powersupply burst into flames!!!

[Boonesmi]

i had a friend bring over a pc he wanted to me to fixup and upgrade

within a couple seconds of plugging it in (before i even hit the power button) i hear some very loud crackling and then flames pour of of the slots in the powersupply (i had the side of the case off so i got a nice view of this, it about burned off my nose hairs )

i very quickly unplugged it and luckly the flames went right out... but boy did it stink!!


i called him to tell him the bad news and he didnt seem suprised, he neglected to tell me that he suspected something like that was happening.... the freaking idiot pluged it in a few days earlier and heard the loud crackling/shorting sounds so unplugged it. then the next day he did the same thing. and so he brings it over and the moron doesnt bother to let me know (first it scared me to death, then im feeling guilty like i killed his pc)



the odd thing is the motherboard seems 100% ok, and so does the ram, cpu, and all the adding cards like lan, video, modem... but every one of the drives is shot (the floppy, cdrom, cdrw, hdd)




but the reason for my post was to ask a couple questions
1. how could the sensitive stuff like the mobo survive??? and the drives (not one drive, but every drive) get killed?
2. what could go wrong in a powersupply and cause this?

 

[Corporate Thug]

count your blessings that only the drives went

 

[pillage2001]

Definitely a pic.........No, not of your burnt nose hair.

 

[Boonesmi]

i would take a pic, but really nothing to see.... it was on the floor, laying on its side (with the side panel off) when i leaned over it and plugged the powercord into the powersupply. my face was only about 12" from the powersupply. then it happened so quick and once i unplugged it the flames disapeared leaving very little trace.


i did pull off the cover of the powersupply expecting to see a big mess, but all i could really see was black burns on the board

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi
i would take a pic, but really nothing to see.... it was on the floor, laying on its side (with the side panel off) when i leaned over it and plugged the powercord into the powersupply. my face was only about 12" from the powersupply. then it happened so quick and once i unplugged it the flames disapeared leaving very little trace.


i did pull off the cover of the powersupply expecting to see a big mess, but all i could really see was black burns on the board

Ok then,let's see the burnt nose hairs. eheheh

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: Budman

Originally posted by: Boonesmi
i would take a pic, but really nothing to see.... it was on the floor, laying on its side (with the side panel off) when i leaned over it and plugged the powercord into the powersupply. my face was only about 12" from the powersupply. then it happened so quick and once i unplugged it the flames disapeared leaving very little trace.


i did pull off the cover of the powersupply expecting to see a big mess, but all i could really see was black burns on the board

Ok then,let's see the burnt nose hairs. eheheh

No No, get the camera ready. Plug it in and take a vid shot for us.

 

[JellyBaby]

What would cause a power supply to erupt into flames?

 

[Boonesmi]

when i typed in "burned off my nose hairs" i started laughing. my wife looked over to see what i was laughing at, and after she read it she just looked at me and rolled her eyes... but i know she thought it was funny

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: JellyBaby
What would cause a power supply to erupt into flames?

Sometimes it's just too much dust in there if the psu is old & it can burst into flames.

sometimes its just old,sometimes it just blows up for no reason.

 

[Boonesmi]

What would cause a power supply to erupt into flames?

thats what i want to know... and it wasnt a generic one either


it just occured to me that the name of the powersupply is very fitting... it was a sparkle

 

[Boonesmi]

yup budman it was really dusty

can the dust cause a short? or can it cause it to over heat and melt something that causes a short?

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi
yup budman it was really dusty

can the dust cause a short? or can it cause it to over heat and melt something that causes a short?

a little of both,the dust can cause a short then the dust itself is flammable so it goes POOF!! .


I try to open up my PSU every couple of months to give it a blow job.

After that my PSU is very happy. :Q

 

[carpenter]

Sprinkle some dust on your buddy and.......no, better not. Your wife would probably think that was funny. Jeez! What am I doing posting in this thread? I just realised it's full of old farts!

 

[50]

did he switch the voltage (to euro) on it?

 

[Schadenfroh]

same thing happened to my uncle

 

[Viper96720]

Voltage line mobo was on wasn't affected but the one's the drives were on were.

 

[369s]

THANK GOD YOU ARE ALIVE

 

[XeoBllaze]

WTF powersupply did he have?! I dont want to get one of those heh heh

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Did your breaker trip? You are lucky it went out when it did cause electrical fires suck!

 

[Regs]

So water cooling serves more than one purpose now.

 

[DaFinn]

My friend got his PSU on fire aswell. But he didn't bother to check from his newPSU what the voltage was set at!
So it was set (at factory) to 115 insteadt of 230... and yes, it made a loud crackling sound and then bursted in flames?

Did this PSU have a voltage switch?

About the drives, all components that are directly connected to the PSU are at highest risk of damage (= HDD, CD/DVD, FDD and ofcourse mobo). The mobo has numerous capacitors that in most cases prevent anything connected to mobo from frying.

 

[OOBradm]

Originally posted by: 369s
THANK GOD YOU ARE ALIVE

LOL!

 

[Boonesmi]

it did have a voltage switch, and it was set at 115v

WTF powersupply did he have?! I dont want to get one of those heh heh

hehe it was a sparkle (the name is kinda fitting )

Did your breaker trip? You are lucky it went out when it did cause electrical fires suck!

nope