News NZXT H1 sales stopped due to "fire hazard"

Well I just had a quick look at mine and cant see anything that looks like a screw that might short onto a circuit board but it's not clear which 2 screws they mean. It could also be a batch issue with only some cases using a too long screw but who knows. I've emailed them anyway to get in the system but I don't intend to stop using but will limit its on time to when I'm next to it.

The way its described and from some of the customer reports/reviews it sounds like it would occur on first use rather than after a while (mines a couple of months old now)

 

These ones.

 

Just had a look at mine, the screw is straight onto the circuit board and then through the steel of the chassis. Cant see how the screw length could cause a short. At first it sounded like the screw was so long that it was touching a circuit board behind it but there is only air behind the tip of the screw.

Could the head of the screw be too big? Or overtightened damaging the PCB?

Either way it seems to be a instant and rather spectacular failure rather than one caused by time so I won't loose sleep about it bursting into flames. However will fix this in the fullness of time!

Edit: A bit of reddit reading suggests it might be too large a diameter screw which is digging into the PCB rather than just going through the hole (as per mobo screws).

 

I reckon it's the head. If they had used a smaller round head (m3 perhaps, like the other risers I have) it would have been fine. If that is a gripper screw it could be damaging the PCB area on the riser if done up too tight.

 

I have some nylon screws I tend to use to fix risers. Hard to cause a short with nylon.

 

Quick update:

My repair kit just arrived but obviously took the best part of month. 3 nylon screws and nuts (1 spare) and clear instructions. My screws were bloody tight and it produced a grey/silver dust on removal. No doubt this was PCB residue. Easy fix but make sure to blow out the dust clear of the case on removal of the original screws.

 

Yeah saw that this morning. Kinda confirmed the various suspicions I had read. I'm fine with plastic screws as it will probably need a pcie 4 riser in the near future

 

And the GN analysis continues...

I find it bizarre how NZXT has fallen from being the company that sold nigh-indestructible power supplies to this.

 

I get the angle that GN are coming from but personally I'm comfortable with the fix provided. That being said, if NZXT were to offer 'fixed' risers I would swap it out.

 

I did not like the GN video, they had to go way out of their way to make it happen, and at that point yea sure, anything electrical will burst into flames if you **** with it long enough trying to make it burst into flames.

 

Not sure undoing a screw three or four times is "out of the way".. I dare say I've undone every screw on all my cases a minimum of ten times in the life of the case.

Hell, I've installed and removed the riser on my Shift Air half a dozen times - And I'm not even using it.

 

If the issue is something as serious as a fire hazard you can't rely on the fix being using non-conductive screws of a specific size, and also rely on the end user to implement that fix without a recall. What they should have done was recall the risers and returned a version with safe through holes. I think the second video does a decent job of hammering that point home.

 

oh in the earlier video they were using oversized screws and had to add jumper wires to "replicate" the results, that's junk

Is there a design problem? yes
Is there proof it can happen in the wild? yes
If you intentionally short a power supply can it cause a fire? yes but its kind of a crap move

 

In the first video, they didn't know exactly what the cause was.

In the second video, they had a pretty good idea what the cause was, and to make sure they weren't blowing it out their arse, they engineered a series of tests that wouldn't mean they'd need half a dozen riser cables to prove the theory.

Then, through experimentation, they proved the cause.

The nylon screw "Fix" is quite clearly the cheapest option on the "Fix" board, and they're gambling with peoples possessions (and possibly lives) that these cases go away before anyone sues 'em. Or dies.

 

well its not like NZXT has been hush hush about it all and they are addressing it, do we really need another angy steve on fire video, dunno I just don't like it when GN of all people go national enquirer

ok I apparently struck a nerve, millions will die, plastic screws are a lie, whatever

 

Yes we do.

And by the way, the issues with pci-e risers made in a damp basement by a fired powork engineer don't start and end with fire hazard.



Frankly we need the tech media to declare war against pci-e risers until they are brought up to scratch.