My computer exploded... i'm not jokeing, literaly exploded

Radon199 · Post by **Radon199** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:04 pm

Ok so I got up today and wanted to play some games on my old 800 mhz computer. I pressed the on button and nothing happened, and a little smoke expelled from the case.

I know this smell, it's the smell of frying electronics. So I open her up and it's the power supply i'm sure. But because puting in a new power supply would require time and effort, none of which I have. So I take it too the local computer repair shop who actually do good work.

The the repair man takes off the case and plugs it in, and the HD starts to smoke... kinda weird. So then he unplugs the HD to make sure it wasn't it that was smoking before. And he plugs it back in and turns it on and theres a massive bang and the powersuply sends out a puff of smoke and fires a cound of dust particles about 2 feet out of the powersuply's fan.

Needless to say it's gonna take a week to fix it and i'm defiantly gonna need a new power supply

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:18 pm

Whoo! Sounds like fun. Maybe it was a capacitor that exploded? Thats really weird.
I did something similar when I was messing around with a junked power supply, and I touched the +120VAC wire to the ground wire

It literally melted (more like vaporized!) the metal connectors in a blue spark (right before the entire right side of the house circuit breaker blew). Good way to learn NOT to randomly touch wires together (this was a long time ago mind you)

Radon199 · Post by **Radon199** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:40 pm

Ya he expected it was a capasitor.

A couple of years ago I was trying to figure out the voltage and I acsidentaly touched a 120V line to negetive. Almost blew the breaker in my house. Got damn close

Anyways the sparts from the two wires touching gave me a flash burn on my eyes for about 10 minutes... Not fun.

daguuy · Post by **daguuy** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 2:23 pm

i had this old power supply that i was trying to power an N64 from after i blew up it's PSU (accidentally of course) and the 120v AC wires came loose and broke off. so i came up with the brilliant idea of touching the wires together while it was still on. sparks flew everywhere and there was some smoke and a loud bang. it didn't work but it was fun

cowsgoquack101 · Post by **cowsgoquack101** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 2:37 pm

I've had a similar experience with my grandparents old computer. I was messing around with the power supply because I wasn't sure if it would power on right (it hadn't for a while). Well it did and then about an hour later it smoked and burnt up. Turns out the fan in it had no positive connection going to it. Damn faulty equipment.

Post by **Skyone** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:14 pm

Ya definitely the capacitor. Next time make sure you have a high enough watt rated psu.

totokan · Post by **totokan** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:15 pm

That must not be good. I had a brand-new PSU go bang and smoke, a few months back.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:38 pm

After I fried my snes board, I turned my SNES into a lamp. I wanted to see how big a spark would be produced by touching two ends of bare wire plugged DIRECTLY into the wall.

I think I'm too A.D.D. for my own good.

paul4990 · Post by **paul4990** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 6:21 pm

with an old at psu, i joined the blue and brown wires togeter(i had no swinch)

luckyly the plug was fused so a spark flew and cut the fuse (thank got for grounded plugs and fused

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 6:39 pm

That's always fun. I had simular happen once. I had just plugged in my PC and was going around to the front of the PC, as it was on a large desk thing in the middle of the upstairs, and heard this loud 'POP!'. I immediately run back and unplug it. No smoke, no obvious damage. I plug it in, figuring maybe the speakers picked up and amplified something. I go back around and hit the power button, and nothing. Death toll: Graphics card and DVD reader. Messed up: 10GB and 60GB Harddrives, for awhile they wouldn't work plugged into the same cable, which cleared up somehow, and the 60GB doesn't work with most motherboards. Just the DVD reader blowing was incredibly lucky, since I had recently gotten a DVD burner, and it was plugged into the same Y cable as the reader!

To make matters worse, I was taking Dad's truck down to the bank to deposit some money, so I could order parts online. I wind down a corner, and suddenly, pop!, SSCCRRRRREEEK! and the truck starts leaning to the right. I immediately lay on the breaks. Figuring a tire had just blown, I decided to get it off the fairly busy road into a neighboring parking lot. The rear tires just spin in place when I try. I flip on the hazard lights and check to see what is up, and the passenger front tire looks like: \

I find someone in a nearby shop with a cell phone and phone book, call my dad and then a tow truck.

That was a fun week.

Sir Games-A-Lot · Post by **Sir Games-A-Lot** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:21 pm

Once the dvd/cd combo drive on my lappy blew up, well kinda..... I was running a game and sudenly the drive cover shoots off and the cd flies a few feet across the room in fragments! well atleast I had backed up the cd

.

Wayne Venomous · Post by **Wayne Venomous** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:11 pm

daguuy wrote:i had this old power supply that i was trying to power an N64 from after i blew up it's PSU (accidentally of course) and the 120v AC wires came loose and broke off. so i came up with the brilliant idea of touching the wires together while it was still on. sparks flew everywhere and there was some smoke and a loud bang. it didn't work but it was fun

MAN! You soooo couldn't do that in England. We have 240 volts AC and it's enough to send you off to that arcade in the sky very quickly!

Post by **marshallh** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 5:41 pm

Maybe 240volts, the end outcome would be virtually the same.

Here's a little trivia on why the voltages are different:
First, power lines use AC because DC loses voltage due to resistance in wire.
Secondly, power lines must carry lots of power. Well, if you need high current, you don't want to use huge thick cables to carry the large amounts of current. Instead, they up the voltage so less current runs through (but same wattage, W=VI)
Thirdly, copper is easy to mine in the US, so thick cables can be used,with consequently high amperages. But in Europe, copper is hard to come by and so the cables are thinner. They can't carry as much current. So they have to up the voltage.

Hope you learned something

usbcd36 · Post by **usbcd36** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:17 pm

Heh, this reminds me of this one story where a guy dropped a screwdriver into the power supply of the computer he was working on. Long story short, it basically became an arc welder and melded the screwdriver with the power supply. I think it was on the computer stupidity websiteâ€¦

cennar · Post by **cennar** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:37 pm

yeah i remember old home made tasers melting them selfs to my electronic teachers belt buckel