When Disaster Strikes: My Computer Ignited—What’s Next?

It’s not every day that a gamer faces the calamitous event of a system fire. This unfortunate incident recently happened to me while I was immersed in a session of GTTOD on Steam. Just minutes into the game, my monitor suddenly went black, followed by the alarming sight of sparks and flames erupting from my graphics card near the PCIe slot. Naturally, I turned off the power supply immediately and unplugged the unit.

For those curious, here are the specifications of my setup:

• Motherboard: MSI Gaming Pro Carbon AC
• Graphics Card: Sapphire Pulse Vega 56
• CPU: Ryzen 2600
• RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 3200MHz CL14
• Power Supply Unit: EVGA G3 750W
• Operating System: Windows 10

As you can imagine, witnessing your machine go up in flames is a heart-stopping moment. Fortunately, all my components are still under warranty, but I’m left grappling with several questions.

The damage appears extensive—are my motherboard and GPU likely ruined? What steps should I take next as I contemplate the daunting warranty claim process? Furthermore, was it the motherboard that caused the graphics card to fail, or was the GPU the instigator of this catastrophic chain of events?

If you’ve experienced a similar situation or have expertise in hardware failures, I would greatly appreciate your insights. Any guidance you can provide would be invaluable before I dive into what I know will be an intricate and potentially frustrating warranty process.

Thank you for your help!