A reverse capacitor causes some expensive Asus motherboards to fail.

High-performance 12th Gen Intel Core processors consume a lot of power and generate a lot of heat, but the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard takes them to the next level. The “reverse potential memory capacitor”in some boards can cause them to catch fire.

The problem was initially discovered by the Actually Hardware Overclocking YouTube channel, which diagnosed the problem through pictures of Reddit users and posters on the Asus support forums whose boards failed. The flipped capacitor causes increased current leakage, generating heat that subsequently burns out the adjacent MOSFETs. Users with reversed capacitors noted that they noticed a burning or even burning smell even before their systems shut down. After the MOSFETs burn out, the onboard motherboard status display will show error code 53 indicating that the motherboard is not detecting the installed RAM.

Not all ROG Maximus Z690 Hero boards have the capacitor installed in reverse order, and the Actual Hardware Overclocking video shows the exact place to see if the capacitor is installed correctly. If you enter your motherboard serial number on the Asus support page for troubleshooting, you will know for sure if your board is affected and on this page you can contact Asus support to get a replacement.