Nooo!!!! Xonar! P5N-D! Not the magic smoke!! Why!!!!?!?!?!?

[x88x]

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I'm really glad I didn't go to bed early today.


I was sitting at my computer, working on a school project on my laptop and watching Top Gear out of the corner of my eye on my desktop, when I thought I heard a faint hissing sound. Now, naturally, as someone who works around electronics and has had things fail catastrophically, my first thought was panic. But then I realized that this system had been running rock-solid for coming up on two years...except for the MBB...crap! I leaned in close to my tower and the noise got louder...and then I saw smoke coming out of the side vent!!! ..and out the top, through the Monsta!!! Nooo!!!! Half a second later, my tower was switched off at the PSU and the power line was unplugged. But the damage was already done. I opened up the side panel and got hit by a nasty wave of burnt silicon scent...it hangs in the air still, like a damp blanket of doom. My first thought was that the GPU that hasn't worked since I put it in there had bought it, but the smell was almost non-existent down there. So, that rules out my PSU, pump, and both GPUs...that's good. Up above the GPUs though, the smell was crazy strong. My next thought was that somehow the NB or RAM bought it...no way to check the NB, but I pulled the RAM and it checked out. ...I figured that after the damage I had heard and smelt, that it would be pretty obvious what died when I saw it...and I was right. My search up to now had been fruitless, and I was almost to the point of giving up and going to bed, when I decided to pull my Xonar...just in case. ...I was not prepared for what I saw next.

For the record, I honestly have no clue what happened here....which makes it worse, imo.

Now, at first glance you think, "Oh, blue crap around the burn, blue coolant...you've got a leak!"...and tbh, that was my first thought too. But after searching my case, looking at where it would have had to fall from, etc, I realised...there was literally no way that coolant caused this. ..which is good, in a way...means it wasn't my fault.. Upon investigating the burned card a bit more, I came to a shocking realisation! The blue is the dye from the Xonar PCB! Oh, and yes...there are several pins on the back of the connector on the board that are gone...now presumably fused to the slot on the MBB.

So tomorrow, in addition to having to deal with an unresponsive property appraiser *shakes fist in general SW direction*, I get to find out what Asus' policy is on spontaneous combustion.

[mDust]

That sucks!

I've had two sound cards and a graphics card fry at the pins like that. Only the graphics card got hit with coolant which was my fault. The two sound cards just up and decided to commit seppuku like yours.

If you somehow find out what caused it, post it here.

[Indybird]

Oh god I know that smell

As a fellow computer guy I know that is the worst feeling when you realize what that smell and smoke is

-Nick

[x88x]

Well, I thought I'd give it a try and start it up today...it actually did work properly...right up until the PCIe x1 slot caught fire 2 seconds later. ..I think I have a short in there. Well, now to figure out Asus' RMA system...let's see how they respond to two of their products spontaneously combusting.

[x88x]

Hmmm....so as it turns out, Asus' warranty service kinda...sucks...well, at least for their audio cards through Newegg anyways. As it turns out, Asus only does RMA service directly for their notebooks/EEE stuff, and products along those lines. Everything else, you have to go through the retailer. ...and, as it turns out, even though Asus says the warranty on their audio cards is always at least 3 years (sometimes longer, depending on the region), Newegg only gives you 1 year!

I'll be moving over the next week, so I won't be able to pull the MBB out for a while, but fortunately it's a lot newer than the Xonar (~1.5 months vs ~1.5 years), so once I'm settled in my house I'll pull it out and take it over to Microcenter.

I'm going to contact Newegg about the Xonar and its warranty discontinuity, and the results will be posted here. Wish me luck! ...I really don't want to have to shell out another $100 for another nice sound card.

[Konrad]

Ouch. I share your pain and offer condolences.

I've seen this caused on cards, though usually only very old ones, where some of the gold conductor plating chipped off the edge connectors and got lodged (then firmly packed) into the MBB socket. If this is a recurring problem (especially if you think the metal might be brittle after impact or thermal shock) then electrical lubricants (or lubricant/sealants like trusty old Stabilant-22) are a good solution. I suppose it might be possible for powderized gold particles to become liquidy within the connector if there's excessive current draw or component overheating, though maybe not. I suppose it's possible that loose wiring strands might always be present and bits of metallic debris might be sucked into a computer by a negative pressure system (and float around inside the case until they settle in the wrong place) if exposed to a garage or workshop, though it seems unlikely.

This exact thing only happened to me once but it cost me a fairly new CFX/MBB combo (an unfair and expensive loss that really pissed me off) so now I'm paranoid about methodically inspecting every single socket every single time (and sometimes shooting a blast of compressed air) before installing any piece of hardware, even the lowliest of cheap PCI cards, and long gone are my days of just quickly and casually shoving stuff into an open PC. I'm even more wary of this than of ESD, even though I have personally zorched a fair number of little CMOS parts with polyester carpet volts in my time. I absolutely loathe having "tainted" or "compromised" components from blown systems which might pass every conceivable test I can run but will always nag me subconsciously with a worried lack of confidence about their ultimate reliability.

That card might still be salvageable if you're willing to rework all the damaged traces and replace any faulty caps and SMTs you find. I would carefully check for ground faults on the MBB (especially near the VRM and PCIe bus), confirm the HW monitor chip hasn't blown, and test out every onboard cap be it big or small. The PSU should be carefully inspected for wiring/connector faults and voltages backprobed under rated load. Removable components like the CPU, RAM, and intact PCIe/PCI cards can be tested in other computers. A meticulous visual inspection is necessary, a complete BIOS and firmware reflash might be overkill but can't hurt, and a non-contact thermometer can help isolate trouble areas during the smoke test. Of course all bets are off if your AC receptacles aren't properly wired, though I somehow doubt that's going to be an issue in your home.

[x88x]

Oh, it's quite evident where the heat problem is when I turn it on and the slot bursts into flames.

I could understand it if something had somehow gotten in there or there was a new, faulty component or something, but that's the weird thing...I hadn't touched anything since I re-assembled it most recently about 2-3 weeks ago, there were no new parts, I have almost neutral airflow (probably not quite, but close), and all the case panels had actually been on (for once ). I really don't know what happened...the newest component is the MBB, so that's my first suspicion, but I just don't know. Hopefully Microcenter will be cool about replacing it.

[Konrad]

That's just absolutely weird. I could understand a sparky PSU failing under those conditions, or a severely overheated component like a CPU or GPU chip. Or a complete meltdown of the entire box from MBB upwards. But not just one card on the PCIe bus (of all things), and nothing else, on a system that's had a two week burn-in.

My official technical assessment is
Diagnosis - "Error -1: Unknown Catastrophic Hardware Incompatibility Problem (CHIP)."
Prognosis - System might work if you replace catastrophically incompatible hardware.
I'll send you my bill.

If you want a better diagnosis you've got to talk to an exorcist.

[x88x]

Well, as it turns out, I'm not gonna start moving this weekend... ...stupid *%&@*#$ lending company can't be bothered to do their job promptly... ..so it looks like I will be taking the MBB out this weekend after all. I'm interested to see Microcenter's reaction...

EDIT:
Wow, I just checked some post dates, and it looks like it had been just over 4 weeks since I had it open. ..curiouser and curiouser..

[x88x]

Ok, so I got a response from Newegg just now, and it's out of their warranty period. I expected as much, since they only state 30 days on their website. They did give me Asus' support number though. Apparently they do support all of their products directly. I'll be calling them tomorrow, and we'll see what happens.

Since I haven't seen this number anywhere else, for anyone interested, here's the number they gave me for Asus: 1-510-739-3777