ASRock Z68 Pro3 burst in flames

wimey

Distinguished
Sep 15, 2011
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18,510
I just got my new computer parts and installed them carefully. On the first startup i checked from BIOS that everything is fine, which they were. Then I restarted just to see if it would start up with my old windows 7 ultimate installation. It opened and started installing new drivers and I thought wow this is too good to be true. About 2 minutes later something burst into flames for a second and I instantly shut down PC. I got no clue what I did wrong or if it was a completely random hardware failure.
Here's somekind of picture of it now:
asrockz68pro3.jpg


Any ideas?

The setup I used:

Z68 PRO3 ASROCK S1155 Z68 DDR3 USB3 SATA6 ATX
NE5X560THD02F PALIT GTX 560 PCIE 1GB GDDR5 DVI/HDMI OC
KHX1333C9D3B1/4G 4GB 1333MHZ DDR3 NON-ECC CL9 DIMM HYPERX
CM8062300834106 Core i5- 2400/3.10G 6M LGA1155 Tray
Zalman CNPS5X cpu cooler
Corsair TX 650W
2x 1TB western digital HDDs
 

roscolo

Distinguished
Nov 9, 2010
187
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18,690
Did you boot it up with nothing installed before you put all your components in?

You say it burst into flames. You saw flames? You smelled smoke? If so, I would RMA the board for another one.
 

wimey

Distinguished
Sep 15, 2011
3
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18,510
No I didn't boot it before installing components. There was nothing in the manual about that.

The case was open so yes, I saw a small fire for 1-2 seconds. I could smell smoke and you can see it's burnt a bit.
 

roscolo

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Nov 9, 2010
187
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18,690
When you get your new board, just install your CPU and one stick of RAM and hook up your power supply. You can hook your monitor into the onboard video. Then boot into the BIOS screen and give it a run through. If you want to update the BIOS, this will be an excellent time to do so. Then, add one piece of your build at a time and reboot each time, connecting / disconnecting power and turning on and booting after each piece is added. Then, if you have a problem, you will have a really good idea where the problem lies. Or, if you have an onboard fire as you did here, you won't burn your video card, or RAM or any other component.

Sucks when it happens, but if it had to happen be glad it happened now while it's early and you can just swap it out now.
 

jet-21

Distinguished
Feb 16, 2011
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18,540
Looks like the voltage regulators for the fan connectors. Did you connect any fan to either fan headers? You should RMA it asap.
 

wimey

Distinguished
Sep 15, 2011
3
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18,510
No, only fan connected was the CPU cooler fan.

My memory is not listed in the supported list on ASRock site, have they not listed everything or can that be a problem?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/memory.asp?Model=Z68%20Pro3

also in some random review I found out this about CNPS5X:

Its main problem is the compatibility issue: the piece that holds the screws is too long and can be blocked by the chipset heatsink or other motherboard parts, and you can even damage your motherboard if you aren't aware of this problem.

But there's no specifications of that

Also the video card seems to work fine on my older pc

edit3 in case:
people have managed to get similiar problems by misplacing case standoffs, I know I had them right tho.