Expensive Motherboards Are Literally Bursting Into Flames

Well, that's not good.

Where There's Smoke

As if the global chip shortage hasn't been unkind enough to PC builders and gamers, some are noticing their Asus motherboards heating up and — in rare cases — catching fire, Tom's Hardware reported last week.

The boards, which are a high-end model targeted at gamers called the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero that retails for $600, appear to have a backwards capacitor that may be causing neighboring transistors to burn out, as YouTuber Buildzoid suggested in a recent video.

In the worst case, as one Reddit user pointed out in a post last month, the mix up caused two transistors to visibly generate smoke.

Up in Flames

Fortunately, in most if not all cases, the systems shut down before their PCs could fully burst into flames, according to Ars Technica.

Asus publicly acknowledged the issue last week, with its PR team starting to fan out the flames. The company set up a webpage that allows users to check if they own a faulty motherboard.

"We have recently received incident reports regarding the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard," a statement received by Tom's Hardware reads. "In our ongoing investigation, we have preliminarily identified a potential reversed memory capacitor issue in the production process from one of the production lines that may cause debug error code 53, no post, or motherboard components damage."

The company is also working with "relevant government agencies on a replacement program" — so there may be some hope for affected users after all.

READ MORE: Asus Admits Fiery Z690 Motherboard Flaw, Starts Recall Program (Updated) [Tom's Hardware]

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