Orange sparks shooting out of rig

[Vycid]

Uh... On one of my rigs running 3x 6950s, there were orange sparks flying out of my case at a slow pace, one every couple seconds. They were very visible in the dark, I don't think I was seeing things. The rig was still hashing and everything. I switched it off immediately at the PSU.

All 3 cards are on unpowered 16x-16x PCIe risers.

What steps should I take before turning it back on?

[Lethos]

Replace the Power supply.

What power supply were you using btw?

[Vycid]

Replace the Power supply.

What power supply were you using btw?

Rosewill RBR1000-M 1000W.

I admit it, I was cheap on the power supply.

Still, I'm a little weirded out. The power supply did not appear to be where the sparks were coming from, and the rig was still running...?

[Lethos]

That is a little weird, but that Power supply does have a rather unreliable reputation.
So it would not surprise me if that was the source of the problem.

I'd take a good look at all your parts, by disassembling the rig. There should be evidence somewhere, as there might be damage to another part in your rig, outside of the PSU.

[Tywill]

If I have learned one thing while mining it is not to skimp when buying a PSU

[Vycid]

If I have learned one thing while mining it is not to skimp when buying a PSU

It actually turned out not to be the PSU. The fan vibration caused one of the cards to list to the side slightly and the grounded mounting bracket came into contact with the solder bumps on the back of another card. I was able to reproduce the sparking, so I'm sure that was the problem.

The Rosewills have been great to me so far.

All the rest of my hardware is fine, too. I just need to mount my cards better.

[Tywill]

glad it worked out for you, I prefer not to keep my rigs in a case, the cards stay cooler and I can see whats going on better

[Vycid]

glad it worked out for you, I prefer not to keep my rigs in a case, the cards stay cooler and I can see whats going on better

I "use a case". None of the cards are actually inside the case - they all come out on risers. I got the cases for $40 each, so it was easier to just mount the mobo in the case and suspend the cards above it than drill standoffs into a crate and all that.

I figure that when I sell the rigs it might be handy to have cases, anyway.

[snootch]

Not all that solid of a PSU: http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6450

In the future, if you plan on adding cards or drawing more power, I would stick with platinum rated supplies (especially for mining)

[redtwitz]

In the future, if you plan on adding cards or drawing more power, I would stick with platinum rated supplies (especially for mining)

A high energy efficiency rating does not make a good PSU.

While energy efficiency should certainly be a factor when choosing a PSU for mining, the difference in efficiency generally won't make up for the elevated costs of Platinum rated PSUs.

[nebulus]

Now that's some hardcore mining!