Highpoint Rocketraid 2720SGL caught fire

[thedecline]

I'm posting this here as know this is a fairly common card with some Hacks as it provides a cheap RAID 5/6 solution that works fairly well on the latest OS X.

I've had the card since 2012 and it has worked well up until this point. A few days ago, completely out of the blue the card incinerated itself with huge plumes of toxic smoke pouring out of the computer. I could clearly see sparks and flames coming out of the Rocketraid 2720SGL card. It was so very very lucky my girl was standing near (although not for the fumes her and my baby daughter would have inhaled). I was able to quickly yank the power cord and put an end to what certainly would have been a disastrous house fire.

As this is my server machine it's been common practice to leave it on 24/7 even when nobody is home. So me and my family are very lucky this time around, that either a) were where not incinerated or suffocated in our sleep or b) our house and all our possessions lost to a fire.

I've contacted Highpoint and they are saying they don't think the card caused it, denying a replacement (which I need to access my RAID drives again). Their customer service is pretty substandard and my experiences match others elsewhere online. I feel like they are not taking this seriously at all.

So my advice: Do not buy this card (or any other products from highpoint). If you already own this card, look seriously at replacing it right away. NAS's are a lot cheaper these days and would serve the purpose much better!

 

[vitoludo]

I'm posting this here as know this is a fairly common card with some Hacks as it provides a cheap RAID 5/6 solution that works fairly well on the latest OS X.

I've had the card since 2012 and it has worked well up until this point. A few days ago, completely out of the blue the card incinerated itself with huge plumes of toxic smoke pouring out of the computer. I could clearly see sparks and flames coming out of the Rocketraid 2720SGL card. It was so very very lucky my girl was standing near (although not for the fumes her and my baby daughter would have inhaled). I was able to quickly yank the power cord and put an end to what certainly would have been a disastrous house fire.

As this is my server machine it's been common practice to leave it on 24/7 even when nobody is home. So me and my family are very lucky this time around, that either a) were where not incinerated or suffocated in our sleep or b) our house and all our possessions lost to a fire.

I've contacted Highpoint and they are saying they don't think the card caused it, denying a replacement (which I need to access my RAID drives again). Their customer service is pretty substandard and my experiences match others elsewhere online. I feel like they are not taking this seriously at all.

So my advice: Do not buy this card (or any other products from highpoint). If you already own this card, look seriously at replacing it right away. NAS's are a lot cheaper these days and would serve the purpose much better!

WOW! I just read this looking for a RAID card, you were so lucky. Did you replace it with another card?

 

[macs_forever]

I'm posting this here as know this is a fairly common card with some Hacks as it provides a cheap RAID 5/6 solution that works fairly well on the latest OS X.

I've had the card since 2012 and it has worked well up until this point. A few days ago, completely out of the blue the card incinerated itself with huge plumes of toxic smoke pouring out of the computer. I could clearly see sparks and flames coming out of the Rocketraid 2720SGL card. It was so very very lucky my girl was standing near (although not for the fumes her and my baby daughter would have inhaled). I was able to quickly yank the power cord and put an end to what certainly would have been a disastrous house fire.

As this is my server machine it's been common practice to leave it on 24/7 even when nobody is home. So me and my family are very lucky this time around, that either a) were where not incinerated or suffocated in our sleep or b) our house and all our possessions lost to a fire.

I've contacted Highpoint and they are saying they don't think the card caused it, denying a replacement (which I need to access my RAID drives again). Their customer service is pretty substandard and my experiences match others elsewhere online. I feel like they are not taking this seriously at all.

So my advice: Do not buy this card (or any other products from highpoint). If you already own this card, look seriously at replacing it right away. NAS's are a lot cheaper these days and would serve the purpose much better!

Looks very odd. What exactly caught on fire? Looks like the motherboard caught it on fire. Most of the damage is along the area where there isn't much electricity.

 

[pastrychef]

Wow!!

How is the motherboard? The soot on both sides of the card would lead me to guess that something ignited on the motherboard.