Ever seen a computer catch on fire . . .?

[lastig21]

Well I just did. I just hooked up a relay (a 5 pin that you use in auto headlights) to my computer. The goal was to run my fan at 7 volts all the time, and when the digidoc kicked in it would activate the relay to run the fan at 12 volts. Works great in theory but didn't work to well in real world experimentation.

I had the wires laying over the door of my antec 1040 case to test things out. I fired the computer up and before I knew it my door was on fire. I quickly cut the power and the fire went out. The insulation had melted off of all the wires and began to sink into the plastic of my door. I didn't mess the door up too much, and I am actually typing from the computer I hooked the relay up to. No permanent damage done.

I used a 12volts 30 amp relay from autozone. Does anyone know of a safe relay I can actually do this with?

 

[LostBoy]

A long time ago I did. I was helping a friend build a new computer and he decided to install the video card himself while I was out getting us some chow. He put the video ram in backwards (remember this was a long time ago) and when he turned it on the thing lit up like a christmas tree.

 

[Jesta]

Heh, we had one at the shop a few weeks ago. It was an older computer with an AT power supply and the tech had hooked up the wires wrong to the power switch so as soon as he hit the switch there was a loud pop (cap's blowing I guess) and it turns out that the curcuit he was plugged into didn't have a breaker on it so it just kept popping and smoking. All the insulation from the molex connectors and the plug from the computer to the wall had melted off and made a tremendous amout of smoke. The damn caps' in the PS had flames shooting out the air vents and such, it was really an amazing display

 

[Bovinicus]

I made mine smoke once, but I've never seen one catch on fire. Huge newbie mistake.

 

[Paulson]

Never had one start on fire, but have blew out a fuse in my powersupply before (thank god it has 2) and the smell was horrendous...

 

[MajinWade]

I've had one flash and pop, still worked though.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

There's a jeep on fire in my apartment parking lot! How weird is that? :Q

Car-b-que anyone?

 

[Demonicon]

I love Jeeps, that sucks.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

A couple years ago I had this offbrand monitor that worked great for a while, maybe 2 years...then the picture started becoming distorted, fuzzy, and I'd get interference. One night as I was playing Quake 2, the room started smelling like Ben Gay, and the monitor was acting up again. I just figured it was nothing till I stood up to go to the bathroom. I look down, wondering what that god awful smell was...only to find out I had this little bonfire going on inside of my monitor! My guess is I had been playing Q2 on a flaming monitor for a good 15 mins, hehe.

 

[jamarno]

lastig21, did you have a protection diode across the relay coil to prevent the back-EMF from frying the controlling circuit with high voltage? I don't understand the need for a 30 amp relay, and most likely it's coil draws too much current. Radio Shack has plenty of 100-200 ohm relays that can control 3-5 amps.

 

[lastig21]

I didn't have any sort of protection, so I am lucky that nothing got messed up. I went and bought a 1amp 320 ohm relay from radioshack today and just finished hooking it all up. Works like a champ and no fires.

 

[Fenix793]

Once I hooked up the USB header cable up to the SMB bus thing on teh mobo. When i turned on the comp I heard a spark and then i saw a ton of smoke come out of my comp. The entire cable had burned and started to smoke up. The whole house wreaked of smoke for an hour. Good stuff comp is still fine though.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Yes, in fact I have seen a computer catch on fire.

 

[jm0ris0n]

I was on an MSi K7-Pro (slot a) motherboard and just installed a "new" Linksys network card. Everything was going great and everything so then I decided to install the WOL header from the nic to the MB. BIG MISTAKE! I don't know what the hell happened, but 5~15 minutes later I started to smell something related to smoke. I yelled "Oh sh^t!" and ripped off my case panel. luckily the fire was pretty well contained to that region of the case but I am one of the reasons Linksys no longer sells rev3 100TX network cards. The nic was gone, but I was able to salvage the motherboard. I then talked to a rep really high up at Linksys (they called me back for a follow-up!) and was given the option of a next day card or just taking it back to office depot and getting another. Well I still have a different R3 card that works great, but never again will I plug in a Wake On Lan adapter

 

[bluemax]

<< Yes, in fact I have seen a computer catch on fire. >>


Oy!!! I just laughed my head off!!!!!

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

I do what I can.

 

[MrMaster]

I had some old ram that I put in backwards. I turned on the computer and the RAM started to burn in a small section. The hole kept getting bigger and it kept glowing.

I had special RAM

After that I turned it around and put it in the correct way.

Works like a charm still.

 

[err]

<< Yes, in fact I have seen a computer catch on fire. >>



that's a good one. LOL

That is one sick guy

ghehehe

err

 

[jamarno]

lastig21, you should almost always place a 400 volt or higher diode across the relay coil to protect the transistor against back EMF. Connect it so the banded end goes to the more positive side, the unmarked end toward the more negative or ground side (many relay coils are connected to +5V and grounded by the output, so the banded end should go toward the +5V side). Without this diode, the relay coil will act like an automotive ignition coil and generate several times as much voltage as is applied to it.