When Disaster Strikes: My Computer Caught Fire – What to Do Next?

It was just another casual gaming evening when the unexpected happened. I fired up “GTTOD” on Steam, and only five minutes into my session, everything went awry. The screen suddenly went black, and to my horror, I noticed sparks flying from behind my graphics card at the PCIe slot, accompanied by flames licking at the components. In a panic, I immediately switched off the power supply and unplugged the system to prevent further damage.

After this frightening ordeal, I’m left with a smoking heap of silicon and metal. For those who are curious, I’ve documented the aftermath with some photos here.

My System Specifications

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

Seeking Guidance on the Next Steps

As I begin to assess the situation, I find myself wondering what could have caused such a catastrophic failure. All my components are still under warranty, which gives me a glimmer of hope. However, I’m concerned that both the motherboard and graphics card may be irreparably damaged.

I would appreciate any insights you might have about what could have gone wrong. Is it likely that the motherboard caused the GPU to fail, or could it have been the other way around? Additionally, will I need to replace any other components beyond the GPU and motherboard?

Navigating the warranty process is always a hassle, and I hope to gather as much information as possible before I reach out to the manufacturers. If you’ve experienced something similar or have expertise in hardware failures, your advice would be invaluable during this frustrating time. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer!

Note: Apologies for any unusual formatting in this post; I’m drafting this on my mobile device since, well, the computer literally went up in flames!