My son's PC caught on fire...

BelieverX · Nov 20, 2012

Today my son was sitting at his desk working on a school project, when he heard a loud bang. He said it sounded like a large fire cracker. Immediately following the minor explosion, smoke rose out of the back of his desk. When I came into the room small flames were jumping out of the case's side vent and the back of the PC. We quickly hit the breakers, disconnected the PC and tossed it out onto the balcony. After that I began pouring bottled water in every orifice I could find. Five minutes later the fire was out. After examining the singed machine, I discovered that the relatively new power supply had been the source of the fire. I should have known better than to buy a cheap, no name power supply. Thank God nothing happened to my son. He usually falls asleep with the PC on.

Source of the power supply fire

EphesiaNZ · Nov 20, 2012

Well that did a good job to the PC!

Assuming you did not buy and under powered PSU to run that rig then I assume you may have a case for costs against the retailer/manufacturer of that PSU. Just for the record, what was the manufacturer and model?

I always go with a quality PSU with an 80% efficiency rating such as from Corsair, CoolerMaster and Seasonic. You pay more but they last forever, usually

BelieverX · Nov 20, 2012

Assuming you did not buy and under powered PSU to run that rig...

According to the label the watts and the amps should have been more than enough for the components in that machine. When I built the PC eight years ago I originally put in a beQuiet 500 watt PSU. About nine months ago that one broke, and I replaced it with a cheap 500 watt, 15 Euro unit...that was a mistake I won't make again.

Just for the record, what was the manufacturer and model?

The sticker says PC4, beyond that I don't know, the rest got charred in the fire.

All the other desktop PCs in the house have beQuiet PSUs. They are made here in Germany and are really good quality.

JCFantasy23 · Nov 20, 2012

How scary! Fires freak me out

BelieverX · Nov 20, 2012

My son's school data was on the water soaked hard drive, so I put it in the oven and baked it at 60 Celsius for 4 hours. That did the trick, the hard drive works perfect...but just to make sure I backed up all the data. Try to explain to the teacher that you couldn't get your report done because your PC caught on fire. Something like, "teacher, the dog ate my homework"...right.

Tomorrow I will be baking each part at the same temperature to rid them of any moisture. Crossing my fingers that they all survived. It could be that the power supply exploding like it did might have caused a short circuit to the board. If that happened I'll have to replace the PC.

Tomyris · Nov 20, 2012

Hmmm.

Something in me says water should not be used on an electrical fire. Baking soda? But if it was the plastic burning w/o live current, then ok. I'm also concerned about toxic fumes.

I guess sometimes I put a damper on anybody's fire.

-Tomyris

BelieverX · Nov 20, 2012

The breakers in the house (master power switches) were off, and the PC was unplugged before I tossed it out onto the balcony. Only afterwards did I thoroughly waterboard the little beast. Unfortunately I did manage to get a lung full of smoke from the burning PC. How toxic that was, is at the moment a mystery.

Tomyris · Nov 20, 2012

BelieverX said:
The breakers (master power switches) were off, and the PC was unplugged before I tossed it out onto the balcony. Only afterwards did I thoroughly waterboard the little beast. Unfortunately I did manage to get a lung full of smoke from the burning PC. How toxic that was, is at the moment a mystery.

Capacitators?

Many a PC has come close to being waterboarded by me, but mainly due to the software installed, not the thing being on fire!!!

C-Man · Nov 20, 2012

Whoa! Somebody should've told whoever built that thing that it was for a computer, not a stove! I'm glad nobody got hurt.
Get yourself a PC Power & Cooling unit. They're a bit on the pricey side, but there isn't a better-made brand out there.

m.a.r.X · Nov 21, 2012

Tomyris said:
Capacitators?

Many a PC has come close to being waterboarded by me, but mainly due to the software installed, not the thing being on fire!!!

I think so. Many manufacturers save money on capacitors.
May be thats why PSU test sites have dedicated page for the components, especially the capacitors in the reviews.

BelieverX · Nov 21, 2012

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's what caused it. If you look at the last picture, you will see one that popped.

Tomyris · Nov 22, 2012

BelieverX said:
Yeah I'm pretty sure that's what caused it. If you look at the last picture, you will see one that popped.

Yeah, well, I was thinking more of the electrical charge across a capacitor getting released via water and frying you than I was about the capacity of the capacitor to decapitate the computer. I think I looked smarter than I am, which is a nice change!

Sketcher · Nov 23, 2012

Did that PSU advertise itself as "single rail?"

BelieverX · Nov 23, 2012

The only specs I paid attention to were the watts and amps. It was very cheap, 16 Euros, and the store were I bought it from had it listed under the category of "diverse". Under that category are various PSUs with unknown manufacturers. Usually I buy beQuiet power supplies, which are made here in Germany and are very good quality. I will never buy a no name PSU again.

George95 · Nov 23, 2012

I would think that baking the computer parts would ruin them. Interesting way to get moisture out.

BelieverX · Nov 23, 2012

Computer components can withstand temperatures greater than the 60 degrees Celsius that I baked them at. It worked for the hard drive, but the motherboard suffered a short when the PSU exploded and caught fire. I also tested the CPU, memory and video card and they still work.

C-Man · Nov 23, 2012

George95 said:
I would think that baking the computer parts would ruin them. Interesting way to get moisture out.

Y'know what's really cool? You can take the parts, except for the drives, and toss them in the dishwasher to clean them if they're seriously nasty. It works wonders if you've got, say, a motherboard and case that have been in a heavy smoker's room. Just make sure to take any batteries out.

EphesiaNZ · Nov 24, 2012

BelieverX said:
It worked for the hard drive, but the motherboard suffered a short when the PSU exploded and caught fire.

I wondered if something disastrous happened to the motherboard in operation and it drew too much power and fried the PSU. One would think that the PSU would have shut itself off in that scenario but stranger things have happened. I was working on a PC at work one evening and turned my back on it for a few seconds and when I turned back to it the thing was smoking away and it was sitting directly under a smoke detector, plummed into the sprinkler system!

That machine went out of the second floor window without hesitation! Yes, I did a quick check before it fell to the ground

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