Twitch streamer's PC build goes up in smoke

[midian182]

Facepalm: Even the most experienced of PC users feel that moment of anxiety when hitting the power button on a new build, so imagine live-streaming your first-ever attempt to an audience and something going horribly wrong.

The incident was the work of 21-year-old Twitch streamer Fastaction99, who was putting together a PC for the first time with some help from viewers in the chat and friends on Discord.

Once the build was complete, Fastaction99 pressed the button to see if the system would post—always a tense moment. But seconds later, we hear popping noises and smoke comes pouring out of the PC.

When examining what went wrong, the streamer said he believes it was the front fans that “fried,” but the video appears to show smoke emanating from the motherboard, possibly in the area of the 24-pin connector.

Sensibly, Fastaction99 said he would be taking the PC to Microcenter for an expert to take a look. Hopefully, there won’t be too much damage to expensive components, but the amount of smoke that poured out isn’t a good sign.

While putting together a PC today is nowhere near as daunting as it was a couple of decades ago, thanks partly to the numerous help guides and YouTube videos on the subject, even the best of us can make a rookie mistake at times. What’s the worst PC-building horror story you’ve heard of? Forgot to add thermal paste? Left the CPU cooler off? Blown up a PSU? Let us know in the comments below.

Image credit: Roman Pyshchyk

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84799-twitch-streamer-pc-build-goes-up-smoke.html

 

[stewi0001]

I have never had a build smoke up on me. What I would run into was trying to get it to start up, since most of times I would be overhauling my machine and the OS would be freaking out over drivers and what not.

 

[gigantor21]

Maybe a part was faulty or damaged?

 

[APINKaCHU]

Sounds like he may have plugged something in the wrong spot or in the wrong orientation...

 

[noel24]

Now The Verge crew can finally say: "At least It worked"

 

[Mister_K]

Never heard of such thing happening. Must have seriously ****ed up, that or click bait for views.

 

[MasterMace]

First thing I'd ask is what Power Supply he got. It'd be much easier to assist him if his camera was pointed at his work instead of his reaction to his work.

 

[ElShotte]

$20 he installed the motherboard without using stand-offs. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what he did. You can see in the video, where the cutout is in the center of the motherboard, that it's sitting right on the metal. As soon as he powered up the system, the motherboard started shorting out.

 

[mbrowne5061]

$20 he installed the motherboard without using stand-offs. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what he did. You can see in the video, where the cutout is in the center of the motherboard, that it's sitting right on the metal. As soon as he powered up the system, the motherboard started shorting out.

Don't most modern cases now come with standoffs built into the case at this point?

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Ouch!

My worst was a new build (many years ago) in an Antec case which came with a short in the case-front ports. Fortunately, the PSU took power out (internal fuse or something) and I was able to reset it later (glad I spent $ on good quality).

Another was a clipping which had hidden down in a PCIe slot on a new Asus motherboard.

Otherwise, it was my own fault - connected wrong pins, loose screws, etc.

 

[Uncle Al]

Built my first computer in which every resistor, etc. had to be soldered onto the board. Took me just over a month to complete it. Somehow I never quite understood the issues of solder running together but no matter, I got it done. My dad was so proud of this accomplishment he would not let me start it up until the whole family (including aunts, uncles, cousins, etc) were gathered together. So, after a big meal at the house, everyone gathered around the large folding table and I switched it on. Smoke started pouring out the vents to which my Dad said "that's pretty impressive, what else can it do?!?" To this day I still remember this vividly ......

 

[TresNugget]

Don't most modern cases now come with standoffs built into the case at this point?

They're pretty rare. I've seen some OEM cases with them but nothing in the PC builder market that I can remember. None of my cases have them and 3 of them are from the past 3 years or so.

 

[TresNugget]

$20 he installed the motherboard without using stand-offs. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what he did. You can see in the video, where the cutout is in the center of the motherboard, that it's sitting right on the metal. As soon as he powered up the system, the motherboard started shorting out.

The only other thing I can think of is that he may have plugged some rgb stuff in the wrong place if using generic extension cables. Might've plugged the 3 pin into a 4 pin or vice versa.

 

[Amigagamer]

I working on 30 +years old computers what is obsolete more than new machines because parts inside is old and hi risk to going bad. I newer have this problem to whole pc was burning like that. Any new machine have self protection if no have good cooling force auto shut down. If you disable this will be overheat and no be able to start. I have also latest gaming desktop my ovn build based on Asus ROG components and since I built this was newer fail. Here is clear what is happening is simple wrong position of some power connector what cause shortage and fire in this pc. Everyone who built ovn machines should be follow 2 simple things. 1. Newer force connect anything inside or outside of pc and install components what is to strong and psu can't handle with this. 2.Please read manual that no be cost you nothing.

 

[kiwigraeme]

The short is probably a good answer - when I built my current PC - I wanted extra sata power cables - but I very careful - so googled it - and found out can not swap modular cables willy nilly - even within same brand - with a voltmeter you can make are sure your power lines are in the right slots - I didn't take that very small risk - just got some new ones from manufacturer - but apparently you will just fry your new 2tb sdd drive .
Each time I build a new pc I google the black triangle - to get all the fiddly things correct - now if I was a real man I put just leave the case open & use a flat head screwdriver across the pins to boot

 

[WolveRyan]

Don't most modern cases now come with standoffs built into the case at this point?

I've not had one recently that didn't have standoffs, also first build with help from his chat and he doesn't have his camera pointed at the PC so they can actually see and help? I'm calling bullshit look at the free publicity he's getting when he could easily use a bunch of cheap second hand parts and cause a fire. I've been building PC's for 20 years and I've never had one catch fire, I've tripped the fuses in my house and burnt out components but I've never had an actual fire.

 

[redgarl]

I have never had a build smoke up on me. What I would run into was trying to get it to start up, since most of times I would be overhauling my machine and the OS would be freaking out over drivers and what not.

It happens when the hardware is crap. My EVGA 1080 FTW dies on me twice in 10 months. The second time, the card literally blew up. Lessons learned, if your build doesn't post with your discrete GPU installed, then it is because the quality of your PSU is preventing the system from booting up and frying the card. This catastrophe happened with an EVGA power supply.

 

[onestepforward]

Built my first computer in which every resistor, etc. had to be soldered onto the board.

Me, too! Mine was a Motorola 6809 board. From memory, I built it circa 1979.

 

[captaincranky]

Certain motherboards require a nylon standoff in one particular position. If you put a standard brass standoff in its place, you'll ground the hot terminal, and fry the machine

 

[kiwigraeme]

Looking at that video again - that is the kind of smoke you get when a wire runs hot and the coating burns* - so could be the a wire to his fan - but how could you put that much power through it- it happen pretty quick as well. he was slow to cut the power as well
'
Seen it with crappy jump leads - also happen to me while on a 6 month safari in Southern African parks - my thermostat for my radiator was stuffed and a small garage didn't have a spare - so I just asked for a switch to be installed on my dashboard - while cruising along slowly watching animals - I saw what I thought was steam coming out from my bonnet . They had installed a stupidly thin wire directly off the battery - thankfully I turn the engine and & switch off - it had cut 2/3rds the way through my fuel line

 

[XtremeMaC]

I've built numerous Pcs, added/removed billions of components. Never have I ever fried anything even with serious overclocking.
Things are pretty straightforward and connectors are *****-proof. Only exception I'd say is if he plugged 4pinned fan terminal to a 3pinned motherboard, but that wouldn't short it out either.
One last idea is if he rubbed his feet waay too much on the carpet and huge static fried things...

 

[imdarkbreeze]

Don't most modern cases now come with standoffs built into the case at this point?

No, they don't. SOME do, but "some" is not "most". The ones that do are generally cases that only support a single form factor. Otherwise, you'd have integrated standoffs in places where you don't want standoffs to be for some form factors. Or not have them in places you want them for others.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I just searched - most case fans are 12v so even if he took the power direct from PSU with wrong rail/cable - it shouldn't matter as 3.3V , 5v & 12v .

Maybe also left some metallic crap in side case . When you think of all those photos on the internet of cases full of dust & crunk - and they all seem to run ok
Plus if fan was overloaded wouldn't it either blow straight away or would it not race loudly or vibrate madly with wrong type of current

 

[imdarkbreeze]

Certain motherboards require a nylon standoff in one particular position. If you put a standard brass standoff in its place, you'll ground the hot terminal, and fry the machine

I won't say this has NEVER been true, but I haven't seen nylon washers OR standoffs included with any case I've worked with in the last 15 years. Prior to that, and perhaps on some enterprise or server applications, this might be truer, but for consumer motherboards I don't know of ANY that have that requirement. Plus, since standoffs come with cases rather than with motherboards, there would be absolutely no way for the case manufacturer to know whether you were going to need one or not. And since motherboards don't come with standoffs, I'm pretty skeptical that this is a thing at all.

Again, maybe LONG ago, but not anytime in recent memory for consumer hardware.

Conservatively speaking I've built about 175 systems over the last twelve years or so, and I've never never seen anything nylon included in any of the hardware kits. I have a bunch of nylon washers from many years ago, but I don't think I can recall ever encountering a requirement for nylon standoffs.

Also, the idea that the standoffs are for grounding is a misconception. They absolutely are not for grounding. They are isolated and the metal rings surrounding the standoff holes are in no way connected to any traces, ground points or anything else of an electrical nature. The metal rings are there for reinforcement only, to keep the PCB from being crushed.

 

[captaincranky]

@indarkbreeze Well, I'm not going to waste as much of my time disputing your post as you did disputing mine.

But, if you want to spend your time rereading instructions to all the Gigabyte boards I've built, I'm sure you'd find nylon standoffs somewhere.

Oddly enough, I just pulled the side of my Z170 board, an low and behold, the are solder traces under the standoff washers. I would guess that is for grounding, but what do I know?

FWIW: With a digital multi-meter, I stuck a PCIE- connection at the 12 volt wire, I grounded it a case screw, and it read 12 V+. Then I touched a standoff bolt with the negative meter wire, and what do ya know, it still read 12 volts. So yes, the standoffs are ground.

That having been said, I fail to see the reasoning behind a ring of solder lands leading to the standoffs, it they weren't grounded. But, I'm not yanking any motherboards to check the PCB traces, so you can be right if you want.