Burnt Asus M5A97, all seems well, but i am unsure

[daftzac]

Although this may appear to be a question with an extremely simple answer i still wanted to ask:

I had built my whole rig and i was on a second successful boot (my first boot had a mention of cpu fan issues so i switched where it was plugged in and all was fine) and as i go to plug in my keyboard to attempt to start up the bios, it happened. The upper corner of my mobo had caught fire (not an actual fire, mind you, but either an electrical spark or an electric flame) and I turned off my computer as I saw it in a mad panic, although nothing seemed to be affected (images were still being displayed on the screen, my cpu had not exploded, etc.).

So my question is this, if it appears that every component is working fine and the damage to the motherboard only seemed to be a grilled corner (but doesnt to appear to have burnt any soldering or nodes) should i take the chance and start it all up again or just avoid wrecking even more parts and RMA it?

And if anyone needs pictures to clear things up, I'll gladly post them.

 

[Pyree]

Its a no brainer choice. If you can RMA, do it and tell them that your board catches fire. They may need a product recall. In the future, if other component catches fire again, even if your warranty runs out, buy a new one. Risk burning your house down for saving money or for the convenience of not getting the new component is not worth it. Safety first!

 

[daftzac]

Ah ok, thats what I thought, but i wanted to check and see what someone else might think first. Also what to do about the other components, do I RMA them too?

 

[MrBig55]

So my question is this, if it appears that every component is working fine and the damage to the motherboard only seemed to be a grilled corner (but doesnt to appear to have burnt any soldering or nodes) should i take the chance and start it all up againor just avoid wrecking even more parts and RMA it?

You serious? A kid would have answered you. :-(

Well if it was my computer I would RMA it right away but if that happened to a friend's computer and he didn't care I, would power it and see what's happening. :-D AHH!! experiencing is so thrilling ^^ But don't power it, better be safe than sorry. You don't want your computer to light a fire in YOUR walls!!

EDIT: Did you light the fire as you plugged in the keyboard?? if that so you'll probably need to use another keyboard next time, this one is now dangerous. Else your power supply is dying and should be changed right away!! This is important you do find why and change the problematic hardware so that it doesn't happen to your new motherboard as well.

 

[daftzac]

@MrBig55

I was talking about a brand new rig, as in I built it that day so Im not sure its the PSU (I personally want to believe it was a warped corner and returning the mobo will fix all my problems). As for the keyboard question, no, I hadnt even plugged it in yet, so I dont think my keyboard is causing fires, unless of course, the mobo can in fact sense a faulty keyboard. And like I said before, it didnt seem to burn anything besides plastic, leaving me to believe that it was just a lemon mobo.

 

[daftzac]

Best answer selected by daftzac.