[Fire] URGENT Rig shutdown just now with a flame, how to find fault ?

C892

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Quote from: toddlat on March 04, 2014, 04:58:35 AM

Did you ever get to the bottom of this @heretolearn ? I have the same problem but I'm running 3x Sapphire 280x. I believe the advice about VBE7 is the best - cards with older BIOS installed don't seem to have the same problems, as they run around 10C cooler than the same hardware with newer BIOS installed. Basically, any undervolt needs to come from the BIOS and not an application like trixx, or the cards throw a fit.

The other possibility is that the motherboard isn't delivering the right amount of power to the cards all of the time, MSI is not an expensive brand, they are a relatively young company in terms of their competition. I have been having the same issue as you, and my Asrock board is definitely a possible factor.

Does this ring true with anyone else lurking here?

I am. I also had an spark coming out from one GPU. The riser burned. Righ now I'm planning to change all the powered risers, since the molex once in a while disconnects by itself.
I tried to direct connect he molex but the rig continues to shutdown. I believe that is the molex that isn't passing any power.

About the GPU despite the spark nothing changes. Everything seems to be working ok.
Running 4x Sapphire 280x @ 1090mhz engine, 1.175v bios

toddlat

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Did you ever get to the bottom of this @heretolearn ? I have the same problem but I'm running 3x Sapphire 280x. I believe the advice about VBE7 is the best - cards with older BIOS installed don't seem to have the same problems, as they run around 10C cooler than the same hardware with newer BIOS installed. Basically, any undervolt needs to come from the BIOS and not an application like trixx, or the cards throw a fit.

The other possibility is that the motherboard isn't delivering the right amount of power to the cards all of the time, MSI is not an expensive brand, they are a relatively young company in terms of their competition. I have been having the same issue as you, and my Asrock board is definitely a possible factor.

Does this ring true with anyone else lurking here?

heretolearn

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Ok so since I am almost going crazy as to what is happening .. I tried to see if the 7950 card works with mining .. turns out that the "sensors" tab in GPU-z was showing a lesser reading when not mining for GPU core and GPU memory clocks ... when I started mining with the 7950 it showed proper reading of 925 MHz and 1250 Mhz which is default and now after stopping mining it still shows the same.

Is this normal ?

TLDR : Is GPU-z "sensors" value for GPU core and GPU memory same as that specified for the card when the computer starts compared to when its mining ? cause mine is way different

heretolearn

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Quote from: dgross0818 on January 21, 2014, 02:20:57 AM

The sparks / fires are usually caused by ripple capacitors for the VRAM exploding on startup :] I've had 2 Gigabyte 7950's do this so far, however, they both still work fine.

It's always the same... the rig shuts down without warning, then when you turn it back on... BOOM...

The good news is I never had an issue (so far) with rigs exploding while running.

I've had it happen on both powered and unpowered risers... usually the issue is just poor PCB layout in that not enough cooling air gets to this part of the board.

I've also destroyed 1 Mobo when this occurred and the other Mobo lost a PCI-E slot so be careful...

Ok one more spark and now I can see that a 280x has a capacitor blown .. I can see the carbon !!

Now the problem is that the other 2 cards (one 7950 and one 280x are plugged in ) .. both are showing in GPU-z :
GPU Core Clock : 300 MHz
GPU Memory Clock : 150 MHz

This is clearly not what it was earlier. However the sapphiretrixx shows proper clocks for memory and core clock readings that had come with the cards.

Are the cards dead ? Should I still try to mine with the cards ? Why the discrepancy between GPU-z and sapphiretrix ? Or is the PCI-e slot gone ?

Now I'm really scared about the cards , don't have the courage to even try mining with the remaining 2 cards .. what should I do ? All cards and mobo are under warranty.

Please Please Please help !!

dgross0818

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The sparks / fires are usually caused by ripple capacitors for the VRAM exploding on startup :] I've had 2 Gigabyte 7950's do this so far, however, they both still work fine.

It's always the same... the rig shuts down without warning, then when you turn it back on... BOOM...

The good news is I never had an issue (so far) with rigs exploding while running.

I've had it happen on both powered and unpowered risers... usually the issue is just poor PCB layout in that not enough cooling air gets to this part of the board.

I've also destroyed 1 Mobo when this occurred and the other Mobo lost a PCI-E slot so be careful...

heretolearn

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Shutdown this time after 12 hours and did not restart .. now will try without a 280x and see if it shutsdown .. wish there was a better way to diagnose .. this is getting too risky now .. since I do not know even which card it is.

If you too happen to find a solution let me know .. still desperately looking for a solution .. dont want my Mobo to get fried.

PeerMedia

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I'm going through the same thing, I now have 2 fire extinguishers and 2 smoke detectors next to my rigs. Doesn't bring comfort when I'm not home though. I've been fortunate in that the first time I just had a spark and second time I had a small fire but in both cases it was when turning on the rig. So if I come home and find the rig off and it wasn't a power failure, my heart just races at trying to turn it on and hope it doesn't blow up. Not what I had hoped for when I got into mining. It does seem that the mobo or PSU does power down the rig when there's an electrical fault however, I just have no idea how to fix it other than turning it on and hoping for the best.

heretolearn

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Quote from: PeerMedia on January 20, 2014, 09:47:04 AM

I would love to know the fault as well but there's no way I'm trying to plug this back in again, its going back for sure as a full out fire started in the card. There's visible damage on the actual card of where the flames burst out from. Really scary situation and I'm grateful it happened when I was home.

Well it just happened to shutdown and restart again ... don't know if there were flames or not since I wasn't looking towards it this time .. I will leave it running through the night and if I find it has shutdown and restarted again then I will stop all mining I guess or try it with 2 cards at a time.

Now its getting more scary than exciting Sad

PeerMedia

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Quote from: heretolearn on January 20, 2014, 12:08:41 AM

Quote from: PeerMedia on January 19, 2014, 12:55:34 PM

The fire I had recently happened from off-state to when I turned it on (although it shouldn't have been off, it seemed to have crashed or powered down and not due to a power failure). Just 5 weeks old, definitely no dust and no pets/hair, with open rig and external fan. I'm almost certain its not a dust issue as it was really new. The rig I have was running at 82c and was 2 XFX 7950's Double D's, from what I've read they aren't a good miners card, but they should not be catching fire. I've stopped overclocking and brought the temp down to 79c and will be RMA'ing the one that caught on fire as that thing is not going near my PC ever again!

Even mine is about 5 weeks old or so and cards are sapphire brand, so I am also starting to doubt whether its because of dust balls.

About you RMAing it : don't you need to pinpoint some fault in the card as a reason to do it ? I mean is your card actually burnt .. can you see it ? cause I can't see it on mine (I have just seen superficially though and could not see any carbon marks).

I want to know how I can pinpoint the fault in the card(s) so that atleast when I take it to the shop to return/replace I should be able to tell them what the fault is.

So still no definitive answers yet.

I would love to know the fault as well but there's no way I'm trying to plug this back in again, its going back for sure as a full out fire started in the card. There's visible damage on the actual card of where the flames burst out from. Really scary situation and I'm grateful it happened when I was home.

heretolearn

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Quote from: cdog on January 20, 2014, 12:33:51 AM

280x will blow out caps sometimes, it will probably still mine fine after (its kinda scary/exciting though)

+1 for scary/exciting ..thats for sure

How do I check if the capacitor is blown though ? any idea/simple way ? I'm not that much of a techie.

cdog

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280x will blow out caps sometimes, it will probably still mine fine after (its kinda scary/exciting though)

heretolearn

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Quote from: PeerMedia on January 19, 2014, 12:55:34 PM

The fire I had recently happened from off-state to when I turned it on (although it shouldn't have been off, it seemed to have crashed or powered down and not due to a power failure). Just 5 weeks old, definitely no dust and no pets/hair, with open rig and external fan. I'm almost certain its not a dust issue as it was really new. The rig I have was running at 82c and was 2 XFX 7950's Double D's, from what I've read they aren't a good miners card, but they should not be catching fire. I've stopped overclocking and brought the temp down to 79c and will be RMA'ing the one that caught on fire as that thing is not going near my PC ever again!

Even mine is about 5 weeks old or so and cards are sapphire brand, so I am also starting to doubt whether its because of dust balls.

About you RMAing it : don't you need to pinpoint some fault in the card as a reason to do it ? I mean is your card actually burnt .. can you see it ? cause I can't see it on mine (I have just seen superficially though and could not see any carbon marks).

I want to know how I can pinpoint the fault in the card(s) so that atleast when I take it to the shop to return/replace I should be able to tell them what the fault is.

So still no definitive answers yet.

PeerMedia

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Quote from: Gator-hex on January 19, 2014, 06:23:26 AM

Quote

Did you find the source of the fire? I recently had one on my 7950 XFX DoubleD catch fire on startup (power on) and can't really figure out what happened

Fires are caused by dust balls building up in the PSU, CPU and GPU heatsink and fans. Buy a can of compressed air and clean them out once a month. Put a smoke alarm near your equipment and never place equipment where fire can spread, near curtains etc.

The fire I had recently happened from off-state to when I turned it on (although it shouldn't have been off, it seemed to have crashed or powered down and not due to a power failure). Just 5 weeks old, definitely no dust and no pets/hair, with open rig and external fan. I'm almost certain its not a dust issue as it was really new. The rig I have was running at 82c and was 2 XFX 7950's Double D's, from what I've read they aren't a good miners card, but they should not be catching fire. I've stopped overclocking and brought the temp down to 79c and will be RMA'ing the one that caught on fire as that thing is not going near my PC ever again!

heretolearn

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Quote from: Gator-hex on January 19, 2014, 09:32:10 AM

Quote

Although your theory seems very plausible and it may very well be because of the dust balls, reason being: the fire has not recurred since I have not overclocked and the rig is running at close to 77 C, i e , 3-5 C less than it was when overclocked. Maybe that might be the critical temperature for dustballs to ignite, who knows lol.

Trust me it's more than a theory. I've worked in server rooms most of my life. Seen many fires. They're all caused by idiots overloading cables or poor maintenance (dust build up). I've seen power supplies shooting flames like flame throwers several feet out the fan exhaust! Cheesy

Hmm im not doubting your honesty or intention. I appreciate all your help buddy, thanks for that. But however if it was of dustballs then in that case 2 questions arise :
1) Why did it not happen again without overclocking ? possible reason: it may be that that the dust bulls got burnt in the first 2 instances or flames perhaps.
2) Why did it not happen again without cleaning it ? possible reason : maybe it wasn't because of the dust balls in the first place perhaps.

So thats why I am calling it a "theory" for now, until further evidence either way. But sure I got to give it to you - its the most "plausible theory". And to test that I will wait another 24 hours and then clean it with compressed air perhaps, cause I have a feeling it wont give flames. Lets see again thats just my "intuition/theory".

Gator-hex

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Quote

Although your theory seems very plausible and it may very well be because of the dust balls, reason being: the fire has not recurred since I have not overclocked and the rig is running at close to 77 C, i e , 3-5 C less than it was when overclocked. Maybe that might be the critical temperature for dustballs to ignite, who knows lol.

Trust me it's more than a theory. I've worked in server rooms most of my life. Seen many fires. They're all caused by idiots overloading cables or poor maintenance (dust build up). I've seen power supplies shooting flames like flame throwers several feet out the fan exhaust! Cheesy

heretolearn

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Quote from: jamesc760 on January 19, 2014, 09:12:51 AM

What brand of motherboard and vid cards are you using? Asrock motherboards are KNOWN to cause fire when used with multiple vid cards for mining. Lesser brand vid cards have poor heat ventilation designs.

You mentioned problem with your silverstone psu: replace the psu with a quality one (corsair) ASAP. Additionally, if your motherboard is ASROCK, replace it with a quality one (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc...) ASAP.

Your problem is HARDWARE, NOT SOFTWARE: no amount of fiddling in software will fix it. FIX your hardware and then tweak your software.

Mobo : MSI Z87-GD65 ... i think its a good one .. doubt whether the problem is due to that.

About silverstone PSU : isnt that a well known brand ? Anyways have to take it for repair/replacement because of 2 burnt ports (but that I think was more due to the connection being loose). But i am thinking of running it for now as long as I can .

heretolearn

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Also one thing I have noticed is that the VDDC on GPU-z fluctuates + 0.006 V and very rarely by + 0.012 V with avg voltage being around :

1.087 V for 7950
1.019 V for 280x no 1
1.050 for 280x no 2 (gives more hashes see in pic)

not sure if his is relevant.

jamesc760

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What brand of motherboard and vid cards are you using? Asrock motherboards are KNOWN to cause fire when used with multiple vid cards for mining. Lesser brand vid cards have poor heat ventilation designs.

You mentioned problem with your silverstone psu: replace the psu with a quality one (corsair) ASAP. Additionally, if your motherboard is ASROCK, replace it with a quality one (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc...) ASAP.

Your problem is HARDWARE, NOT SOFTWARE: no amount of fiddling in software will fix it. FIX your hardware and then tweak your software.

heretolearn

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Merit: 101

Quote from: Gator-hex on January 19, 2014, 06:23:26 AM

Fires are caused by dust balls building up in the PSU, CPU and GPU heatsink and fans. Buy a can of compressed air and clean them out once a month. Put a smoke alarm near your equipment and never place equipment where fire can spread, near curtains etc.

I am not sure if it was because of the dustballs near the GPU (because I saw the flame from the GPU section only), reason being : it happened twice in 2 days, so I am not sure it was because of the dustballs.

Although your theory seems very plausible and it may very well be because of the dust balls, reason being: the fire has not recurred since I have not overclocked and the rig is running at close to 77 C, i e , 3-5 C less than it was when overclocked. Maybe that might be the critical temperature for dustballs to ignite, who knows lol.

Anyways taking the advice of cleaning with compressed air seems good eitherways and wont hurt, it has been on my mind for the past 5-10 days, but now you saying it has pushed me to go ahead and do it, so thanks buddy for shaking off my laziness

heretolearn

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Quote from: PeerMedia on January 19, 2014, 01:02:50 AM

Did you find the source of the fire? I recently had one on my 7950 XFX DoubleD catch fire on startup (power on) and can't really figure out what happened, my temps were 80-81c which doesn't seem too bad.

Hi,

No I could not find the source of the fire. Can't seem to figure out how to go about doing it Sad

. Although I am not overclocking now and once every 8-12 hours or so I am shutting it doewn fro about 15 mins or so and draining out power by taking out the plug. It seems to be working fine now but I am getting about 15% less hashrate Sad

. But ill take that anyday compared to not running one of my cards.

Topic: [Fire] URGENT Rig shutdown just now with a flame, how to find fault ? (Read 3167 times)