my msi p6n diamond caught on fire(not joking) Please help

sounds like your south bridge caught fire :0


I cant imagine that you were at fault... though could have been a number of causes ranging form the PSU to the Motherboard its self...


get any pictures of the flames???!!!

my psu is a ocz 700w. It has pretty good reviews so I thought it would be ok. I only have 1 hard drive, 2 dvd drives, the case fans, my mobo and a 8800gts running off it. they were fine till the fire

It wasnot the south bridge, it was a small chip (about the size of a dime) that was located on the bottom right of the board directly above the usb pin conectors. I dont have any pics, once I saw the flame I pulled out the power coard and blew it out.

The only thing I could think of is that I plugged my case fans into my mobo and my psu. Was that wrong? I cannot wait to get my replacement(7 more days   )

Thanks for your reply

From what i understand, plugging in both would not burn ur mobo (it could burn ur fan or reduce its lifespan considerablt though) if im not mistaken, da chip is for the LAN so it could be an power spike frm your network... did anything besides up mobo got fried? (router, switch, etc)

I did not have anything conected to the case except the power coard. I was about to plug in the monitor keyboard and mouse to look at the bios-thats when it happened

chip? could you be more specific? capacitor? inductor? resistor? ic?

What was connected on the usbs?

Man that sucks. Could it have been the cmos battery that caught a fire? I don't know how big a dime is so I'm guessing.

Look he said that the chip was near the i/o panel usb port. and there is no mobo layout that has the battery around that area... it kindda starting to look like it was mobo specific...

the chip(sorry dont know what it was- just that it was a small square black thing. a dime might not have been the best thing to compare it to but if i had to guess i would say that it was about 3 or 4 square centemeters)was not by the i/o pannel, it was where you would plug in the wire from a usb bracket (or a usb cable connected to your case) to the mobo. the conector was 5pins across and 2 pins down with one missing. the chip was right above that- in the very bottom right of the mobo.

Im really sorry for the confusion about the location of the chip, im new and still dont know what the little parts on a mobo are called.Thank you for your help.

You probably had a bad board, the replacement shouldn't go down in flames...

But, $90 shipping, ouch...

lol theres good ole MSI for you  

if you wire up the usb's wrong or dont mount the motherboard properly then thats what happens

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTE3Njk0NjMyNklZQ01QQ2RnMTZfMV8xOV9sLmpwZw==
Is it the chip that says VIA on it in the pic? If so, it's a IEE1394(FireWire) controller (according to the number on the chip). You think you might have hooked up the USB to the Firewire port or something?

it wasnot the via chip it looked more like the small black chip under the ei in the circle next to the trash can with an x through it

heres the link to that pic fore anyoue else : http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTE3Njk0...

i guess that the BIOS was the thing that fucked your motherboard dude

That tiny chip there is not the BIOS. It's way too small for that. I think it may have something to do with powering the USB connectors.

the mobo has 3 seperate pin things for the usb cables. the one that i used for the usb bracket was more to the left,not shown in the pic. if that chip was has to do with the usb i dont see why it would catch on fire becuase i did not have any cables plugged into the usb thing right under the chip

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4234/p6ndiamondec5.j...

it it the exposed back and silver chip?

better pic.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news_images/msi_p6n_diamond_wit...

The external USB connections you wired to that MB are ok, are they? not bent or something that could cause a short? (And sorry if I ask; you used the distance-screws when you installed your MB?)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage.aspx?Image=13-1...

(its the third pic over the one where the board is flat with the cpu on the left and the pcie slots near the right)

if you click on this link you should see a pic of the mobo. magnify it to 200%, look at the top right hand side. the chip is 1 9/16 inches down and 9/16 inches over. i used a ruler and thats what i got,it should be close. (sorry its not in cm, an inch ruler is all that i could find

I think the pic I found is different than what you have. Sorry about that. I didn't put the "diamond" part in when I did the search.

Edit: If it is the black chip with the exposed silver circle in the middle like KiLLAMANx2 mentioned then it is a SATA controller, more specifically Sil4723
According to the manual: "SATA6/ 7 is controlled by Sil4723". Again sorry for the confusion.

Yeah I'm sure he was reaching for his camera instead of the off switch  

Hey, Jonj, Was it the 8-pin SOIC? Do you recall what the number was? Also, there is often a pin 1 indicator on the board. Do you know if the chip might have been installed backwards? If so, that could easily explain the flames.

Regards,

Altazi

Another possibility could be that a circuit board trace shorted to a metal spacer or screw. This would ground-out the circuit in question - another source for flaming silicon.

See, all of the chips contain flame and smoke inside - that's why they get hot. If you let the smoke and flames out, they don't work anymore  

Altazi

I made sure that i used thoes long screws tokeep the case and mobo seperate. I dont think that was the reason becuase i had the power on multiple times before the fire. after i installed the cpu(pentium 4-waiting for 7/22/07 for a quad) i started turned the power on to make sure that the fan worked-it did. i turned on the pwoer after i installed all 4 case fans to see if they worked- they did. after i installed the graphics card(640mb 8800gts) i started it again to see if the fan on the gpu worked-it did. after installing my 2 dvd drives and floppy drive i turned the power on to see if the disk trays would open- they did. after all that i was going to hook up the monitor to install the os than it cought on fire. bummer

I overnight rma ed it LAST wednesday july 4th and i still have not heard back from them

Wow! It certainly sounds like you were extra-careful in your assembly and testing, doing it step-by-step. Sorry you're in the cloud of RMA fog, dude. Best of luck with the new mobo, whenever it comes!

Altazi

the external usb connectors were a bracket that came with the mobo. they were fine, so i dont think that they were the cause. and yes i did use the distance screws. they were a pain to install on your first build

the pics are taken from too far away. sorry cant see it from those

its not that i was being careful its that this is my first build and i wanted to make sure that everything was working

I just got a email from (newegg.com) and thae said that they will REPAIR my mobo. it was on FIRE how can you fix that!!!! i want a replacement not a fire prone one. fime i bought from there. might have been a mistake

Hey JohnJ

Do us a favour, make sure the power supply to your floppy drive is clicked into the right place..

if you have missed out a pin then the floppy drive could have shorted out sending a voltage down the floppy cable...

The floppy drive connecter is to near the silver capacitor for my liking and the chip in the middle looks like some sort of interface voltage switching device..

But the floppy could be the answer if you have one.....

i love floppy disk drives, good for bios updates and recovering fecked up bios

what now when all mobo manufacturers say floppy drive cables are optional extras

failing that johj your motherboard was pooped when u got it

About the floppy cables - iam sure that they were in properly 100% sure

I received a nother email from newegg.com. they will replace it and i should expect it this monday. monday the 16th!! I overnight shipped this to them on July 4th!! I got a email from ups saying that the package got to CA on the 5th at 3pm. it was signed for. I am upset that this will take 12 days to get my mobo back.

by the time i get my mobo back I will only about a week left on the warranty for my other parts. I bought every part of my pc on the same day.