Quote from: Caemyr on July 02, 2016, 06:24:23 PM

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Now, please excuse me if this was already mentioned, as I just did a quick look at last few pages, but there is something I don't understand about this incident.

The pins burned on that pic are +3.3V/Ground (ATX 24pin, pins 2,3). How could RX 480 possibly draw so much 3.3V from PCIe to burn the ATX pin? The biggest draw measured on that line was 5W (PCper), with others pointing even lower values (2.5W during benchmark).

EDIT: Also https://youtu.be/ZjAlrGzHAkI?t=773

+3v and +3v will not short. The issue is not the power, it's drawing that much power thru connectors, traces, pad, etc that were designed for less current. It's important to keep paths in the circuit insulated from one another. These paths were designed and rated, intended for the load. This is why there is a max specified load, the components, pathways, connectors, traces, pads, etc all have an intend range.

A short circuit occurs when positive finds a straight path to ground. If there were no other paths or traces nearby, a larger than intend load could only act as a fuse, zip and the connection is gone.
In reality, there are plenty of pathways on a circuit board. They are really really close to each other. So, what happens... the extra load causes excessive heat, lowering resistance until an actual short occurs between positive and negative. Positive straight path to ground.

The picture, you see the middle pin above the two +3v pins? It is the -12v. Usually, the ground is far away from the positive in a lot of plugs. Had the -12v been by the +12 in this case, there would have been a much larger arc blast. See, the -12v on this plug was the heat that lowered resistance, melting and the the +3v lanes had a path straight to ground.

+3v to +3v would do nothing. +3v straight to negative....you see the result