Well this story started when I originally Rma'd my 780TI that had failed some time back, I received a 980 which was wonderful I was happy.
Once I started to use the 980 It began to crash right off the bat, I spoke to a few lads from EVGA and we arranged for it to be replaced which was fantastic.
Keep in mind that this was clearly a refurb as most of our replacements are, so they send me out a new one and you know I'm just thinking its some bad luck you know?
The new card comes with all sorts of marks on the pcb, white marks and some light scratches ( refurb ). I spoke to a few of the evga reps and we agreed maybe we need to send it back however in the end I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. 

That brings us up to tonight, here I am minding my own business.. sausage in hand.. netflixing and chilling solo, then screen goes black for a moment, hard crash..but as the system powers down (looking at my case) I see my 980 spool up.. then a spark comes off the bottom end of the card ( NOT KIDDING..) then a white hot flame(electrical fire?no clue) juts out the end of the graphics card near the connector for the fans to the pcb. At this point I reach for the mains and turn the power off... 
 
This has never happened to me before, I like all of you have had my fair share of faulty cards but this takes the cake, so netflix and chill session interrupted I go to check the system boot up without a card, everything appears to be fine.
 
PSU Check
Cpu Check
Ram Check
Motherboard Check
All hard drives and connected peripherals - Check
 
I install a backup card and we are back up and running (albeit a legend from another Era the 8800GT).
 
What a great way to end New Years Day? Just come off a 2 week rotation of 12 hour shifts hoping to enjoy a nights gaming and poof.
 
:( Give me hugs?

Two threads need to be combined
 
http://forums.evga.com/ReplacementReplacement-980-Literally-blew-up-sort-of-m2430110.aspx#2430119
 

There is a chance that it is your PSU causing these woes.
 
EDIT: Or the AC power causing the problems. Do you run an UPS?

pics?

Heres what I was talking about:

http://forums.evga.com/A-...ustomer%27%27s+GTX+970

I actually had quite similar issue with my 970 SSC. But mine could be caused because of insufficient cooling to VRM's. (My card didn't come with a MOSSFET cooling plate that 970 SSC 2.0+ have. I already made a ticket about it a month or so ago and EVGA was great and offered to replace the card, but It didn't want to live without it at that time since it was running good anyway.) So two days before new year my PC just turned off. I thought weird.. Tried to turn it on - didn't work. Removed everything from PSU and tested it. PSU worked fine. Removed GPU and ran PC with integrated gpu - booted up. 
So I though maybe it was just a random crash. I put the GPU back in, connected the cables and turned PC on. Screen was blank and after 10sec smokes started to come out of left side of GPU. I quickly removed mains from PSU. Fortunately it didn't catch fire or burn down any other component but it sure did smell really bad.
My card is already packaged up and was sent of to Germany today for RMA. Hopefully I get a replacement soon.