Computer Cord went up in smoke...

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Awesometrains
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Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Awesometrains »

Earlier today , my PC was dying , so naturraly , I plugged it in. After fiddling around with it to make it work (generic replacement cord , so it fit very loosely) , I smelt something , about half a minute later I was wondering what the smell was , so I looked up. I SAW SMOKE! Luckily no fire , also luckily I had another replacement cord of EXACT same model.

PS. Took hours for burning smell of rubber wire casing to go away.
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Redirect Left »

Sounds like a similar thing to me. One day whilst happily playing a game (not TT related, sorry guys), i smelt an acrid burning something or other. After following the scent I came across a small bit of smoke. Where the plug was connected, it had somehow become extremely hot, causing the plastic on both the plug and the adapter to melt and burn away. I don't have the plug anymore, although I do still have the adapter, shown below.

Good thing I wasn't asleep huh, not sure how far it'd have gone if I was! (Usually the affected socket has one of those plastic covers over it with 'FIRE HAZARD' written on it, so no one gets to it)
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Pyoro »

Cables going up in flame are very dangerous and quite often the cause for houses burning down. It's one of the main reasons fire alarms in certain rooms are now obligatory in Germany.

I actually know of one guy living in a student dormitory who went home to his parents over Christmas (same as I always do ^^) and came back to see his room had burned out; precisely caused by a defective cable :?


As for myself; didn't have one burning yet, but I had my coffee machine leaking, and the water running along the cable to the adapter. And I was sitting at the PC (same adapter) went the Internet went out (modem was also at the same adapter...) - at first I was confused, then I heard some slight "fizzling" sound, checked the modem, noted how everything was wet ... well. No permanent damage done to anything, but good thing I was at home. ^^;
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by orudge »

I once accidentally knocked a drink over onto my computer (which had lots of nice air holes in the top, right next to the power supply), which was right next to my desk. One small bang later, I had a nice dead computer. Luckily the hard disks, etc, were fine, but the power supply and either the mobo or CPU were goners.
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Redirect Left »

orudge wrote:I once accidentally knocked a drink over onto my computer (which had lots of nice air holes in the top, right next to the power supply), which was right next to my desk. One small bang later, I had a nice dead computer. Luckily the hard disks, etc, were fine, but the power supply and either the mobo or CPU were goners.
This has happened to me in the past. Drink into the top of a mini-itx computer, motherboard and a RAM stick died. CPU lived on though thankfully. Tripped the main fuse box too.

Always confuses me as to what exactly trips a fuse. Pouring water onto a PC did, a plug setting itself on fire did not, either at the main box or the local plug fuse.
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Awesometrains »

Redirect Left wrote:Sounds like a similar thing to me. One day whilst happily playing a game (not TT related, sorry guys), i smelt an acrid burning something or other. After following the scent I came across a small bit of smoke. Where the plug was connected, it had somehow become extremely hot, causing the plastic on both the plug and the adapter to melt and burn away. I don't have the plug anymore, although I do still have the adapter, shown below.

Good thing I wasn't asleep huh, not sure how far it'd have gone if I was! (Usually the affected socket has one of those plastic covers over it with 'FIRE HAZARD' written on it, so no one gets to it)
Image
my problem was the casing melting right before the transformer box

its odd though that when I accidentally touched the spot that was "hot" enough to melt , it didn't burn my finger!
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Redirect Left »

Hm. I've never had issues with transformers, or the wires relating to them, although I have had a lot of transformers that got alarmingly hot...
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by YNM »

Once, I turned on my computer (which was extremely loud, not the same as the one I have now) and I heard additional hissing sound. Thinking it was just the computer, I looked down, and... there's the extension cable with one hole in it spitting up arcs, smoke and burning particulates. Had to jump over it (yes, the nightmare) to get out of the room (cable in front of the door), then thinking of what to do in panic before decided to turn off the whole house with the main switch, luckily the fuse went up just before I reached it. Pretty close that one.

Never put anything on cables (this include squeezing them behind furniture or letting it to be routinely stomped on), and don't go over the rated power. One defective hole and it's a horrible story in any way.
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Awesometrains »

YNM wrote:Once, I turned on my computer (which was extremely loud, not the same as the one I have now) and I heard additional hissing sound. Thinking it was just the computer, I looked down, and... there's the extension cable with one hole in it spitting up arcs, smoke and burning particulates. Had to jump over it (yes, the nightmare) to get out of the room (cable in front of the door), then thinking of what to do in panic before decided to turn off the whole house with the main switch, luckily the fuse went up just before I reached it. Pretty close that one.

Never put anything on cables (this include squeezing them behind furniture or letting it to be routinely stomped on), and don't go over the rated power. One defective hole and it's a horrible story in any way.
Mine might have got stomped on (with bare feet , of course)
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by TimeLapse1357 »

Redirect Left wrote:Always confuses me as to what exactly trips a fuse. Pouring water onto a PC did, a plug setting itself on fire did not, either at the main box or the local plug fuse.
A fuse or circuit-breaker is blown/tripped then there is too much current flowing in the wires.
the water in the computer created a short-circuit, increasing the amount of current and blowing the fuse.
A damaged plug or cord heats up due to increased resistance, and the heat increases the resistance even further. As resistance goes up, current goes down, so it won't blow the fuse unless the cable melts enough to allow the metal wires to touch and short out.
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Redirect Left »

Seems like they could do with figuring out a way of detecting and tripping in some circumstances.

I also find it odd that appliances are often supplied with a 13A fuse. Even though their actual wattage usage would merit a fuse as low as 1A, 3A or 5A. I have an electric can opener (lazy) which is self rated at 50W, but was purchased brand new with a factory fitted 13A fuse. It'd be fine with a 3A one, possibly one even lower than that.

I've also learnt if you buy cheap things from abroad, don't assume the earth wire is connected to anything. A lot of times the earth wire is present and is wired to the plug. However in the actual device the wire is floating and not connected to anything. I'm not sure if earthing things isn't a big deal in other countries, but i've had a few things running off mains voltage but the earth wire wasn't connected to anything that'd make 'earth' do what 'earth' is meant to do.
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by orudge »

Quite a few devices simply don't have earth connections. US and European plugs often come in two-pin varieties, although both do also have three-pin earthed versions too.

What I found slighlty scary when living in the US is I was given a "three-pin-to-two-pin" adaptor to enable me to plug a three-pin device into a two-pin socket, as the room didn't have any three-pin sockets...
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by Redirect Left »

orudge wrote: What I found slighlty scary when living in the US is I was given a "three-pin-to-two-pin" adaptor to enable me to plug a three-pin device into a two-pin socket, as the room didn't have any three-pin sockets...
some of those adapters seriously lack safety. I have a cheap one, and you can easily plug the earth pin into the live pin on the adapter. Quickly turning any metallic cased object into a rather dangerous thing
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by kamnet »

orudge wrote:Quite a few devices simply don't have earth connections. US and European plugs often come in two-pin varieties, although both do also have three-pin earthed versions too.

What I found slighlty scary when living in the US is I was given a "three-pin-to-two-pin" adaptor to enable me to plug a three-pin device into a two-pin socket, as the room didn't have any three-pin sockets...
It should have had a metal prong that would be at the same level as the screw for the face plate. You remove the screw, attach the adapter, put the screw through the prong and back into the base plate. In theory the piece in the box that the screw is in will be grounded.

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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by TimeLapse1357 »

kamnet wrote:In theory the piece in the box that the screw is in will be grounded.
In theory the low-bid contractor hired workers that came to work sober and gave a crap about the quality of their work.
When I was doing computer installs, I carried a plug in tester, and you would be shocked (pun intended) at the number of nice looking houses and offices with floating grounds, hot-neutral reversed or some other strange configuration.
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by kamnet »

TimeLapse1357 wrote:
kamnet wrote:In theory the piece in the box that the screw is in will be grounded.
In theory the low-bid contractor hired workers that came to work sober and gave a crap about the quality of their work.
When I was doing computer installs, I carried a plug in tester, and you would be shocked (pun intended) at the number of nice looking houses and offices with floating grounds, hot-neutral reversed or some other strange configuration.
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Of course, in theory, the local building inspector would have come along and caught some of this shoddy work. :/
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by orudge »

kamnet wrote:It should have had a metal prong that would be at the same level as the screw for the face plate. You remove the screw, attach the adapter, put the screw through the prong and back into the base plate. In theory the piece in the box that the screw is in will be grounded.
Ah, it did - this was never explained to me though!
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Re: Computer Cord went up in smoke...

Post by YNM »

kamnet wrote:It should have had a metal prong that would be at the same level as the screw for the face plate. You remove the screw, attach the adapter, put the screw through the prong and back into the base plate. In theory the piece in the box that the screw is in will be grounded.
Hmm... Never saw something like that here !
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