Gaming Mouse Fire: User's Apartment Nearly Burned Down

Imagine your surprise when the last thing you expect to ignite on your desk—your mouse—suddenly bursts into flames. This shocking scenario is exactly what redditor lommelinn experienced. While their PC was in sleep mode, their gaming mouse caught fire, nearly causing a disaster in their apartment.

Sharing the ordeal on reddit, lommelinn recounted, "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 in a bad shape now, 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 mouse in question was a Gigabyte M6880X, an older wired gaming mouse that appears to be a standard piece of hardware. With no battery and operating on a USB 2.0 connection that delivers just 5V at 0.5A, the catastrophic failure of the Gigabyte M6880X has left many puzzled.

Images shared by lommelinn show the mouse's top rear panel entirely melted, while the underside remains relatively unscathed. The cause of the damage being concentrated on the top casing remains a mystery. Additional photos also reveal damage to the user’s desk and mousepad, with visible melted sections.

My Gigabyte mouse caught fire and almost burned down my apartment byu/lommelinn inpcmasterrace

Gigabyte quickly responded to the incident in the comments section of the reddit thread, announcing an investigation:

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 astonishment at the unexpected event. "My PC was in sleep mode," they clarified. "Since then, I checked the USB port with a voltage meter and it's fine. No clue how this can happen."