Installed new psu, rgb header might have caused a small fire?

AyyyOnline

Solid State Member
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6
Location
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Hi,

So I have a huge problem. I just received my new 750w bronze modular aero cool psu and fitted in my pc. I had it unplugged from all cables including power. And switched off at the back on the psu.

I unplugged all cables related to the psu and accidentally unplugged some cables for the case power but these were later plugged in when I installed my new psu and plugged in all the cables to the relevant areas.

So once I fitted everything, I went to turn on the pc once I plugged in the power cord and switched on at the back but it wasn't turning on. So I did a quick forum check and found out that I did my power and reset plugs into the mobo the wrong way round. I went back into my pc and put it in the right way following what it said in my mobo guide.

Once I started it this time, it turned on all fine but where I have my led strip 4 pin header, a small square below those pins caught fire. I instantly switched off the psu from the back and unplugged the cable from the pc.

Once I had taken a look at it to see what caught fire, when I was moving it down onto the floor the small square fell off because it was that fried.

I will attach a picture so you can see what I am talking about.

Please can someone advise on what to do, what this means(the part that is fried and fell off), am I safe to assume I can keep using the pc or shall not bother and get a new mobo?
 

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One look at that and you might not get any warranty.
I suppose the only thing you can do....recheck everything to be sure it is correct and see if it starts. Personally, it looks pretty well hosed to me. Don't be surprised if you need a new board.
 
Last edited:
aero cool
Not a quality unit and does not have rigorous OCP or most other safety features. If nothing else has shorted out you'll be lucky.

That being said, there is a possibility you had the strip header plugged in backwards. This would immediately cause a short and fry circuitry when turned on. You have to triple check to make sure arrow goes to arrow.
 
Is the strip header what gives power to the case? If so I had accidentally put the power and the reset pin in reverse, but the led +/- the correct way the first time round then noticed the the pc wouldn't turn on when I pressed the power button, at which point I had decided to check some forums why and found out I had it in wrong
 
No, nothing gives power to the case. The power switch (2 pins that plug into the board from the case) can be plugged in either way. It only provides a circuit short that tells the PSU to turn the system on. The power LED is what has the + and -. Having this reversed is harmless, and if plugged in the wrong way the LED just won't come on.

The problem here is the RGB header was shorted. The only two ways this will happen is if the strip was plugged in backwards or one of the solder joints behind the board touched the metal on the case. Considering it's rather common for novice users to plug them in backwards I'd wager a guess this is what happened and why the cap blew. The reason why he mentioned quality unit is because short circuit protection would have shut the system down immediately preventing a fire.
 
Yes, and 12V RGB accesories are easy to plug in backwards because they have 4 pins. ARGB stuff is a bit harder because most have the 4th pin area blocked off.
 
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