Asus DirectCU II 760 just caught on fire!

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lithast

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Nov 27, 2013
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I built a new gaming PC 2 weeks ago and as part of that build I purchased one of these:

Asus GTX760 DirectCU II OC 2GB GDDR5 6008Mhz/ 256 bit / PCI-E 3.0 / DVI-I/ DVI-D/ Display Port 1.2 / HDMI, Base: 1006Mhz Boost: 1072Mhz

Rest of the system:
- i5 4670
- Asrock Z78 Extreme 4
- Coolermaster HAF XM case
- Cooler Master G-600 600w 80+ Bronze Single 12v Rail power supply

The CPU is air cooled with a NH-D14 heatsink, no water cooling or anything like that.Plenty of case airflow, I've never seen the motherboard temp above 35 deg C.

I've never had problems with Asus hardware before and all has run smooth since I built the PC.

After work this afternoon my steam download of Bioshock Infinite finally finished so I sat down to try it out. Ironically just as the "AMD gaming evolved" logo came up on the screen the monitor went blank and the PC shut off instantly. The PC wouldn't power on, it was completely dead apart from the green LED on the graphics card. I went through a process of elimination unplugging the power from the fans, hard drives etc to see if there was a short somewhere that the PSU was detecting and refusing to power on. When I removed the 6+2pin power connection for the graphics card and powered the machine on it started but something crazy happened..

There was the most bizarre sound coming from my case. It's hard to describe but it sounded like when a match first lights, the sound of the ignition but lasting for several seconds. I dive down to the side of my case and I am amazed to see the backside (top) of my graphics card is on fire. I'm not talking about a few flames, I'm talking about a fire that was burning with the same kind of effect you see when you light a sparkler or similar, like a fire trying to eat it's way out of the card with force... if you get my meaning. You can see the scorch marks where it was coming out. I dive to the power cable and it stops right away....

I guess the PSU was able to detect the short in the graphics card when one of the components went and safe it, but was unable to detect the same short when it was just getting some power from the PCI-E slot.



A couple of things to make clear:
- The computer as a whole is OK, I am typing this on the integrated graphics.
- I have one hell of a headache from whatever chemical it released when it burned.
- The card was not overclocked, running at factory speeds.
- There was nothing touching the back of the card, the card in the next slot up is a wireless card which got pretty well toasted (was completely black) but still seems to work OK.

Couple of questions for you guys:
- As the card is less than two weeks old I think I can take it back to the store. Do you guys think I should I try my luck with the store first or contact Asus directly?
- Is there any chance that the graphics card is not the problem here and that this is a symptom of something else? I know it's a long shot I just want to be sure this wont happen again.

I'm also quite scared about this happening again if I get the same card.. wouldn't want this to happen while nobody is home.. or worse somebody is asleep. I was very surprised at the intensity of the fire. I fully expect that if this happened when nobody was home it would have had a very sad ending for my house and my dog.
 
That's pretty crazy, I've never had anything smoke except that one time I plugged a cpu power connector into an MB the wrong way. I was getting ready to upgrade it anyway so it didn't matter much. Anyway, what store did you buy it from? Generally your chances are much better with them than ASUS, though it depends on who. If it's Microcenter, take it back in a heartbeat. They'll take care of you.
 
I got it from a local store in sleepy old Perth, Australia (Austin Computers if you are from the area). I'll take it back to them tomorrow and see what they have to say I guess.

I think my preference would be to swap it for another brand of the same card with similar value rather than get another Asus.
 
Definitely contact ASUS as well, I'm sure someone there would be interested to know this happened.
 
There are 2 possibilities for this malfunction:
Either the GPU is faulty, or your PSU. I can't tell which one has the problem, but you have to consider the fact that you have bought top quality cpu/mobo/gpu (*at least at theory!!), and you are providing these top quallity products with power from a very cheap psu like the CM G600.
You have to consider, that Coolermaster itself has categorised this psu series at the "office/home" category, and not at the " gaming " nor the "enthusiast" category at its site: (*i tried to find a review about your psu, but i didn't find anything)
http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/powersupply/office-home-g-series/g600.html
I'm not saying that the psu is the problem, i'm saying that it is not suitable psu for such a high end pc that you have bought.
 
Sith'ari said:
There are 2 possibilities for this malfunction:
Either the GPU is faulty, or your PSU. I can't tell which one has the problem, but you have to consider the fact that you have bought top quality cpu/mobo/gpu (*at least at theory!!), and you are providing these top quallity products with power from a very cheap psu like the CM G600.
You have to consider, that Coolermaster itself has categorised this psu series at the "office/home" category, and not at the " gaming " nor the "enthusiast" category at its site: (*i tried to find a review about your psu, but i didn't find anything)
http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/powersupply/office-home-g-series/g600.html
I'm not saying that the psu is the problem, i'm saying that it is not suitable psu for such a high end pc that you have bought.
Click to expand...

Ok, fair call I guess.

I must admit that I didn't take the PSU into consideration too much since I was dealing with a single card that draws a max of ~170w and even with the full system I would not expect it to be pulling more than 300-350w from the 600w power supply, which would seem to be OK?

Edit: Looking at their "gamer" model it the GX-650 it seems to have very, very similar features and specifications as the more basic G-600 one.Is there something else that I am missing here?
 
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lithast said:
Ok, fair call I guess.

I must admit that I didn't take the PSU into consideration too much since I was dealing with a single card that draws a max of ~170w and even with the full system I would not expect it to be pulling more than 300-350w from the 600w power supply, which would seem to be OK? Is there something else that I am missing here?
Click to expand...

Sometimes we must not only care about the pure numbers (*such as the psu's wattage capabillitiy), but we must also consider the build quallity as well, and from a psu that costs 60$, i wouldn't expect to have quallity components inside.
I could be wrong of course since i am not psu mechanic, i'm just thinking as a consumer. (*and as i mentioned above, i didn't find a review about this psu to get info)
 
Sith'ari said:
There are 2 possibilities for this malfunction:
Either the GPU is faulty, or your PSU. I can't tell which one has the problem, but you have to consider the fact that you have bought top quality cpu/mobo/gpu (*at least at theory!!), and you are providing these top quallity products with power from a very cheap psu like the CM G600.
You have to consider, that Coolermaster itself has categorised this psu series at the "office/home" category, and not at the " gaming " nor the "enthusiast" category at its site: (*i tried to find a review about your psu, but i didn't find anything)
http://www.coolermaster.com/product/Detail/powersupply/office-home-g-series/g600.html
I'm not saying that the psu is the problem, i'm saying that it is not suitable psu for such a high end pc that you have bought.
Click to expand...

I think he said this happened after he removed the extra power connector from the GFX card, I'm kind of wondering if him doing that screwed up the card somehow (lack of ground somewhere or something...?). Because it didn't catch fire until that happened. Granted they really should foresee the user not having his cords in all the way on a startup or something. That's a really embarrassing design mistake... and I really doubt that's the reason.

Also I notice in the picture how it seems to be that the black is mostly centered around a screw... I wonder if that's a coincidence or not.

Also, I've used way worse PSU's than that without having issues, in the past.
 
Take it to the store, Asus will find a reason to tell you to pound sand. Removing the PCI-E connector (unless the machine was running at the time of the action) should not result in flames, either no display/POST or on some high end cards a nice little message on your screen telling you to power off and plug it in is about the extent of it.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
I think he said this happened after he removed the extra power connector from the GFX card, I'm kind of wondering if him doing that screwed up the card somehow (lack of ground somewhere or something...?). Because it didn't catch fire until that happened. Granted they really should foresee the user not having his cords in all the way on a startup or something. That's a really embarrassing design mistake... and I really doubt that's the reason.

Also I notice in the picture how it seems to be that the black is mostly centered around a screw... I wonder if that's a coincidence or not.

Also, I've used way worse PSU's than that without having issues, in the past.
Click to expand...

It's possible, but I suspect it went something like this;
- One of those components in the are on fire failed and let to a short while Bioshock was loading
- The PSU detected the short circuit because it was connected to the card at the time with the 6+2pin connector and cut the power to the system. This would make sense because I remember when it shut off it was like a power failure, just sudden silence. I thought I had tripped a safety switch in the house at first.
- The system would not power on with the 6+2pin connector in because of the short being detected.
- When the 6+2pin connector was removed the PSU was unable to detect a short any longer because power was being routed to the card through the motherboards PCI-E slot (I hope that the PCI-E slot is still OK :confused:)
- System powers on, the power going to the card from the PCI-E slot is enough to cause a fire at the point of the short circuit.

The screw is there as from the factory, the card literally went from the box into the machine and has not been touched or run outside default settings.
 
Ok, thanks guys. It was an eye opener to see that 2 Asus cards have suffered a similar fate :eek:

I'll take it back to the retailer tomorrow and see how we go.
 
lithast said:
After work this afternoon my steam download of Bioshock Infinite finally finished so I sat down to try it out. Ironically just as the "AMD gaming evolved" logo came up on the screen the monitor went blank and the PC shut off instantly...

...I am amazed to see the backside (top) of my graphics card is on fire. I'm not talking about a few flames, I'm talking about a fire that was burning
.
Click to expand...

Finally we know what mantle does and how it's going to help AMD outperform nvidia cards.

If you have to RMA through ASUS I would go at them hard from the get go. Let them know that their product nearly burnt down your house with your children and grandma inside. Maybe they will be reasonable, but they seemed pretty tough on the bloke in the link above.
 
I do believe that there is a warning sticker on the static bags or packaging of most graphics cards these days that warns not to power the card up without the PCI-E cables connected. Normally it just wouldn't boot up. But in a situation like this the following scenario has happened before exactly.

I want to point out that this may point at cheap single rail PSUs being less safe for connected components than multi-rail.

I don't know a ton about this stuff but I read somewhere that the single-rail thing is partly a marketing ploy that has a lot more to do with single rails being cheaper to manufacture than it does them being much better for the avg. end-user. A multi-rail PSU would not have been able to send above a certain total wattage to the CPU/PCIE or motherboard because they all have separate power widths. Would like more info but not really feeling like researching it.
 
Bluesun311 said:
I don't know a ton about this stuff but I read somewhere that the single-rail thing is partly a marketing ploy that has a lot more to do with single rails being cheaper to manufacture than it does them being much better for the avg. end-user. A multi-rail PSU would not have been able to send above a certain total wattage to the CPU/PCIE or motherboard because they all have separate power widths. Would like more info but not really feeling like researching it.
Click to expand...

Not particularly, multi-rail PSU's often suffer from problematic OCP, as one of the multiple rails can load much, much higher than it should before it trips. In a case like OP's it may not have shut down at all where a single rail will almost always shut down when there is a short. Both designs have their advantages and disadvantages, the only marketing ploy is one that advertises as the other.
 
Bummer OP, hopefully they don't try to bend you over. I almost pulled the trigger on this exact card for my kids rig last week. Then I remember the forum user who had the same situation as you. I went with Gigabyte instead.

Good luck.
 
I have some pretty solid rights under Aussie consumer law so hopefully I can get it sorted out today. I'm hoping to swap it for the Gigabyte card instead.
 
Let us know how you go with the retailer. I'm from the NT and get all my parts interstate, but have never dealt with Austin before.
 
An Asus GPU? Check.
Random Fire? Check.
ASUS Screwing You Aound For Months? 99% Check.

I want to say I am surprised to see this happened to an Asus branded card, but I honestly am not..I am starting to wonder if they are using some super cheap ICs for the voltage regulation..Something is causing this to happen, that is for sure..

The other possibility is that they are having the cards manufactured by some random Chinese subcontractor and they are using shoddy components with (or without) Asus knowing and turning a blind eye toward it..

I know that I have stood by my pledge to not buy another single Asus product until I see their CS improve a Million percent. I hope the shop you purchased the card from ends up covering things for you, but I have a feeling it is going to be a tough sell to explain that it just "randomly caught on fire"...

Goodluck OP.
 
So I managed to get it replaced, but it was a bit of a battle.

The service department tried to push me off to Asus and initially wouldn't take it back. I had to make a bit of a scene and remind them that Australian law is very clear in this area, and that they were legally obligated to remedy the situation directly (which is all true). Eventually the store manager agreed on a credit note for the full price of the card.

They didn't have a direct replacement in stock so I decided to pay a little bit more for an upgrade:



The whole incident freaked me out enough that I also decided to replace the power supply with a much higher quality unit and invest in a surge protector. The protector is neat because it has a earth light so I have been able to verify the wiring in my house is OK, which is a big relief because the house is 40 years old.

I probably went a bit overboard but at least I have peace of mind. Happy ending for me, thanks for the advice guys.
 
Glad that got resolved fast with the store. You'll like the 770.
 
lithast said:
..The whole incident freaked me out enough that I also decided to replace the power supply with a much higher quality unit and invest in a surge protector. The protector is neat because it has a earth light so I have been able to verify the wiring in my house is OK, which is a big relief because the house is 40 years old.

I probably went a bit overboard but at least I have peace of mind. Happy ending for me, thanks for the advice guys.
Click to expand...

You should get a good Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that has voltage regulation. You should be able to get around 1000va around $100usd equiv.

Here's an example, and at a very good price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101421
 
Glad to hear you got it sorted out. I can't imagine what could have happened if you hadn't noticed the fire in your computer. I'm pretty sure the store or asus wouldn't warranty replace your house.
 
LigTasm said:
Glad that got resolved fast with the store. You'll like the 770.
Click to expand...

I do like the 770 :D

My 3DMark11 score jumped from 7900ish with the 760 to 10200 with the 770. I'm really impressed with it to be honest, the Asus card was virtually silent but this one is actually silent and just shy of 25% faster.

Plus, there is also the fact that it has not caught on fire yet :)
 
Congrats, OP - on not having to deal with ASUS. Won't get another one of their products again, I assume? :D
 
Hello there.

My asus DirectCU II 760 just suffered the EXACT same fate as yours:mad::mad:. Just wanna know if your motherboards was damaged - or any other components?

Cheers
 
I have a Tripp-Lite Omni VS1500 battery backup which has AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator). It worked well for over 6 years, replaced the batteries, still works.

It might be more expensive than most UPS but my Belkin power bar did nothing to stop me from losing RAM when I had power outages. The Tripp-Lite UPS put a stop to that.
 
J Macker said:
You should get a good Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that has voltage regulation. You should be able to get around 1000va around $100usd equiv.

Here's an example, and at a very good price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101421
Click to expand...

So I clicked your link which took me to a Forum link to Amazon which I also clicked on and the I read the description of the UPS.

I was amused to see that the UPS was not for sale to Catalina Island. What's up with that?
 
Couple of ideas on what happened to card.

Idea 1...
Think of electricity a bit like water. It will flow to the path of least resistance. From the pictures what I see is that there was probably a arc from the board to the screw and I believe if that screw was over-tightened that if pulled, the little washer is pushed out of the way as the board heated up (starting the game) and pulled the screw too close to the board thus the arc. Possibly a large current-load could make the arc happen as well.

Idea 2...
Probably a dying GPU, but when you pulled the 6+2 pins and pushed power button you lacked enough grounding that the card arc'ed to the screw that had the closest grounding spot.

Either way it did sound like the Over-current/Over-volt protection was working on the PSU to shut it down as something happened.


This intrigued me to post as I just received the same card today from amazon for SLI with a MSI GTX 760. I think it might be good check tension on the screws here shortly, even install a 2nd washer :)
 
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lithast said:
So I managed to get it replaced, but it was a bit of a battle.

The service department tried to push me off to Asus and initially wouldn't take it back. I had to make a bit of a scene and remind them that Australian law is very clear in this area, and that they were legally obligated to remedy the situation directly (which is all true). Eventually the store manager agreed on a credit note for the full price of the card.
Click to expand...

Don't you just love dishonest service managers (...most of them are) who must know the relevant AU consumer laws yet theyl nearly always try to put the responsibility back on the customer in seeking product warranty via the OEM :rolleyes:

Your lucky you bought locally, otherwise you would have had to post back @ your own expense and wait for the retailer to deny you warranty (which I am quite certain they would have done) and then you could look forward to dealing with the ANUS* warrant dept+

*Yes, I've been burnt by them

+using asus and warranty in the same sentence is an oxymoron
 
My brother's 760 from Asus had the same issue after about a month. It's just a faulty batch whose power delivery MOSFETS are way out of whack drawing too much current through the card. That's why the PSU tripped out and the computer would not initially turn back on - but when unplugged and left to be powered through the PCI-e slot, it fried. My brother has since been using the 760 he got from the Asus RMA with no issues (6 months after the initial card fried).

Glad to hear you guys got it resolved, I haven't personally had a problem with Asus but I guess some guys do. Most of the complaints I see are on MoBos and the manufacturer (any manufacturer, not just Asus) always default to the "You bent the pins in the socket." No issues with their other products though.
 
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