None of that is related to the cards that go up in flames; the problem was a bad batch of caps. Either way, EVGA will take care of him.
Which the vbios update was meant to resolve, according to EVGA (well, they said it was meant to lower the temps of the pwm, but not necessarily prevent fires). Since he said he had applied the update, I was just curious if there were other factors at play that could have contributed to it. I have email correspondence with an EVGA rep who basically says the fires are a fabrication, so when I see posts like these, I like to see if there is more to their story. Not that I'm calling the poster a liar - I'm concerned about having a fire hazard sitting in my own tower and would like to know if the steps I've taken are sufficient (update + pad install).