Gaming Mouse Fire: User's Apartment Nearly Burned Down

Imagine your surprise when the last thing you'd expect to catch fire, your trusty gaming mouse, suddenly bursts into flames. This shocking reality was faced by Reddit user lommelinn, who discovered their Gigabyte M6880X mouse ablaze on their desk while their PC was in sleep mode. The incident nearly resulted in a catastrophic fire that could have "burned down" their apartment.

In a post to reddit, lommelinn recounted the harrowing experience: "I smelled smoke early this morning, so I rushed into my room and found my computer mouse burning with large flames. Black smoke filled the room. I quickly extinguished the fire, but inhaled a lot of smoke in the process and my room is now in a bad shape, covered with black particles (my modular synth as well). Fortunately, we avoided the worst, but the fact that this can happen is still shocking. It's an older wired, optical mouse from Gigabyte."

The Gigabyte M6880X, a seemingly ordinary wired gaming mouse powered via USB 2.0 at 5V and 0.5A, unexpectedly suffered a severe malfunction. Images shared by lommelinn reveal that the top rear panel of the mouse had completely melted, while the underside remained relatively unscathed. The cause of the damage being confined to the top casing remains a mystery. Additional photos show the damage extended to the user’s desk and mousepad, with visible melting.

My Gigabyte mouse caught fire and almost burned down my apartment

byu/lommelinn inpcmasterrace

Gigabyte responded promptly to lommelinn's claim in the Reddit thread, stating:

Hi Everyone,

We have been made aware of the incident shared by lommelin regarding the M6880X gaming mice. Our customer's safety is our top priority and we are actively looking into this case. Our team has reached out to lommelin to offer support and to investigate the matter fully. In the meantime, we appreciate the community’s understanding and patience as we work to address this issue.

Best,
The GIGABYTE Team.

In a follow-up post, lommelinn expressed their disbelief at the unexpected incident. "My PC was in sleep mode," they explained. "Since then, I checked the USB port with a voltage meter and it's fine. No clue how this can happen."