 8pin Male 180 Degree Angled Adapter for Desktops Graphics Card ATX Adapter: Computers & Accessories

[The_russian]

24 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

or got so hot that the foam on the back caught fire. 

Why is there foam on the back of them anyway? I would guess it’s to cover the contacts on the board so nothing shorts them, but would it not be better to use plastic instead? Is that just a cost saving thing, and if so if someone really wanted to use something like these, could replacing the foam with a piece of plastic make them safer? Just theoretical questions, I’m not planning on buying anything like them. 
 

Edit: Damn that sucks, hopefully you can rebuild your rack and thankfully the fire didn’t spread further, could have ended much worse.

[RollinLower]

1 minute ago, The_russian said:

Why is there foam on the back of them anyway? I would guess it’s to cover the contacts on the board so nothing shorts them, but would it not be better to use plastic instead? Is that just a cost saving thing, and if so if someone really wanted to use something like these, could replacing the foam with a piece of plastic make them safer? Just theoretical questions, I’m not planning on buying anything like them. 

To be honest I'm not sure. My best bet is that they needed to cover the solder joints with something to keep people from touching live contacts, and foam turned out the cheapest. 

These adapters are like 0.50 a piece.

[Mark Kaine]

honestly I don't understand what these adapters do? Or why you would put cheap Ali express shit in a rather high end rig...  The only thing where I'd probably put those is if it's a rig built from cheap ali express shit.

 

 

Also I'm really sorry this happened, it must suck... I suppose this isn't an insurance case? 

[RollinLower]

1 minute ago, Mark Kaine said:

honestly I don't understand what these adapters do? Or why you would put cheap Ali express shit in a rather high end rig...  The only thing where I'd probably put those is if it's a rig built from cheap ali express shit.

 

 

Also I'm really sorry this happened, it must suck... I suppose this isn't an insurance case? 

I have insurance, and thankfully this is covered. There was a lot of custom work in this pc tough. Also parts that aren't for sale anymore here like the case.

[Mark Kaine]

Oh I see, this is SLI bridge of sorts? 

 

3 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

I have insurance, and thankfully this is covered

well at least!   

[Tristerin]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

Oh I see, this is SLI bridge of sorts? 

 

well at least!   

It just redirects the location of the 8pin, it puts the power connectors under the card for cable management

 

I like the look (didnt know they existed till this) but only ones I can find are from China so far so going to avoid.

[sub68]

I remember this setup from show off thread

and sad to see a bunch of it is dead

[Godlygamer23]

10 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

I have insurance, and thankfully this is covered. There was a lot of custom work in this pc tough. Also parts that went for sale anymore here like the case.

Did you leave a negative review with this experience highlighted? I feel like you should. It's a pretty major problem IMO.

[akio123008]

29 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Fire departments will usually investigate that stuff and can generally figure out where the fire started from.

Yes except look at that picture. The remains of the adapters look no different from the rest of the PC.

 

The question is, did the fire dept investigate on their own and then pointed at the adapter without any bias, or did they point at the adapter after the OP suggested that may be the cause?

 

I want to be clear in that I am in no way saying these adapters are safe, it just seems so unlikely to me how they would cause such a fire. Especially considering the computer was under basically zero load. 

[Mark Kaine]

3 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

It just redirects the location of the 8pin, it puts the power connectors under the card for cable management

Ah I see, got it... 

 

it's kind of like this. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01MQ1YEYH/ref=psdcmw_172544_t2_B07P5R258Q

 

[sub68]

14 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

I have insurance, and thankfully this is covered

thats good to hear

14 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

There was a lot of custom work in this pc tough. Also parts that aren't for sale anymore here like the case.

sucks that you can't get the case, but sometimes doing the job a second time bring new ideas that you can do

[RollinLower]

5 minutes ago, akio123008 said:

Yes except look at that picture. The remains of the adapters look no different from the rest of the PC.

 

The question is, did the fire dept investigate on their own and then pointed at the adapter without any bias, or did they point at the adapter after the OP suggested that may be the cause?

 

I want to be clear in that I am in no way saying these adapters are safe, it just seems so unlikely to me how they would cause such a fire. Especially considering the computer was under basically zero load. 

I heard it directly from the fire guys. They didn't word it this specifically but what they said was basically this: "there was probably a short of some kind in this part" while pointing at the adapters.

[akio123008]

2 minutes ago, RollinLower said:

"there was probably a short of some kind in this part" while pointing at the adapters.

Hmm well it's possible for sure. Especially since it's unlikely anything else caught fire in there. Shame we don't have some footage of it happening, I'm quite curious what exactly happened in there. 

 

Hopefully you can get a new rig (without those adapters) up and running soon

[GDRRiley]

given you've got a lot of electronics I'd get a electronics safe large fire extinguisher  and leave it next to the rack, they aren't cheap but its cheaper than replacing all that

[Bitter]

Probably not a short between + and -  as that would trip the PSU, but the crappy tin contacts got hot and then things lit fire. Had a molex to 6 pin do that to me a while back, melted and charred but no fire thank goodness.

[TetraSky]

As if I needed another reason to fully shut down my PC when I'm leaving the house...

The problem with cheap shit... Is that it's cheap flammable shit.

[Windows7ge]

2 hours ago, RollinLower said:

The powder is corrosive, and corrodes all metal it comes in contact with basically. So all electrocal contacts in the equipment is pretty much dead.

If not now definitely by the end of the month.

What an intelligently designed fire extinguisher then /s. The whole point of a fire extinguisher is to minimize damage (and save lives). Kind of kicks itself in the ass if it puts out the fire but kills all nearby electronics in the process.