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

[heretolearn]

So this happened just now, I saw a flame near the graphics card for about a second or two (running 2 x 280x and 1 7950) and the rig shutdown. I have a 1250 W PSU. I tried smelling the wired for burnt cables but could not find any smell. However the burnt smell was on one of the 280x cards and subsided soon thereafter. This had happened once earlier too, but I thought that I was seeing things and a flame I did not expect. Cards were running near about 80 C temperature. And it would run fine before but I had a burnt cable problem on the PSU and am using different port now for the graphocs card supply

What do I test how do I go about this ? Should I continue to mine expecting that if I stop and restart it every 12 hours or so I will "get away" with this or should I completely stop ? Kindly advice.

I am not too technical a person but can look up things online.

Need urgent help.

UPDATE : Tried with the remaining (280x and 7950) cards after removing card from which burnt smell came for a bit. And seems to be running fine for now. So I am assuming it wasn't anything with mobo or psu perhaps ? But still no idea what to do with the other card (from which burnt smell came) and how to test it ?

[Wipeout2097]

STOP! Shutdown the PC NOW

[heretolearn]

STOP! Shutdown the PC NOW

I did stop it then and removed the cards. Checked which one was smelling of carbon and plugged it back the other 2 which werent. They seem to be mining fine for now. What do you think is the problem ? Any idea ?

[Wipeout2097]

I lost a 6950 exactly like that due to poor ventilation of the VRM area

use one card at a time.

First of all, lower your target temperature from 80ºC to 70ºC. Set also the fans to at least 60 - 70%

On the miner config
"gpu-fan" : "60-90",

"temp-cutoff" : "78",
"temp-overheat" : "74",
"temp-target" : "70",


Load GPU-z and select the "Sensors" tab. Scroll down to see the VRM temperature. Then, load you miner software with intensity = 8 and start mining. Raise intensity and check those temperatures!

Are you undervolting the cards? If not, do so with VBE7

[heretolearn]

Then use one card at a time.

First of all, lower your target temperature from 80ºC to 70ºC on miner config

Load GPU-z and select the "Sensors" tab. Scroll down to see the VRM temperature. Then, load you miner software with intensity = 8 and start mining. Raise intensity bit by bit and check those temperatures!

Are you undervolting the cards? If not, do so with VBE7

Actually I have all 3 cards running now. I was earlier overclocking the 7950 and that seemed to make an impact on the other 280xs hashrate as well. Weird.

I have not undervolted any of the cards. Now the cards are running at about 80% +- 5 fanspeed. And this time I have not overclocked the 7950.

I have GPU-z loaded now and had it earlier too. For one of the 280x it shows VDCC from 1.056 V to 1.044 V.

About the VRM I can not find that in GPU-z under sensors. All I see is voltages and fan speed, etc

Hashrates now are :

280x - 710 khps earlier was 750 khps (when 7950 was overclocked to E - 1020 M - 1420)
280x - 690 khps earlier was 750 khps (when 7950 was overclocked to E - 1020 M - 1420)
7950 - 560 khps earlier was 650 khps (when 7950 was overclocked to E - 1020 M - 1420)

So they are not running at full speed. About the temperature : They have always run @75 + ... right now at about 78-79 ish and I always have a fan blowing air on them.

Since my cards are not undervolted .. what do you mean by VBE7 ?

[heretolearn]

Oh ok got the VBE7 - program used to undervolt... I have sapphire trix on my system .. will that do ? and how much should I  set VDDC to for undevolting 7950 and 280x ?

[heretolearn]

Is there any way to know a GPU is faulty/burnt besides smelling it ?

[kwiky]

What brand of power supply are you using?

[heretolearn]

What brand of power supply are you using?

Silverstone

[Wipeout2097]

Oh ok got the VBE7 - program used to undervolt... I have sapphire trix on my system .. will that do ? and how much should I  set VDDC to for undevolting 7950 and 280x ?

Often the software based do not work. You will have to follow these instructions: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/

Start with VDDC at 1050. You can go lower depending on the quality of the core and voltage regulators

[Wipeout2097]

Then use one card at a time.

First of all, lower your target temperature from 80ºC to 70ºC on miner config

Load GPU-z and select the "Sensors" tab. Scroll down to see the VRM temperature. Then, load you miner software with intensity = 8 and start mining. Raise intensity bit by bit and check those temperatures!

Are you undervolting the cards? If not, do so with VBE7

Actually I have all 3 cards running now. I was earlier overclocking the 7950 and that seemed to make an impact on the other 280xs hashrate as well. Weird.

I have not undervolted any of the cards. Now the cards are running at about 80% +- 5 fanspeed. And this time I have not overclocked the 7950.

I have GPU-z loaded now and had it earlier too. For one of the 280x it shows VDCC from 1.056 V to 1.044 V.

About the VRM I can not find that in GPU-z under sensors. All I see is voltages and fan speed, etc

Hashrates now are :

280x - 710 khps earlier was 750 khps (when 7950 was overclocked to E - 1020 M - 1420)
280x - 690 khps earlier was 750 khps (when 7950 was overclocked to E - 1020 M - 1420)
7950 - 560 khps earlier was 650 khps (when 7950 was overclocked to E - 1020 M - 1420)

So they are not running at full speed. About the temperature : They have always run @75 + ... right now at about 78-79 ish and I always have a fan blowing air on them.

Since my cards are not undervolted .. what do you mean by VBE7 ?

So, you insist on running 3 non-undervolted cards side by side without knowing the temperature of the voltage regulators??? I asked you to STOP and follow my advice. The intent of that rushed post was clear. Yet you ignored it... Good luck, I guess

[heretolearn]

So, you insist on running 3 non-undervolted cards side by side without knowing the temperature of the voltage regulators??? I asked you to STOP and follow my advice. The intent of that rushed post was clear. Yet you ignored it... Good luck, I guess

It happened before too and then worked fine for another day. So I thought it would be ok to run it without overclocking. I value your advice but its just that I have made too much of an investment in these cards and I want to run them to get the return as much as possible.

I want to know a way to get to the root of the problem. How do you suggest I find out the VRM , GPUz does not show it ? And does not cgminer show the temperature correct ?

Please correct me if I am wrong on anything. Dont mean no disrecpect bro.

Also when you say run 3 non-undervolted cards side by side - are you implying something to do with PSU ? because its a 1250 Watt PSU. Or is there some other rationale ?

[heretolearn]

Oh ok got the VBE7 - program used to undervolt... I have sapphire trix on my system .. will that do ? and how much should I  set VDDC to for undevolting 7950 and 280x ?

Often the software based do not work. You will have to follow these instructions: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/

Start with VDDC at 1050. You can go lower depending on the quality of the core and voltage regulators

Won't that void my warranty ? Because if something happens I want to be able to claim the card back atleat .. they are only about a month or two old.

Also I have never flashed BIOS before :-(, if something goes wrong I would not know much to undo it.

[Wipeout2097]

Oh, I see. Sorry about that...

Ok, skip the bios flashing but it's just that you're pushing the cards to the limits.

Do you have good ventilation? Do you have PCI-e risers so that the cards are spaced? Are the fans running at 70%?

Use at least a large fan (those household ones) blowing at the back of the cards and get PCI-e risers

[heretolearn]

Oh, I see. Sorry about that...

Ok, skip the bios flashing but it's just that you're pushing the cards to the limits.

Do you have good ventilation? Do you have PCI-e risers so that the cards are spaced? Are the fans running at 70%?

Use at least a large fan (those household ones) blowing at the back of the cards

Yes I have a large fan running on them .. so far its been running smoothly, I think the problem arises either when I overclock the 7950 or if its been running for like say more than 12 hours.

I do not have riser cables. I have had the cards running with the same space between them for about a month now. And these are lower temperatures of 78-80 . There have been days when the cards have touched 90 C due to accumulation of dust. So as of now I don't think they are being maxed out. Also without overclocking 7950 I am getting lesser hashrates right now compared to when overclocking (see above for hashrates).

Also the fans are running at a fairly high % :
7950 - 67% fan
280x - 70%
280x other - 80%

So I thinnk the fan is doing its job.

Do you think getting riser cables might solve the job ? Also I am worried about the burnt carbon smell from one of the 280x I mentioned earlier. How do I diagnose if its ok or not (because apparently its been mining fine now)?

[heretolearn]

One weird thing I noticed was when overclocking my 7950 , it used to affect both the 280xs ... dont know if that counts or is normal .. but I have failed to find an explanation for that ... seems weird to me how overcloking one can afect hashrate of other cards.

[Wipeout2097]

Up to 90ºC on the core and unknown at the VRMs? No risers, no undervolt, no space between cards, accumulating dust?

Understand: you must do _something_ to fix that problem. Not saying that it's ok now, and hope. You're degrading those cards fairly quickly.

Being "maxed out" or not is barely relevant. That "maxed out" is for casual use of the devices as intended (e.g. a few hours a day with 3d gaming loads), not 24/7 mining with the conditions above.

[heretolearn]

Up to 90ºC on the core and unknown at the VRMs? No risers, no undervolt, no space between cards, accumulating dust?

Understand: you must do _something_ to fix that problem. Not saying that it's ok now, and hope. You're degrading those cards fairly quickly.

Being "maxed out" or not is barely relevant. That "maxed out" is for casual use of the devices as intended (e.g. a few hours a day with 3d gaming loads), not 24/7 mining with the conditions above.

How do I calculate/finout the VRMs ?

I believe 750 for 280x is normal without needing to be undevolted . is it not ?

for 7950 yes I did overclock it to get 650 but that too would be taken care of by the psu which has enough power isnt it ?

The cards have some space between them and with the fan running constantly they are about 80 C for the past few days . now without overclocking it is at about 77-78 currently. The dust part was normal house dust that had accumulated (living tropically).

About these cards 24/7 .. people do it for months together without any problems isn't it ? So mine is just a month old .

And how is one cards overclocking affecting others ? I fail to understand

[Gazza1]

Find out the temps on your VRMs. 

[heretolearn]

Find out the temps on your VRMs.  

How do I do that ? I have asked the same above. Kindly help. GPU-z is not showing any info on vrm