My 970 sparked..

[Dunkan77]

Hello guys,

Today is a sad day.. My 2.5 year old 970 sparked and I'm scared of running it in my PC again. So here's what happened:

I was on BF1, in the pre-game where quite a bit of power is drawn by the card, then my PC suddenly shuts off. That I assume was the short-circuit protection built into either my PSU or the motherboard. I thought it was a power cut but a second later my PC turns back on and a spark comes flying out of the back of the GPU. The GPU was working fine though, it booted into the login menu for Win10 again, no issues with the image but at which point I was sniffing around trying to smell burning and indeed I did.. I turned my PC off at that point and took the GPU out and it seems like some mosquito flew into my PC at night or something and got caught in between the backplate and one of the ceramic filters on the back of the card. I took some pictures that you'll find attached with this post after removing the backplate to get a better look at what happened. What seems to have happened is that the solder on one end of the component melted due to the sparking. I don't know if I should replace it or if it's even safe to turn the PC on with it at all. I need your advice.

Should I replace the card or can I still use it? Thanks for any answers.

 

Pictures on Drive : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6nULn-5opImR3pXRlFfdDNXaDQ

[NicholasNicholasNicholas]

1 minute ago, Dunkan77 said:

Hello guys,

Today is a sad day.. My 2.5 year old 970 sparked and I'm scared of running it in my PC again. So here's what happened:

I was on BF1, in the pre-game where quite a bit of power is drawn by the card, then my PC suddenly shuts off. That I assume was the short-circuit protection built into either my PSU or the motherboard. I thought it was a power cut but a second later my PC turns back on and a spark comes flying out of the back of the GPU. The GPU was working fine though, it booted into the login menu for Win10 again, no issues with the image but at which point I was sniffing around trying to smell burning and indeed I did.. I turned my PC off at that point and took the GPU out and it seems like some mosquito flew into my PC at night or something and got caught in between the backplate and one of the ceramic filters on the back of the card. I took some pictures that you'll find attached with this post after removing the backplate to get a better look at what happened. What seems to have happened is that the solder on one end of the component melted due to the sparking. I don't know if I should replace it or if it's even safe to turn the PC on with it at all. I need your advice.

Should I replace the card or can I still use it? Thanks for any answers.

 

Pictures on Drive : https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6nULn-5opImR3pXRlFfdDNXaDQ

pluck it off, rinse it in isopropyl and hope for the best

[Dunkan77]

Yeah that's the thing.. I dunno what component that little thing powers. Since there's much less solder to connect it with the rest of the card, won't it heat up a lot more under load? I'm really not sure about this. Can anyone tell me for sure if that's okay and what are the risks?

[Tamesh16]

if it did die . respect for our fallen soldier in battle

[JJVGaming]

Well it seems you have an EVGA card, and warranty for it is usually 5 years, so maybe you can explain what happened and they will send you a new card. IF you do this, you could sell that card later on too and you wont have to worry about issues if you DIY fix it.

[Tamesh16]

btw it seems as though a capacitor discharged into a short circuit which explains the spark very well , however it doesnt seem that that connector to that terminal is damaged, so just clean that area and try your luck, if it does work then well great , but if it doesnt , i wouldnt mind trying to solder back that connector, however no promises because it could have damaged other components , unless of course it discharged into the metal back panel, which i assume it was 

[Dunkan77]

Hmm alright I'll check on my warranty for it but I remember if being 2 years and not 5 tho.. I'll still check.

And yes, soldering back on would be a viable thing should I find an iron somewhere. I'll try that but until then, do you recommend me gaming with it? I did still display an image after the spark but yeah, nothing too promising to me. 

What would be the worst that could happen though? Tripping the short protection again? Or something worse..

[Sacriledgy]

4 minutes ago, Dunkan77 said:

Hmm alright I'll check on my warranty for it but I remember if being 2 years and not 5 tho.. I'll still check.

And yes, soldering back on would be a viable thing should I find an iron somewhere. I'll try that but until then, do you recommend me gaming with it? I did still display an image after the spark but yeah, nothing too promising to me. 

What would be the worst that could happen though? Tripping the short protection again? Or something worse..

I wouldn't use it for gaming if i were you. For safety precaution 

 

And I'd just claim the warranty if its still active 

 

P.s: Poor Mosquito 

[Dunkan77]

15 minutes ago, Its Not Important said:

I wouldn't use it for gaming if i were you. For safety precaution

I wasn't going to anyways, I made my mind up. 

15 minutes ago, Its Not Important said:

P.s: Poor Mosquito

Well regarding him.. I poured some isopropyl in a puddle, lit it and cooked him at the tip of the flame. Killed my GPU with fire, it only seemed fair that he suffers the same fate  Ash to ashes, dust to dust as they say. Nothing remains of him.

17 minutes ago, Its Not Important said:

And I'd just claim the warranty if its still active

I'll check later for that, I'm a bit busy rn. Will advise if it's still active and if yes, if EVGA accepts an RMA for it.. until then, rest well 970, it might be the end of the road for you >.<

[Sacriledgy]

1 minute ago, Dunkan77 said:

I wasn't going to anyways, I made my mind up. 

Well regarding him.. I poured some isopropyl in a puddle, lit it and cooked him at the tip of the flame. Killed my GPU with fire, it only seemed fair that he suffers the same fate  Ash to ashes, dust to dust as they say. Nothing remains of him.

I'll check later for that, I'm a bit busy rn. Will advise if it's still active and if yes, if EVGA accepts an RMA for it.. until then, rest well 970, it might be the end of the road for you >.<

I'm impressed that the poor bastard took down a GPU with him

[Clyne]

My GPU blew a cap and still works fine so...I wouldn't worry about it that much.

[Froody129]

I accidently shorted something on my 1060's open PCB, same thing of sparks and PC turning off. After recovering from my heart attack I turned my PC back on and it's fine, I leave it on mining even

[Dunkan77]

33 minutes ago, Froody129 said:

Inaccidently shorted something on my 1060's open PCB, same thing of sparks and PC turning off. After recovering from my heart I turned my PC back on and it's fine, I leave it on mining even

Ooh, that's good news! Yeah I have to recover from the trauma first.. then I'll try turning it on again!

[Dunkan77]

This is probably the final update. I cleaned the residue off with alcohol and I tested the card in-game with power consumption around 160 watts and no shorts, unnatural behaviour or performance drop. I now consider this card to be functional but we never know what other insect might take it down for good next time