ASUS HD7950-DC2T-3GD5 Caught Fire

[onfirepro]

Hello everyone,

I'd just like to warn other owners of this card of the experience I've had. I bought the V1 of the card in September of last year. A little over a month ago at the end of May, the card literally caught fire while I was gaming. The screen went black and the fans went crazy. Smoke poured out of the case and when I opened the side panel the card was on fire. I disconnected the power supply and luckily the fire went out. Also lucky I was home at the time, if I weren't I could have lost a lot more than a video card.

This card has a faulty cooler design as its huge heatsink is only connected to the PCB with 4 screws. Over time due to the weight of the cooler, it sags and loses contact with the PCB. The card was subsequently redesigned with a V2 model. You can read more about it here: http://www.behardware.com/news/12153/asus-hd-7950-directcu-ii-fault-report.html

As the card was only 9 months old and Asus has a 3 year warranty, I sent it for RMA. Two weeks after delivery I still hadn't heard a response, so I emailed support again. I was informed that:

The only way we would cover burn damage is if there was component failure to any components on your card. Your unit does not have component failure it came in with burn damage and I cannot specify how the damage was cause but it is not covered under our warranty. If you would like to move forward with replacing your unit I can offer you a discount price of $260.00 (shipping waived). I have attached a link so you can see what kind of damage is and isn't covered under our warranty. Thanks
http://support.asus.com/repair.aspx?no=568&Slanguage=en

Asus cannot tell me what the cause of the damage was. I never modified the card, and I'm fairly certain the heatsink is a component, and it failed drastically. Asus will not issue a replacement as it claims burns are not covered under warranty. Just a warning to other users with this card that:
a) your card over time will begin sag your PCI-E port to overheat, and will most likely catch fire, and
b) Asus will not issue a replacement for this even though the faults with the card are well documented. In fact the card was redesigned and there is now a V2.

I payed $350 for the card new in September, nearly a $50 premium over other 7950s. I believed Asus had superior build quality and warranty. I was mistaken. Only 9 months later I'm out $350 and now am being asked to pay another $260 for a replacement for a card which Asus is well aware is defective.

I've attached pictures of the card in question.

[xeromist]

Under-tensioned heat sinks don't cause fires, they cause the temps to spiral until the card shuts down. I'm not saying your card wasn't faulty in some other way but the heat sink mounting wasn't the cause.

[onfirepro]

Fair enough. Still, by the way it was sagging you could tell it wasn't exactly stable. As I told Asus support, I can understand it not being covered if it was customer induced damage, but I have no idea what I did to induce it. I never did anything to the card except install it and blow dust out of the heatsink whenever I cleaned my PC. I have a Corsair 300R case which is neat and has great airflow, and I always keep it clean. Here's a picture of it with the 6870 I had prior to this card.

[Zka17]

That burn on the last picture does not seem to be from the GPU... it's more like a local short... - I would expect to see burn marks around the GPU if that overheated...

Have you had liquid cooling in your case where that graphics card was used? If so, are you sure that it's not leaking?

[onfirepro]

Nope never been underwater. All air cooling. The picture I posted is my PC, just with an older graphics card. Again I'm very lucky I was at the PC when the card went up in flames as I could have lost not only the rest of the computer but the house as well. This thing was a serious fire hazard, but I still don't know why it lit up.

[xeromist]

I'll preface this by saying that most modern cards sag a little. These huge metal bricks have to be supported by a plastic slot and a PCB and gravity is relentless. But if your card was sagging more than most maybe that point near the burn where the metal contacts the PCB was warped badly enough for a short to occur? Hard to say without independent expert analysis.

I'm not sure speculation matters much at this point though. RMA departments have guidelines on what they cover and what they won't. If they've already decided on your card your options are limited. You could try appealing to see if you can have a supervisor review the situation or you could try your luck in court but you'd have to prove the cause and prove that the cause is covered by the warranty.

[Raja]

The RMA team does have guidelines on this so it's not surprising they would deal with it as CID. Very difficult for them to discern how the damage took place. I have asked the CLM guys to have a look at the case and see what they can find out. Not much I can say or promise as I understand both sides.

-Raja

[nitestar95]

I have to say, I'm cautiously watching this thread as well as the one on hardforum to see the outcome of this. In the past two years, I've purchased five Asus motherboards and two top end video cards (not asus because of the 'only 3 of 5 heatpipes actually cool anything situation with their videocards). Next year it will be time to upgrade. This situation will strongly determine who's equipment I will be purchasing; it's already left a bad opinion of asus as I'm shopping for a new router, and have now stopped considering their line of networking equipment based on this customer's problems with service. Considering the cost, and the markup of high end video cards, it won't cost asus much to resolve this problem. The question remains, do they want repeat customers, or prefer to screw people who've already given asus their hard earned cash for a product that has failed in a potentially disastrous way.
Lots of eyes are on you, Asus. What's it going to be; do you value your customers, or should we all take a walk down to the next aisle and buy something else? MSI already has my video card business (at least until you fix your heat pipe design on yours). Perhaps I should start looking at another manufacturer to replace my rog boards when the time comes. That will be about $1000 from me in sales from you. I'm not the only one watching this. You decide how you want to run your company, for as long as you stay in business. For while 'the customer is always right' isn't always necessarily true, if you want that customer to come back and buy more stuff, you have to treat him right. He already indicated that he's into high end computer equipment by buying that card. You decide if you want him to buy any more of your products when the time comes, because I guarantee you, even sterling reviews of your products will not change his, or lots of our, decisions as to whether or your products are worth taking a chance on.

[xeromist]

nitestar95 wrote:
I have to say, I'm cautiously watching this thread as well as the one on hardforum to see the outcome of this. In the past two years, I've purchased five Asus motherboards and two top end video cards (not asus because of the 'only 3 of 5 heatpipes actually cool anything situation with their videocards). Next year it will be time to upgrade. This situation will strongly determine who's equipment I will be purchasing; it's already left a bad opinion of asus as I'm shopping for a new router, and have now stopped considering their line of networking equipment based on this customer's problems with service. Considering the cost, and the markup of high end video cards, it won't cost asus much to resolve this problem. The question remains, do they want repeat customers, or prefer to screw people who've already given asus their hard earned cash for a product that has failed in a potentially disastrous way.
Lots of eyes are on you, Asus. What's it going to be; do you value your customers, or should we all take a walk down to the next aisle and buy something else? MSI already has my video card business (at least until you fix your heat pipe design on yours). Perhaps I should start looking at another manufacturer to replace my rog boards when the time comes. That will be about $1000 from me in sales from you. I'm not the only one watching this. You decide how you want to run your company, for as long as you stay in business. For while 'the customer is always right' isn't always necessarily true, if you want that customer to come back and buy more stuff, you have to treat him right. He already indicated that he's into high end computer equipment by buying that card. You decide if you want him to buy any more of your products when the time comes, because I guarantee you, even sterling reviews of your products will not change his, or lots of our, decisions as to whether or your products are worth taking a chance on.

All component manufacturers have guidelines WRT defects vs customer induced damage. It's all in where they draw the lines but it's never perfect. There will be cases where a customer with a truly defective product can't get an RMA and there will be cases where someone misuses and gets the manufacturer to foot the bill. Just as an example, I don't know of any brand that doesn't consider bent pins to be CID. And if anyone is lucky enough to get an RMA for bent pins it's usually an exception rather than the rule.

I'm not saying who is right or wrong in this situation, only that assuming it can't happen with another brand is a bad idea.

[Zka17]

nitestar95, would you explain, please this "not asus because of the 'only 3 of 5 heatpipes actually cool anything situation with their videocards"?

I haven't heard this issue yet...