A user on Reddit mentioned that several Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboards caught fire. The cause? The capacitor is installed upside down.
This is quite ironic, considering that the ROG Maximus series of motherboards is one of the premium components which is quite expensive compared to other motherboards with the same chipset.
For information, this Z690 chipset is a chipset for the latest Intel processor series, namely the 12th generation Intel Core aka Alder Lake.
The user on Reddit mentioned that of the two Z690 Hero mobos he tested for three days, one of them caught fire. Just like a number of similar reports that have appeared on YouTube and the Asus forums.
Previously, there were some users of the mobo who complained about the MOSFET melting, error codes appearing, and the Z690 Hero mobo emitting smoke.
Asus investigated the problem and found the cause. Namely the capacitor that is installed upside down, precisely the capacitor next to the DDR5 slot on the mobo. The reversed capacitor becomes hot and damages the MOSFET and other components in the vicinity.
"We recently received an incident report regarding the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard. In an ongoing investigation, we identified a reverse-installed memory capacitor in production on one line, which may have caused a debug error code 53, no post, or malfunction. motherboard components," Asus explained in a statement.
Not all Z690 Hero mobos have the capacitor installed upside down. But only mobos whose serial number is 90MB18E0-MVAAY0 and serial numbers starting with MA, MB, and MC, are likely to experience this problem.
Z690 Hero mobo users are advised to check their mobo box to check the serial number, and contact Asus customer service if the mobo has the serial number because Asus is working on a unit replacement program for the mobo.
