When Disaster Strikes: My Computer Caught Fire – Seeking Advice

It’s not every day that a gaming session ends in chaos, but that’s precisely what happened to me recently. While enjoying GTTOD on Steam, I experienced a terrifying moment: just five minutes into the game, my monitor went black, and I was horrified to see sparks flying and flames erupting from behind the graphics card at the PCIe slot.

Acting quickly, I shut off the power supply and unplugged the unit. Thankfully, I managed to capture some images of the damage for reference, which you can view here: Damage Gallery.

System Specifications

To give you an idea of my setup, here are the key specifications:

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

What Went Wrong?

I’m reaching out to the community for insights into what may have caused this catastrophic event. It’s reassuring to know that all of my components are still under warranty, but I’m left wondering about the extent of the damage. Specifically, I suspect that my motherboard and graphics card might be toast, but could there be other parts affected that I’m unaware of?

Moreover, I’m curious to know whether the motherboard malfunctioned and caused the graphics card to fail, or if the graphics card was the initial culprit leading to the motherboard’s demise.

If anyone has experienced something similar, or if you have any thoughts on how to best tackle the warranty process, I would greatly appreciate your expertise. It’s a daunting prospect, but I’m eager to get back to my gaming routine without the looming threat of potential fires.

Thank you for your assistance, and apologies for any formatting issues as I’m currently posting via mobile due to my recent technical disaster.