My Classified just went up in smoke - literally!

[yenniedn]

I just spent most of tonight transferring the system in my signature into a new Silverstone Raven case. I had just put the last finishing touches on cleaning up the wiring and it was looking really good. I was all excited to power everything up to see how well the cooling setup worked on this case and as soon as I plugged in the power cable on my Corsair HX1000W PSU, thick white smoke and a foul burning smell started coming from the motherboard!!!

I quickly yanked the power cord out - hoping and praying that my entire system wasn't being fried in front of my eyes!!! It was a sickening feeling to imagine all that hand-picked (and not cheap) hardware becoming toast and not being able to do anything about it!

I thought maybe the new (steel) case was shorting out the mobo so I took everything out of the case, put the board on a cardboard box, unplugged the rest of the components and was going to boot up with the bare minimum 1 stick of RAM and one GPU. As soon as I plugged the power cord in, same sh*t . . . white smoke and the horrible smell of expensive computer equipment apparently being burnt/melted!!! And this is while sitting on a cardboard box (so the case was not the problem)!

I called EVGA Tech Support - they said nothing they can do about it so I should just initiate an RMA. So I did that and now get to wait to receive a new board. Thank goodness I got the pre-paid advanced RMA on this board!

But while I've got a $400+ hot plate sitting in front of me, I wanted to see what the hell was going on. So I plugged it in again to see what was causing the smoke. Turns out the smoke is coming from the heatsink where the red pulsating "e" logo is. Of course the board won't even power on now so it's pretty clear that it's dead. I'm just hoping the rest of my gear isn't fried as well. The smoke/smell seems to be localized at the heatsink so I would think the rest of my hardware is fine - but I'll be all sorts of pissed if I later find that this episode caused damage to any other component!

Anyways, I've been building my own systems for almost ten years and am generally very careful with my toys - so needless to say this crap has never happened to me before. Does anyone have any idea what the heck happened here? What would've caused this? I mean this is the top-of-the-line $400 Classified board, not some $30 piece of crap board!!!

Here's a blurry photo I took showing the smoke (there was more smoke than what shows up in the photo but it was hard to capture on film especially with the bad lighting at this time of day):

 

[Nenu]

Bad luck!
I hope your RMA goes smoothly.
Thanks for the piccy.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

its possible just a lose wire thats shorting out on the heatsink.. have you tried taking off that plastic cover on the top of the heatsink to see whats shorting under it?

 

[yenniedn]

its possible just a lose wire thats shorting out on the heatsink.. have you tried taking off that plastic cover on the top of the heatsink to see whats shorting under it?

If a $400 motherboard can catch fire, anything's possible. I'll check it out tomorrow and see if this is the case. Thanks for the suggestion.

After a long, frustrating night of hard work wasted, it's time to get some sleep!

edit: even if I find a short under there and replace the wire, would that solve the problem? After all the smoke and crap that's been coming off this board tonight, I'm not sure I want to use it full time considering all of the money I've got invested in my other components. I'd hate to have the damned system catch on fire one day when I'm not home!!!

 

[sirmonkey1985]

If a $400 motherboard can catch fire, anything's possible. I'll check it out tomorrow and see if this is the case. Thanks for the suggestion.

After a long, frustrating night of hard work wasted, it's time to get some sleep!

edit: even if I find a short under there and replace the wire, would that solve the problem? After all the smoke and crap that's been coming off this board tonight, I'm not sure I want to use it full time considering all of the money I've got invested in my other components. I'd hate to have the damned system catch on fire one day when I'm not home!!!

if its just coming from that one spot on the heatsink and not the rest of the board.. its possible.. might as well try it before ya ship it to evga.. though id still rma the board.. but atleast if it does work then you know nothing else is damaged..

 

[yenniedn]

if its just coming from that one spot on the heatsink and not the rest of the board.. its possible.. might as well try it before ya ship it to evga.. though id still rma the board.. but atleast if it does work then you know nothing else is damaged..

I took a quick look before heading off to go to bed and the plastic cap doesn't seem too easy to remove . . . BUT there is a header for the "e" LED that is under the heatsink. I'll unplug the wires from that header tomorrow morning and try to "fire" (bad pun totally intended) the board up tomorrow without the pulsating LED connected and see if the problem still persists. Again, thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Alchemy1]

That wire just hooks up to the LED in the heatsink. From the picture it looks like the smoke is coming from in between the VREG and the I/O.

 

[yenniedn]

Monkey, Sir, you were spot on. Unplugging the LED for the NB heatsink brought the board back to life this morning with no smoke or burning smell. It just POST'ed and I got into the BIOS just fine. EVGA already approved my RMA for a new board (gotta love EVGA service!) so I'm going to re-assemble everything (minus the NB LED) and see if everything still works as normal. And if so, I may just have them replace the faulty NB heatsink/LED assembly.

 

[magoo]

I think I'd RMA the board anyway............

If the NB header could be FUBAR'd imagine what else could be ascew...

You got the cross shipping deal anyway, use it.

Which model of the Classified did you buy, by the way??

 

[vengence]

if it was me, I'd tell them to go ahead and send a complete replacement anyways. I know I'd sleep better at night that way. Sadly, it's often the flashy add on thingies that cause major problems on nice boards like this. From the sound of it, it shouldn't have hurt anything else in your system. Good luck!

 

[Alchemy1]

Wow, that's great to hear that it appears to be something minor that didn't effect any of your hardware. I'm sure EVGA will have your new board out in no time.

 

[mike_j_johnson]

I hate to say this, but I read about someone else on the eVGA forums that had their Classified catch fire too. I think it was in a totally different spot though.

Almost makes me not want to buy the X58 SLI LE now....

At least eVGA has top-of-the-line customer service.

EDIT: Looks like you posted there and the dude replied LOL! ...here is his post for the [H] folks to see http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100699616

 

[Nenu]

I'm disgusted at the response from EVGA Europe, they simply stopped responding.
There are numerous guys in that thread with Classified motherboards that have set on fire!
Looks like the EVGA X58 SLI LE Classified is a potential house burning lemon and the after sales service isnt much better, especially given the severity of the problem.

As I live in Europe, this has served as a dire warning.

 

[mike_j_johnson]

Okay, so I admit the last time I bought eVGA was when the 8800GTX came out (and in the USA). I just noticed a bunch of threads about how bad their customer service has gotten now.....ugh...that really sucks! Looks like I may stay away from them now =/

Looks like their boards are catching on fire and also having problems with CPU pins falling out. Who is the OEM for their boards???

 

[eth0s]

Last year there were a bunch of problems with defective eVga 790i SLI boards. I got one of those lemons, and it caused big problems including data corruption on your hard drive requiring re-install of Windont's, but at least it never caught fire! (LOLz) But eVga RMA'd the POS board they sent me and the replacement has been excellent. IMHO, eVga designs excellent products, but they have HORRIBLE manufacturing QC (quality control). It seems like they are continuing to ship out defective merchandise to their customers, and shifting the burden onto the customer to sort out the rejects from the good boards, instead of doing it at the factory like a responsible vendor should.

 

[bluehaze013]

Hope your RMA goes well, EVGA is really screwing this guy over here in this thread with a burned CPU socket: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100743740 Starting to see posts like this couple tmies a week over on the EVGA forums and i've recently had some problems with them myself lately. Thier support does not seem to be anywhere near what it used to be.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

Monkey, Sir, you were spot on. Unplugging the LED for the NB heatsink brought the board back to life this morning with no smoke or burning smell. It just POST'ed and I got into the BIOS just fine. EVGA already approved my RMA for a new board (gotta love EVGA service!) so I'm going to re-assemble everything (minus the NB LED) and see if everything still works as normal. And if so, I may just have them replace the faulty NB heatsink/LED assembly.

nice good to see i was right.. probably was causing some crazy power surge in the system which was causing it to shut off.. but atleast now we know how to fix it the next time this happens to some one else..

as for the people talking about evga's customer service.. ive never had an issue with them.. the people that are complaining about EVGA's service are usually idiots that have no idea how to talk to customer service reps and are being assholes to them.. when your an asshole to them.. do you expect them to ever give a crap? because if i was the rep id just hang up on their asses..

 

[leSLIe]

smoking...literally

 

[magoo]

Hope your RMA goes well, EVGA is really screwing this guy over here in this thread with a burned CPU socket: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100743740 Starting to see posts like this couple tmies a week over on the EVGA forums and i've recently had some problems with them myself lately. Thier support does not seem to be anywhere near what it used to be.

That is an EPIC thread............Cryptospartin got hosed unless EVGA comes back and proves it wrong........That guy is an experienced builder, there is no way he took a screwdriver to his MB.

From reading the EVGA forums, which of course are going to be a biased sample......the Classified has had it fair share of problems for something so expensive.............I've been lucky, mine so far has been rock solid. I will also admit, I had my first EVGA X58 SLI board arrive DOA and the EVGA CS was excellent, and have been to me ever since.

I wish I knew how many Classified boards have been sold, to get some idea of the failure rate.

 

[akotlar]

Hope your RMA goes well, EVGA is really screwing this guy over here in this thread with a burned CPU socket: http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100743740 Starting to see posts like this couple tmies a week over on the EVGA forums and i've recently had some problems with them myself lately. Thier support does not seem to be anywhere near what it used to be.

Same experience for me. Had to get the director of their customer service division on the phone before anything got accomplished.

 

[akotlar]

to be honest, after reading that thread I'm never buying another EVGA product. my cs experience with them sucked but at least joe darwin squared me away. however this guy is getting fucked, and this is how companies burn their customer base. the video card game is LARGELY based on the customer service backing it, and EVGA just discredited (to a degree) their only real selling point. Thanks for playing EVGA, going XFX next round.

edit that to: the "electronics reseller game"

 

[Appa]

Wow...to all the eVGA haters out there just remember...people come to forums MAINLY to COMPLAIN. For every negative (and one sided mind you) post you see there are MANY more positives.

I've used eVGA for over 5 years and have had nothing but positive things to say.

 

[akotlar]

Wow...to all the eVGA haters out there just remember...people come to forums MAINLY to COMPLAIN. For every negative (and one sided mind you) post you see there are MANY more positives.

I've used eVGA for over 5 years and have had nothing but positive things to say.

well man, so what? THAT'S THE PRESS THE COMPANY IS GETTING. dude of course people spread more bad word of mouth than good. it's not the internet its just life in general. but eVGA should RECOGNIZE THAT, as the best companies do, and avoid doing things that piss off the 5% of people that scare of 30% of potential customers.

in this case they acted completely unprofessionally.

 

[techie81]

Wow...to all the eVGA haters out there just remember...people come to forums MAINLY to COMPLAIN. For every negative (and one sided mind you) post you see there are MANY more positives.

I've used eVGA for over 5 years and have had nothing but positive things to say.

Everyone's experience is different and yes, people post about negative experiences. However, companies like BFG do a great job of responding to complaints. EVGA in my experience, has sub par customer service.

 

[mustang_steve]

Wow...to all the eVGA haters out there just remember...people come to forums MAINLY to COMPLAIN. For every negative (and one sided mind you) post you see there are MANY more positives.

I've used eVGA for over 5 years and have had nothing but positive things to say.

Did you read that thread? It took it becoming a full blown clusterfuck before he got a real answer. The company buried themselves with their own attitudes.

Before the "Joe" post, there was 2-3 CS posts that just quoted text from his emails, with nothing else. About the only way to go lower than that is to directly insult or berate the customer...honestly those three should have been fired immediately. If you cannot make a proper response to something of that nature in an online forum, then don't.

The part that there was no apology for that says a LOT about EVGA and what they think support is, and I know I want none of that. If someone drops $600 on a mobo, they had better get top notch support, not some clowning like what happened in that thread. Even if he was denied (and was), they should have explained the situation better, and explained it publicly early on when called on it and properly, instead of this mess that ensued.

 

[Appa]

I think most of the problem is people are not actually picking up the phones and calling the company.

Have these people with these problems actually CALLED customer support?

 

[jdarwin]

akotlar,

Can you please send me pictures of your board and the registered serial number so I can assist you to get a replacement.

If any others have questions you are welcome to email me so I can assist everyone that has questions or concerns.

Thank you,
Joe Darwin
[email protected]

 

[Dan_D]

Did you read that thread? It took it becoming a full blown clusterfuck before he got a real answer. The company buried themselves with their own attitudes.

Before the "Joe" post, there was 2-3 CS posts that just quoted text from his emails, with nothing else. About the only way to go lower than that is to directly insult or berate the customer...honestly those three should have been fired immediately. If you cannot make a proper response to something of that nature in an online forum, then don't.

The part that there was no apology for that says a LOT about EVGA and what they think support is, and I know I want none of that. If someone drops $600 on a mobo, they had better get top notch support, not some clowning like what happened in that thread. Even if he was denied (and was), they should have explained the situation better, and explained it publicly early on when called on it and properly, instead of this mess that ensued.

Every company makes mistakes on the support front. One bad incident doesn't necessarily represent the company as a whole. EVGA has built up a seriously positive reputation and maintained that reputation. When EVGA's boards first hit the market many people including myself said "I don't know if this board is worth a shit or not, but since its EVGA I know they'll make it right if it isn't." I can't think of too many companies that have developed a reputation good enough for people like myself to be able to set aside their fears and give them a their hard earned money instead of spending money on more well known products from ASUS, Gigabyte and others.

 

[akotlar]

Every company makes mistakes on the support front. One bad incident doesn't necessarily represent the company as a whole. EVGA has built up a seriously positive reputation and maintained that reputation. When EVGA's boards first hit the market many people including myself said "I don't know if this board is worth a shit or not, but since its EVGA I know they'll make it right if it isn't." I can't think of too many companies that have developed a reputation good enough for people like myself to be able to set aside their fears and give them a their hard earned money instead of spending money on more well known products from ASUS, Gigabyte and others.

They are not maintaining it. This issue is way beyond a simple mistake. It's like a mistake space opera. It's been going on a long time. And it has shown, to many of the consumers who have read about it, EVGA's fall as a premiere customer friendly company. There are now other that beat them at this game, and that's their selling point. Joe Darwin's responses have been disturbing.

 

[akotlar]

akotlar,

Can you please send me pictures of your board and the registered serial number so I can assist you to get a replacement.

If any others have questions you are welcome to email me so I can assist everyone that has questions or concerns.

Thank you,
Joe Darwin
[email protected]

Joe, we actually spoke on the phone about my EVGA GTX 260/216 issue. Everything's fine with that. The cs manager I spoke with before you wasn't great though, came off very rude.

However, as far as this guy's issue is concerned, it wasn't handled properly. EVGA should absolutely have bit the cost on this, because it was a marginal user error and it was in warranty. Yes the board was damaged, but your team should have picked up on this guy's incessantly righteous attitude, and placated him. Seeing their clear lack of critical thinking about what is best for the company, and inability to attack the issue with the flexibility it would have taken to solve it properly, you should have stepped in and fixed it. There was an anecdote I heard once: A very famous man walked into a hotel. I believe it was Trump, and the hotel was one of Hilton's. Trump asked for a specific room, and due to some policy of the hotel manager was denied. He argued with them for a while, then called up Hilton and got everything taken care of. The manager was immediately sacked. The point of the story is that your hands should have enough independence to act outside of technical policy, should thoroughly understand the company's selling point/market advantage, and operate with that knowledge always in mind. And those people should be rewarded. The reputation you could have gained from going out of the way to satisfy his complaint early on would have done more for you. If it means giving your people more freedom, that's the price.

 

[Dan_D]

They are not maintaining it. This issue is way beyond a simple mistake. It's like a mistake space opera. It's been going on a long time. And it has shown, to many of the consumers who have read about it, EVGA's fall as a premiere customer friendly company. There are now other that beat them at this game, and that's their selling point. Joe Darwin's responses have been disturbing.

What other company "beats them at this game?" I'm not trying to defend EVGA, I'm just trying to say that for all their faults, they have been one of the better companies to work with when it comes to support and RMA service.

Joe Darwin's responses have been disturbing.

akotlar,

Can you please send me pictures of your board and the registered serial number so I can assist you to get a replacement.

If any others have questions you are welcome to email me so I can assist everyone that has questions or concerns.

Thank you,
Joe Darwin
[email protected]

Yes I found this post most disturbing as well.

 

[techie81]

What other company "beats them at this game?" I'm not trying to defend EVGA, I'm just trying to say that for all their faults, they have been one of the better companies to work with when it comes to support and RMA service.

BFG

 

[Dan_D]

BFG

Maybe. I've never had to deal with them really. I usually heard good things about them as a generally rule. I've never had one of their products fail on me so I can't speak to personal experience with their RMA department.

 

[magoo]

What other company "beats them at this game?" I'm not trying to defend EVGA, I'm just trying to say that for all their faults, they have been one of the better companies to work with when it comes to support and RMA service.





Yes I found this post most disturbing as well.

The disturbing stuff is over at EVGA.
In a really nice way, they told the customer to pound sand.

The only thing about this now epic thread is we on the outside do not know the entire story. That said, there is something really stinky about the way EVGA handeled it.....I would have never displayed the thing in public, and if I had I would have done it very differently.
These guys came off way out of line.......and now they come over here and try to look like they give a shit.
I'm just praying nothing ever happens to my Classified board.

And I have used BFG for all my GPU needs forever, needed one RMA and Traded Up once. I was treated exactly as I would have expected to be.

 

[overclock]

Hey OP! Are you British? For some reason I read the OP in a British accent. I must be tired.

 

[yenniedn]

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA peoples!!!

I totally forgot that I posted this thread here on [H] also so I haven't been back to visit it in many days.

I just want to put a halt to the EVGA hate that has taken over this thread since I've been absent from it. All I have to say is that:

EVGA ROCKS (AS USUAL)!!!

The reason I totally forgot about this thread is that EVGA took care of the problem so quickly that I had zero downtime and everything was back to normal in no time that it almost seemed like I never had a problem with the board at all.

I submitted the RMA in the early on a Monday and by the time I woke up, EVGA had already approved the RMA pending receipt of a valid credit card number. Several hours after I gave them my credit card #, I was informed that my replacement board had been shipped. Two days later (Wednesday), I received the new board. The next day, I swapped out the board and sent the old board back to EVGA - all pre-paid by EVGA b/c I got the premium advanced replacement service with the board.

So was it unfortunate that my original board started smoking? Yes. Was I paranoid that it fried my other hardware? Yes. But did EVGA do right and take care of everything ASAP and in typical EVGA manner? Hell yes!

I regret not getting back on this thread in these last few days to give it some closure - so my apologies to Joe Darwin and the EVGA team for not being here to fend off the bashers on this thread. If anyone thinks this experience has given me any cause to buy more EVGA products down the line, you're wrong. I've had nothing but great experiences with EVGA products and service and would not hesitate to buy anything EVGA.

 

[Dan_D]

The disturbing stuff is over at EVGA.
In a really nice way, they told the customer to pound sand.

The only thing about this now epic thread is we on the outside do not know the entire story. That said, there is something really stinky about the way EVGA handeled it.....I would have never displayed the thing in public, and if I had I would have done it very differently.
These guys came off way out of line.......and now they come over here and try to look like they give a shit.
I'm just praying nothing ever happens to my Classified board.

And I have used BFG for all my GPU needs forever, needed one RMA and Traded Up once. I was treated exactly as I would have expected to be.

What specifically was so disturbing about the thread over on EVGA's forums? I read it and I guess I didn't interpret it the same way you did.

 

[magoo]

What specifically was so disturbing about the thread over on EVGA's forums? I read it and I guess I didn't interpret it the same way you did.

There are two enormous threads.
I have read both.
The "problem" was never clearly discussed, mostly left to speculation........and rightly so, as it is clearly none of my or anyone else's business.
I just think both parties left things out. It just doesn't seem logical that someone would do to their board what was done.

Long story short, apparently the issue was settled to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. Enough said.

I'm glad to see the OP problems were solved quickly.

 

[Dan_D]

There are two enormous threads.
I have read both.
The "problem" was never clearly discussed, mostly left to speculation........and rightly so, as it is clearly none of my or anyone else's business.
I just think both parties left things out. It just doesn't seem logical that someone would do to their board what was done.

Long story short, apparently the issue was settled to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. Enough said.

I'm glad to see the OP problems were solved quickly.

Ok, I might have read the wrong thread then. The one I read wasn't too bad.

 

[Oh4Sh0]

That is an EPIC thread............Cryptospartin got hosed unless EVGA comes back and proves it wrong........That guy is an experienced builder, there is no way he took a screwdriver to his MB.

I wish I knew how many Classified boards have been sold, to get some idea of the failure rate.

He acts like a 12 year old kid and every post on the subject matter seems to contain at least one, if not multiple profanities before even giving tech support a chance. It appears he 'knew' eVGA would rule what happened as physical damage before they did -- because it was, in fact, physical damage.

F that i will never buy another board from evga that uses Foxconn as the makers F that ****

i swear if the RMA department comes back and says that this is physical damage
i will physical damage them

If the pins truly did just fall right out - I'm sure others would've experienced this as some sort of manufacturing defect. But I don't see other posts of the same type of incident. Which leads me to believe (and by his demeanor) that he did something stupid and wants evga to pony up big bucks to replace something he damaged.

The op even went further and did something to completely mutilate the socket. The pics evga provides of 'how it received' the product versus what the poster originally showed are a huge contrast and shows that he was doing things he shouldn'tve been to the socket.

From..
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6497/1001613u.jpg
to
http://www.evga.com/forums/image/rma_1.jpg

is not something that happened in shipping. The guy was clearing trying to get a free ride on the rma train for fubaring something.