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

[Wipeout2097]

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

Perhaps MSI Afterburner or ASUS GpuTweak will show.

Could you please post a screenshot while mining, of the miner and Gpu-z?

[heretolearn]

Cant find VRM on MSI after burner either .... here is the image below while mining. Its been about 24 hours and the rig had a break of 1 hour in between and has been running fine without any overclocking.

[Gazza1]

Are you running the newest ATI drivers?  It should say R9 200 series in GPUZ, then maybe VRM temps will show up on the bottom row.

You can also use HWinfo

[heretolearn]

Are you running the newest ATI drivers?  It should say R9 200 series in GPUZ, then maybe VRM temps will show up on the bottom row.

You can also use HWinfo

Yes the  drivers are the latest Catalyst drivers that came with the cards. The GPU-z is for the 7950 .. below it on the bottom there are two dropdowns for 280x's .. and all three don't show any VRM field.

[PeerMedia]

Did you find the source of the fire? I recently had one on my 7950 XFX DoubleD catch fire on startup (power on) and can't really figure out what happened, my temps were 80-81c which doesn't seem too bad.

[Gator-hex]

Did you find the source of the fire? I recently had one on my 7950 XFX DoubleD catch fire on startup (power on) and can't really figure out what happened

Fires are caused by dust balls building up in the PSU, CPU and GPU heatsink and fans. Buy a can of compressed air and clean them out once a month. Put a smoke alarm near your equipment and never place equipment where fire can spread, near curtains etc.

[heretolearn]

Did you find the source of the fire? I recently had one on my 7950 XFX DoubleD catch fire on startup (power on) and can't really figure out what happened, my temps were 80-81c which doesn't seem too bad.

Hi,

No I could not find the source of the fire. Can't seem to figure out how to go about doing it . Although I am not overclocking now and once every 8-12 hours or so I am shutting it doewn fro about 15 mins or so and draining out power by taking out the plug. It seems to be working fine now but I am getting about 15% less hashrate . But ill take that anyday compared to not running one of my cards.

[heretolearn]

Fires are caused by dust balls building up in the PSU, CPU and GPU heatsink and fans. Buy a can of compressed air and clean them out once a month. Put a smoke alarm near your equipment and never place equipment where fire can spread, near curtains etc.

I am not sure if it was because of the dustballs near the GPU (because I saw the flame from the GPU section only), reason being : it happened twice in 2 days, so I am not sure it was because of the dustballs.

Although your theory seems very plausible and it may very well be because of the dust balls, reason being: the fire has not recurred since I have not overclocked and the rig is running at close to 77 C, i e , 3-5 C less than it was when overclocked. Maybe that might be the critical temperature for dustballs to ignite, who knows lol.

Anyways taking the advice of cleaning with compressed air seems good eitherways and wont hurt, it has been on my mind for the past 5-10 days, but now you saying it has pushed me to go ahead and do it, so thanks buddy for shaking off my laziness

[jamesc760]

What brand of motherboard and vid cards are you using? Asrock motherboards are KNOWN to cause fire when used with multiple vid cards for mining. Lesser brand vid cards have poor heat ventilation designs.

You mentioned problem with your silverstone psu: replace the psu with a quality one (corsair) ASAP. Additionally, if your motherboard is ASROCK, replace it with a quality one (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc...) ASAP.

Your problem is HARDWARE, NOT SOFTWARE: no amount of fiddling in software will fix it. FIX your hardware and then tweak your software.

[heretolearn]

Also one thing I have noticed is that the VDDC on GPU-z fluctuates + 0.006 V and very rarely by + 0.012 V with avg voltage being around  :

1.087 V  for 7950
1.019 V for 280x no 1
1.050 for 280x no 2 (gives more hashes see in pic)

not sure if his is relevant.

[heretolearn]

What brand of motherboard and vid cards are you using? Asrock motherboards are KNOWN to cause fire when used with multiple vid cards for mining. Lesser brand vid cards have poor heat ventilation designs.

You mentioned problem with your silverstone psu: replace the psu with a quality one (corsair) ASAP. Additionally, if your motherboard is ASROCK, replace it with a quality one (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc...) ASAP.

Your problem is HARDWARE, NOT SOFTWARE: no amount of fiddling in software will fix it. FIX your hardware and then tweak your software.

Mobo : MSI Z87-GD65 ... i think its a good one .. doubt whether the problem is due to that.

About silverstone PSU : isnt that a well known brand ? Anyways have to take it for repair/replacement because of 2 burnt ports (but that I think was more due to the connection being loose). But i am thinking of running it for now as long as I can .

[Gator-hex]

Although your theory seems very plausible and it may very well be because of the dust balls, reason being: the fire has not recurred since I have not overclocked and the rig is running at close to 77 C, i e , 3-5 C less than it was when overclocked. Maybe that might be the critical temperature for dustballs to ignite, who knows lol.

Trust me it's more than a theory. I've worked in server rooms most of my life. Seen many fires. They're all caused by idiots overloading cables or poor maintenance (dust build up). I've seen power supplies shooting flames like flame throwers several feet out the fan exhaust!  

[heretolearn]

Although your theory seems very plausible and it may very well be because of the dust balls, reason being: the fire has not recurred since I have not overclocked and the rig is running at close to 77 C, i e , 3-5 C less than it was when overclocked. Maybe that might be the critical temperature for dustballs to ignite, who knows lol.

Trust me it's more than a theory. I've worked in server rooms most of my life. Seen many fires. They're all caused by idiots overloading cables or poor maintenance (dust build up). I've seen power supplies shooting flames like flame throwers several feet out the fan exhaust!  

Hmm im not doubting your honesty or intention. I appreciate all your help buddy, thanks for that. But however if it was of dustballs then in that case 2 questions arise :
1) Why did it not happen again without overclocking ? possible reason: it may be that that the dust bulls got burnt in the first 2 instances or flames perhaps.
2) Why did it not happen again without cleaning it ? possible reason : maybe it wasn't because of the dust balls in the first place perhaps.

So thats why I am calling it a "theory" for now, until further evidence either way. But sure I got to give it to you - its the most "plausible theory". And to test that I will wait another 24 hours and then clean it with compressed air perhaps, cause I have a feeling it wont give flames. Lets see again thats just my "intuition/theory".

[PeerMedia]

Did you find the source of the fire? I recently had one on my 7950 XFX DoubleD catch fire on startup (power on) and can't really figure out what happened

Fires are caused by dust balls building up in the PSU, CPU and GPU heatsink and fans. Buy a can of compressed air and clean them out once a month. Put a smoke alarm near your equipment and never place equipment where fire can spread, near curtains etc.

The fire I had recently happened from off-state to when I turned it on (although it shouldn't have been off, it seemed to have crashed or powered down and not due to a power failure). Just 5 weeks old, definitely no dust and no pets/hair, with open rig and external fan. I'm almost certain its not a dust issue as it was really new. The rig I have was running at 82c and was 2 XFX 7950's Double D's, from what I've read they aren't a good miners card, but they should not be catching fire. I've stopped overclocking and brought the temp down to 79c and will be RMA'ing the one that caught on fire as that thing is not going near my PC ever again!

[heretolearn]

The fire I had recently happened from off-state to when I turned it on (although it shouldn't have been off, it seemed to have crashed or powered down and not due to a power failure). Just 5 weeks old, definitely no dust and no pets/hair, with open rig and external fan. I'm almost certain its not a dust issue as it was really new. The rig I have was running at 82c and was 2 XFX 7950's Double D's, from what I've read they aren't a good miners card, but they should not be catching fire. I've stopped overclocking and brought the temp down to 79c and will be RMA'ing the one that caught on fire as that thing is not going near my PC ever again!

Even mine is about 5 weeks old or so and cards are sapphire brand, so I am also starting to doubt whether its because of dust balls.

About you RMAing it : don't you need to pinpoint some fault in the card as a reason to do it ? I mean is your card actually burnt .. can you see it ? cause I can't see it on mine (I have just seen superficially though and could not see any carbon marks).

I want to know how I can pinpoint the fault in the card(s) so that atleast when I take it to the shop to return/replace I should be able to tell them what the fault is.

So still no definitive answers yet.

[cdog]

280x will blow out caps sometimes, it will probably still mine fine after (its kinda scary/exciting though)

[heretolearn]

280x will blow out caps sometimes, it will probably still mine fine after (its kinda scary/exciting though)

+1 for scary/exciting ..thats for sure

How do I check if the capacitor is blown though ? any idea/simple way ? I'm not that much of a techie.

[PeerMedia]

The fire I had recently happened from off-state to when I turned it on (although it shouldn't have been off, it seemed to have crashed or powered down and not due to a power failure). Just 5 weeks old, definitely no dust and no pets/hair, with open rig and external fan. I'm almost certain its not a dust issue as it was really new. The rig I have was running at 82c and was 2 XFX 7950's Double D's, from what I've read they aren't a good miners card, but they should not be catching fire. I've stopped overclocking and brought the temp down to 79c and will be RMA'ing the one that caught on fire as that thing is not going near my PC ever again!

Even mine is about 5 weeks old or so and cards are sapphire brand, so I am also starting to doubt whether its because of dust balls.

About you RMAing it : don't you need to pinpoint some fault in the card as a reason to do it ? I mean is your card actually burnt .. can you see it ? cause I can't see it on mine (I have just seen superficially though and could not see any carbon marks).

I want to know how I can pinpoint the fault in the card(s) so that atleast when I take it to the shop to return/replace I should be able to tell them what the fault is.

So still no definitive answers yet.

I would love to know the fault as well but there's no way I'm trying to plug this back in again, its going back for sure as a full out fire started in the card. There's visible damage on the actual card of where the flames burst out from. Really scary situation and I'm grateful it happened when I was home.

[heretolearn]

I would love to know the fault as well but there's no way I'm trying to plug this back in again, its going back for sure as a full out fire started in the card. There's visible damage on the actual card of where the flames burst out from. Really scary situation and I'm grateful it happened when I was home.

Well it just happened to shutdown and restart again ... don't know if there were flames or not since I wasn't looking towards it this time .. I will leave it running through the night and if I find it has shutdown and restarted again then I will stop all mining I guess or try it with 2 cards at a time.

Now its getting more scary than exciting

[PeerMedia]

I'm going through the same thing, I now have 2 fire extinguishers and 2 smoke detectors next to my rigs. Doesn't bring comfort when I'm not home though. I've been fortunate in that the first time I just had a spark and second time I had a small fire but in both cases it was when turning on the rig. So if I come home and find the rig off and it wasn't a power failure, my heart just races at trying to turn it on and hope it doesn't blow up. Not what I had hoped for when I got into mining. It does seem that the mobo or PSU does power down the rig when there's an electrical fault however, I just have no idea how to fix it other than turning it on and hoping for the best.