As they say in Mortal Kombat, "toasty!"

[mikeymikec]

A customer had an unusual problem with their desktop PC in that the DVD drive did not respond at all to the eject button, no lights, noise, nothing. It wasn't listed in Windows either (inc. Device Manager). I brought a spare just in case and went about replacing the drive. I pulled out the SATA data cable without issue, but when I went to disconnect the SATA power lead, it felt strangely round, then as I tried to pull it out the connector mostly disintegrated in my hand.

It looks to me like either the molex-to-SATA power adapter went flambé or the drive itself somehow, my guess is the adapter.







What I found really surprising was that the customer had no idea that there had been any kind of incident, their computer worked fine except for the DVD drive. There's no sign of damage otherwise in the computer, and adding a new DVD drive seemed to go without incident.

One other thing I found odd though was that the screws for the DVD drive show signs of rust, as do the screws for the SSD. Also, these weird little white dots on the inner chassis that look like spilt salt at a glance. I could scratch them a bit but they wouldn't come off easily. The customer isn't aware of any kind of moisture/damp issue in the office, nor have I seen any sign in the office. All round, a bit strange!

 

[nakedfrog]

Well, that definitely seems like it could have gone worse

 

[Captante]

Was the PC in use in a damp basement, next to a sink or some other high-humidity location?

Solvents are another possibility.... I saw a PC in a body-shop that had signs of plastic and metal breaking down due to vapors passing through via the cooling fans.

 

[mikeymikec]

Was the PC in use in a damp basement, next to a sink or some other high-humidity location?

Solvents are another possibility.... I saw a PC in a body-shop that had signs of plastic and metal breaking down due to vapors passing through via the cooling fans.

AFAIK, nope nope and nope. In an accountant's office which is an extension to their house.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

AFAIK, nope nope and nope. In an accountant's office which is an extension to their house.

The corrosion on those top screws in the last picture tell a different story. Weirdly they're the same type as the lower ones which are uncorroded. Perhaps he had it upside-down in a fishtank?

 

[mikeymikec]

The corrosion on those top screws in the last picture tell a different story. Weirdly they're the same type as the lower ones which are uncorroded. Perhaps he had it upside-down in a fishtank?

The lower ones were corroded too, but less so.

 

[KidNiki1]

AFAIK, nope nope and nope. In an accountant's office which is an extension to their house.

are there kids? maybe something got spilled, cleaned up, and the "perp" hoped for the best?

 

[mikeymikec]

are there kids? maybe something got spilled, cleaned up, and the "perp" hoped for the best?

If they ever had kids, they moved out longer ago than this computer was built. Yeah, I wondered about a spill as well but didn't see any sign of one. I also would have thought that a spill would have resulted in a fairly immediate smell of smoke and the dots would have been joined in the customer's head.

 

[nakedfrog]

The corrosion on those top screws in the last picture tell a different story. Weirdly they're the same type as the lower ones which are uncorroded. Perhaps he had it upside-down in a fishtank?

Watercooling is the greatest, I'm told!

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Nobody noticed the acrid stench of burning plastic and insulation?

 

[skyking]

last time I saw smoke like that was back when drives were expensive, and I had a FreeBSD fileserver with a handful of smallish drives in it. I came home to that stench, and found that the power supply had gone rogue and took out every controller card on the drives. Files toasted.
I threw everything away but the NIC.
I had the NIC in another server and it did the delayed death there. It quit responding and I plugged in some console to find kernel panic. That power supply had a flawless victory.

 

[mikeymikec]

Nobody noticed the acrid stench of burning plastic and insulation?

There's only one person in the office these days I think, so maybe with a window open, the PC on and they went to have lunch? Even then I would have thought there would be a whiff when they returned. A few years ago, they had an extremely slow Internet connection so I could understand 'walk away and leave it downloading x'.

 

[Charmonium]

AFAIK, nope nope and nope. In an accountant's office which is an extension to their house.

This is probably pushing it a little, but in some areas with a high water table, building on a cement pad can be a lot like a typical Leave it to Beaver basement (and if that sounds intriguing, google raccoon sex dungeon - no really).

The corrosion on those top screws in the last picture tell a different story. Weirdly they're the same type as the lower ones which are uncorroded. Perhaps he had it upside-down in a fishtank?

My guess - cheesy construction - sloppy hand spray paint and ungalvanized hardware.