Gigabyte Motherboard Caught on Fire!!!

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

It could have been the video card drawing too many amps through the PCIe socket or a loose connection in the slot. Possibly a bad trace on the video card PCB. Increased resistance, high current equals heat. Enough to cause the scorching and burning. It is very difficult to say with 100% certainty. Be glad eVGA covered the video card. Gigabyte may very well be right saying it wasn't a fault of the mobo... OR... it could be the other way around. I am pretty confident in saying it wasn't a short circuit, but more likely a loose or high-resistance connection for it to smoke and scorch.

Either way, for Gigabyte to deny the claim is horsecrap

 

[ronbo613]

Gigabyte can say it's not the fault of the motherboard because you don't really have any way to prove that it is. Of course, Gigabyte can't prove that it wasn't the motherboard since everything is fried.

This is the type of situation that separates the good companies from the bad ones. EVGA is a good company, I've had several of their video cards and they've always treated me right. I have a Gigabyte mobo now and it will probably be my last. I called them about a problem(flaky Marvell SATA ports) with the motherboard, they were very evasive and denied there was a problem. In fact, it is a well known flaw with the Marvell controller, so in essence, they were being dishonest.

Gigabyte should have given you the benefit of the doubt, but not much you can do about it except not to buy any more of their products. You can file a claim with your credit card company, but it will be your word against theirs. Personally, I'd give it a shot, you don't have anything to lose.

 

[JimmiG]

It's not the motherboard's fault that the motherboard melted down?

I'll probably choose another brand next time I buy a mobo. I'm very pleased with my current Gigabyte board, but if something does go wrong, you want the company to make every effort to get things right again.

 

[MrTeal]

Update:

EVGA sent me a new graphics card! Within a week or so of it actually happening I had a replacement in my hands. They even go as far as updating your EVGA profile with the new serial number and everything! This company is like the Amazon of computer parts when it comes to customer service. I was getting email responses from them within an hour which is awesome! I can say that in the future I will not buy any other graphics card other than EVGA (unless by-chance AMD comes out with something great).

Gigabyte on the other hand - what a friggen joke. After waiting almost a week for them to approve the RMA, sending the board in, and then it sitting for 3 days after delivery they have decided that the warranty is void due to "physical damage" and sent a picture showing the burned area. Are you freaking serious?!?! No s**t Sherlock there is physical damage - the thing melted down. I called them and the guy I talked to told me "too bad" there's nothing they can do because the damage was not caused by the motherboard. When I asked what did cause it they said they "didn't know" they just knew it wasn't a problem with the board itself. Riiiight. I installed a different mobo in my system while this is being sorted out because I expected them to drag this out and everything else seems to be fine - even the PSU. I checked voltages with a meter and they all seem fine. Granted I can't check ripple without a scope, but I don't think ripple would cause a burn like that. I also fail to see how a power surge or anything external could possibly even be a factor. Nothing else in the entire house had an issue - not even the 2 monitors plugged into the same wall / outlet / UPS device or my Dell PE servers.

When they send it back I am thinking about filing a claim with my CC - as I would think that's an alternate option. My real question is - am I beyond pissed over nothing? What are the chances that the video card caused the board to melt down - and not the other way around? I'm sure it's hard to pinpoint what was actually the cause - but for GB to just give me the finger and say oh - not our problem is just asinine. Seems like the only thing they would cover is if a bios chip failed - and even then they'd find a way to blame you. I can say that I don't think that I will ever buy or trust another one of their products again. I've had good luck with ASUS (never had to RMA anything) and one RMA with an MSI motherboard that was painless.

I'd say it's actually pretty likely that the GPU caused the fault and toasted the motherboard, but it's tough to say with certainty without having the parts in hand. It might not even be possible to isolate it depending on the damage. I can see why they wouldn't want to cover it, but often on those questionable things a good company will anyway.