I set my graphics card on fire, is the rest of my pc still usable.

[Mattadge]

I was having an issue with my computer where the led lights on my motherboard would light up but the computer wouldn't boot. i thought it could be a psu issue so i got an old psu from my last build and plugged that in to see if it would then boot. the older psu was a Seasonic s12ii 520w if that's important. when i turned it on i had the gpu still in the motherboard but i decided not to plug in the 6 pin connector because i thought the card might be to much for the old psu. unfortunately when i pushed the power button to my surprise the card caught fire and i immediately switched the computer off. so my question is what exactly caused the card to explode and would this have done damage to any other components or is it time for a completely new system?. the card is a GTX 1060 sc from Evga.

[TylerD321]

What are the exact full specs of the current machine? Did you just swap out the power supplies or did you switch the cables too? Cables aren’t guaranteed to be compatible with different power supplies due to different pin out designs.

[Mattadge]

Motherboard: Asus Prime B350 Plus

Cpu : Ryzen r5 2600

Psu: Cooler Master V650

Ram: 2X Gskill Ripjaws ddr4-2400 8gb

Gpu: Evga GTX 1060 SC

SSD: Crucial 500gb

HDD: WD Blue 2tb

 

The power supply i used was non modular.

[Spotty]

The rest of your PC should be fine. Graphics card is dead though, and that's likely why the system was turning on but not posting. 

 

If your CPU has integrated graphics you can try using that to see if the system will boot. (Without the graphics card installed, obviously).

 

9 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

Did you just swap out the power supplies or did you switch the cables too? Cables aren’t guaranteed to be compatible with different power supplies due to different pin out designs.

The Seasonic S12ii is non modular.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

7 minutes ago, TylerD321 said:

What are the exact full specs of the current machine? Did you just swap out the power supplies or did you switch the cables too? Cables aren’t guaranteed to be compatible with different power supplies due to different pin out designs.

The Seasonic s12ii 520w is a non-modular PSU so that wouldn't be an issue. 

17 minutes ago, Mattadge said:

I was having an issue with my computer where the led lights on my motherboard would light up but the computer wouldn't boot. i thought it could be a psu issue so i got an old psu from my last build and plugged that in to see if it would then boot. the older psu was a Seasonic s12ii 520w if that's important. when i turned it on i had the gpu still in the motherboard but i decided not to plug in the 6 pin connector because i thought the card might be to much for the old psu. unfortunately when i pushed the power button to my surprise the card caught fire and i immediately switched the computer off. so my question is what exactly caused the card to explode and would this have done damage to any other components or is it time for a completely new system?. the card is a GTX 1060 sc from Evga.

Seems like the card was already on its way out if something still blew up without any additional PCIe power. The LED lights you mentioned, were they POST LEDs? Did you get any beep codes from the board? I'd be willing to bet you were probably getting VGA errors in this case. 

[TylerD321]

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

 

Seems like the card was already on its way out if something still blew up without any additional PCIe power. The LED lights you mentioned, were they POST LEDs? Did you get any beep codes from the board? I'd be willing to bet you were probably getting VGA errors in this case. 

This is what I was thinking too. I didn’t check to see if the psu was modular or not but figured I’d include the disclaimer just in case!

[Mattadge]

2 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

The Seasonic s12ii 520w is a non-modular PSU so that wouldn't be an issue. 

Seems like the card was already on its way out if something still blew up without any additional PCIe power. The LED lights you mentioned, were they POST LEDs? Did you get any beep codes from the board? I'd be willing to bet you were probably getting VGA errors in this case. 

the lights on the motherboard were just the built in rgb lights not the status lights. and there were no beep codes just a click when i pushed the power button.

[Spotty]

Before changing power supplies, when you tried to boot the system did it immediately switch off? Or did it stay on with the LEDs on but no display until you manually switched it off? 

 

If it was switching off immediately and you needed to flip the switch on the power supply before you could turn it on again it's possible it was already shorted but the power supply short circuit protection was detecting the short and shutting down. Then when you switched PSUs it didn't detect the short and the short was able to cause the fire.

Card would have already been dead either way but could explain why it blew after swapping power supplies.

Edited January 30, 2023 by Spotty

[Mattadge]

1 minute ago, Spotty said:

Before changing power supplies, when you tried to boot the system did it immediately switch off? Or did it stay on with the LEDs on but no display until you manually switched it off? 

 

If it was switching off immediately and you needed to flip the switch on the power supply it's possible it was already shorted but the power supply short circuit protection was detecting the short and shutting down. Then when you switched PSUs it didn't detect the short and the short was able to cause the fire.

Card would have already been dead either way but could explain why it blew after swapping power supplies.

when i switched on the power supply the passive motherboard lights came on. it sounded like i triggered a solenoid when it pushed the power button but nothing changed the lights stayed the same.