Surprisingly, poor high-power design does not always result in an electrical fire or smoke. The results are a spectrum. In the case of the electrical fire, the results may be instantaneous, and the first time the motor spins is also the last time the motor spins due to catastrophic board damage. This indicates that something is fundamentally faulty with the design, or some aspects of normal operation are amplified. As a result, some aspect of the design can be reduced or mitigated, controlling the source of damage and reducing its negative effects on the system to bring probability of damage to a negligible level.

In other cases, the motor will spin and damage might occur when commanded to deliver more current, or stop rotating. A change in operation stresses the system beyond what it is capable. In more difficult cases, the motor will spin at the same current or speed for a hundred hours but fail minutes before the test concludes. This could mean that a special use case might cause the design to fail, or regular operation might result in damage to the design over time until a permanent and observed failure occurs.

Understanding the differences in the spectrum allows the designer to understand what kind of change is needed to fix or prevent damage. Just like the spectrum of damage, the spectrum of changes could vary from replacing a component on the bill of materials to a complete redesign of the schematic and layout.