Crate rig FIRE!!

[massnerder]

Just a reminder to stay safe out there.  I just built a quad 7950 setup, spent ALLL DAY getting my settings so it worked just right...  and about an hour after I left it sit to mine...  mobo fire. 

Luckily it was very small and I was in the room so I was able to catch it as it happened / shut it off / make sure everything was ok.  I had the board on the bottom of the crate which was on a wood table, nothing able to touch the board that shouldn't have, and no extreme overclocking (just +7% power to the video cards).... I think I just got a defective board.  Has anyone else experienced this?

I got a bamboo cutting board today as an extra piece of insulation for the replacement motherboard to rest on, but it has me a little freaked out.  I may not want to run it when I can't be here to watch over it, at least for the first week or so.

[philips]

Have you used powered risers?

[massnerder]

No I was not.  2 of my cards were directly in 16x slots and the other 2 were on riser cables, I followed a guide I found online that made no mention of powered risers.... might be that I need to get a couple of those before I fire it back up

[philips]

But I forgot to ask, were you mining LTC by chance?
For BTC mining should be no problem having 4 cards without powered risers.

[massnerder]

Yes I was mining LTC, if I don't need powered ones for BTC than at least the ones I have aren't a complete waste

[bowen151]

Just a reminder to stay safe out there.  I just built a quad 7950 setup, spent ALLL DAY getting my settings so it worked just right...  and about an hour after I left it sit to mine...  mobo fire. 

I think I just got a defective board.

Can you give us a complete list of your hardware and temperatures before the fire if possible, also your mining/OC settings.

[massnerder]

AMD Sempron cpu
ASRock 970 extreme3 Motherboard
8gb corsair / kingston RAM (w/ same clock settings / voltage)
4x sapphire 7950 (1100 core, 1500 mem, +7% power in catalyst), 2 on non powered 1x->16x risers and 2 on the motherboard
- guiminer scrypt with 7950 high usage defaults
Netgear USB wifi
HP wireless kb / mouse
small box fan

Fire was on the corner of the board near the psu input. Cards got as high as 80c, but I was playing with fan controls / box fan combo doing pretty well at keeping them in the 75-78 range

[dogie]

AMD Sempron cpu
ASRock 970 extreme3 Motherboard
8gb corsair / kingston RAM (w/ same clock settings / voltage)
4x sapphire 7950 (1100 core, 1500 mem, +7% power in catalyst), 2 on non powered 1x->16x risers and 2 on the motherboard
- guiminer scrypt with 7950 high usage defaults
Netgear USB wifi
HP wireless kb / mouse
small box fan

Fire was on the corner of the board near the psu input. Cards got as high as 80c, but I was playing with fan controls / box fan combo doing pretty well at keeping them in the 75-78 range

You were asking your board to deliver 300W+ of power. That 24pin is not rating to carry that much [well it is, but really pushing it], nor is the power delivery system within the motherboard.

[MysteryMiner]

Fire was on the corner of the board near the psu input.

Looks like power circuit mosfets caught the fire. Never use boards that have so low quality that even the manufacturer name is written with one S letter missing.

High-end boards have additional power connectors to additionally feed the PCI-E lanes. Most of them use floppy connectors placed near PCI-E slots.

[massnerder]

I can't exchange the board for something else, I can only replace / refund it, and my replacement has already shipped.  It will be here tomorrow.  I have also ordered powered riser cables but they won't be here probably until sometime next week.

I also didn't note above, my psu is a seasonic gold plus 1250w

So should I ...

A) Rebuild this rig using the 1x->16x riser cables that have a molex connector for extra power on them

B) only run it with 2 video cards

C)??

[philips]

A) Powered risers. (you don't need to have them all powered, two powered and two simple should do)

As a side note you can use this http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine to calculate the power you need for your components.

[massnerder]

Thanks for that looks like I went overkill on the psu....  I only needed a 750, but its the same power draw anyway, so mine just won't work as hard as a 750w would

I can always use it to rebuild a super fancy gaming pc one day 

Looks like I will be running this thing with just 2 cards starting tomorrow, and probably adding in the other 2 whenever my powered risers arrive.

Can anyone confirm that I don't need powered risers for btc mining?  Or should I just throw those non-powered risers in the junk parts bin?

[massnerder]

remember that only 2 of the 4 cards were on risers, the other 2 were plugged directly into the 16x slots on the motherboard....

[MysteryMiner]

I did not see the pictures but according to description the PWM area / mosfets caught fire. Nothing to do with PCI-E lanes. ASSrock is making much better boards than they were few years ago but this happens from time to time. AM2+ boards combined with 6core black edition phenoms were prone to PWM failures with fire back then. And MSI and Gigabyte were best burning boards back then.

[philips]

Can anyone confirm that I don't need powered risers for btc mining?  Or should I just throw those non-powered risers in the junk parts bin?

I mine BTC on one rig with 5 7970 cards without powered risers, just simple risers.
For BTC mining we usually down-clock the memory as low as we can go.

LTC mining OTOH is using high memory clocks and pulling a lot of power from the motherboard.

[massnerder]

I did not see the pictures but according to description the PWM area / mosfets caught fire. Nothing to do with PCI-E lanes. ASSrock is making much better boards than they were few years ago but this happens from time to time. AM2+ boards combined with 6core black edition phenoms were prone to PWM failures with fire back then. And MSI and Gigabyte were best burning boards back then.

That is correct, those tiny chips near the 24 pin connector is what caught fire.  But how does that have nothing to do with the PCIe lanes?  I am no expert, just thinking that if the PCIe lanes were asking the board for more power than it could supply, it would make sense for the PWM area of the board to become overloaded / unstable / or in this case on fire, wouldn't it?

[massnerder]

I mine BTC on one rig with 5 7970 cards without powered risers, just simple risers.
For BTC mining we usually down-clock the memory as low as we can go.

LTC mining OTOH is using high memory clocks and pulling a lot of power from the motherboard.

Thanks, so I can at least use the risers I have, though I probably won't unless I build a btc specific rig.

[philips]

I did not see the pictures but according to description the PWM area / mosfets caught fire. Nothing to do with PCI-E lanes. ASSrock is making much better boards than they were few years ago but this happens from time to time. AM2+ boards combined with 6core black edition phenoms were prone to PWM failures with fire back then. And MSI and Gigabyte were best burning boards back then.

That is correct, those tiny chips near the 24 pin connector is what caught fire.  But how does that have nothing to do with the PCIe lanes?  I am no expert, just thinking that if the PCIe lanes were asking the board for more power than it could supply, it would make sense for the PWM area of the board to become overloaded / unstable / or in this case on fire, wouldn't it?

Something like this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161242.msg1703391#msg1703391 ?

[massnerder]

Something like this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161242.msg1703391#msg1703391 ?

Yep lol, that is my board and that is exactly where my fire started.  Notice he also was doing LTC without powered risers.... at least I know now, but I am still gonna be real scared to leave the rig running unattended after this.  Maybe I can set it up to run in my fireplace, just incase   

[philips]

Something like this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161242.msg1703391#msg1703391 ?

Yep lol, that is my board and that is exactly where my fire started.  Notice he also was doing LTC without powered risers.... at least I know now, but I am still gonna be real scared to leave the rig running unattended after this.  Maybe I can set it up to run in my fireplace, just incase