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My Computer Exploded Tuesday Night

Miss Whiplash

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May 9, 2006
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It was quite unexpected. This was a full tower PC. Evidently something failed in the power supply and KABOOM! It also produced a huge electric arc out the rear end of the machine. The arc shorted out a package of button cell batteries on the desk over the computer. It was so loud and sudden, I thought I'd been struck by lightning.

I've had power supplies go before but never this loudly. Has anyone else experienced this?

After this, I'm getting a Mac and removing my computer from my bedroom.
 
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Was there a grasshopper inside? I've seen ants take a grasshopper and short out computers before. Damn ants.
 
Not quite that dramatic but I did watch a CRT monitor spit out sparks that melted it case a little. I just replaced a power supply actually, no action from it either, just the stink of death.
 
Starthinker said:
Was there a grasshopper inside? I've seen ants take a grasshopper and short out computers before. Damn ants.
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I've wondered if a mosquito flew into the fan vent and started a chain reaction. Whatever it was, it made a big mess. I'll never buy that brand of power supply again, though.
 
Only if the problem came from the power source, ie a surge, a bug or animal would be creating a short in the circuits inside the computer.
 
Azure said:
Would a surge protector help for something like that?
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No, because it was an internal short. I'm a bit flummoxed by the whole thing but not to point where I want dismantle burnt out power supply itself. I know the capcitors blew - they went off like firecrackers - but I don't feel comfortable poking around in the thing.
 
Could be worse- you might have a Dell laptop with a Sony incendiary battery inside.
 
That's why I try to buy high quality power supplies. When it comes to these things, you tend to get what you pay for.

On another note, I've seen a moniter catch fire from the inside. My dad, working on a computer, turns on a moniter he's had for years when the thing sparks and there's a tiny fire behind the power button and visible on the other side of the screen. Thing is, for that to happen, since a CRT needs a high vacuum to function ("high vacuum" always sounded like a funny way to say that, like "there's a lot of nothing in there"), there must have been some scratch that let air in without causing the thing to implode like a reverse balloon burst. Odd, though at the time my main concern was to literally dive behind a couch (which is where my loyalties lie).
 
I was making and obscure reference to the movie Phase IV where ants disable a research facility by dragging a grasshopper across two terminals. Damn superintelligent ants.
 
When I was a young engineer, my colleagues and I wondered what would happen if the little red recessed switch on most power supplies was switched. This switch switches the power supply from UK mains voltage (240V) to European mains voltage (110V).

So we plugged an old PC into the mains in a workshop and I gingerly flipped the switch with a screwdriver.

The resulting bang was loud enough to make me deaf for about a minute.
 
Several years ago when I was working as a temp at an IT firm, the company was undergoing a transition to replace all their Mac SE with PCs. One day, the first batch of PCs were installed for the officers. Within a few minutes, there was a mild explosive sound and we could see smoke billowing from the rows of cubicles behind us. All the PCs were fried. It was quite an amusing sight. A couple of days later, another batch of replacement PCs came in, same thing happened, except that the huge Xerox machine at the end of the room also went up in smoke. The poor secretary who was in the middle of copying some documents got a huge fright. The rest of us who were still on the Macs continued to work fine. Since I left the job soon after the incident, I never found out how they managed to solve the problem.
 
The Vampire said:
No, because it was an internal short. I'm a bit flummoxed by the whole thing but not to point where I want dismantle burnt out power supply itself. I know the capcitors blew - they went off like firecrackers - but I don't feel comfortable poking around in the thing.
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Ahhh.
 
Oleron said:
Must be US voltage then.
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yes, US voltage is 110 at 60Hz. Most european countries (and britian I believe) are 220 at 50Hz.

laptop power supplies are smart enough to work with either automatically. Only pc power supplies still have the switch.
 
I received a call from my mother. She said she heard a loud pop and then smoke came from the computer. I asked if continued to smoke, she said no. I then told her to unplug the computer and I would be right over. A post mortem showed that a capcitor had blown. It wound up taking out the motherboard. It all comes down to where the power supply manufacturer sources the parts.
 
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