A First For Me

[MadMike]

I had a hard drive that was going bad awhile back. The scans would report bad sectors, which it would supposedly fix, but I didn't trust it for anything important. But I did keep it around for occasional short-term backups.

One time, I had popped it into the case (didn't have an external enclosure at the time), started copying some stuff onto it, when I saw a flash from inside the case, and smelled a burning smell. The computer also locked up. I quickly turned the thing off, pulled the other drive out, and hoped that it didn't kill anything else in the machine. Luckily, once I pulled the bad drive it, and came up just fine.

[AdamAnt316]

Ah yes, fun with exploding/burning computers. Supposedly, the early Commodore PETs would occasionally fall prey to a "Killer POKE" command which would mess up the video circuitry, possibly burning out the built-in monitor. Similarly, on several old computers which used audio cassette-type tape drives for data storage, there were ways of running programs which would cause the computer to switch the tape drive motor on and off rapidly, eventually burning out the relay controlling it. Of course, these machines generally weren't connected to the internet, so unless someone physically walked up to the keyboard and typed it in, you'd probably be fine.

As far as more modern computers go, there are numerous stories in the Hardware Abuse and other sections of Computer Stupidities which involve something going poof, or otherwise getting physically damaged. The capacitor plague has caused problems with computers for a good portion of the 21st century. Most instances don't result in outright smoke, but the possibility is there, particularly when the power supply is afflicted. I've also heard of instances where a laptop computer was used with a bodged power supply which had been wired backwards, causing the magic smoke to be released with a vengeance.

EDIT: I just remembered a specific instance which happened to me! I've been buying used PowerMacs at swapmeets for several years now, and a few years ago, I got what I thought was a great deal on a PowerMac G5. Alas, it turned out to be one of the models which made use of liquid cooling for the CPUs, and most of the coolant had leaked out of the system, as evidenced by a stain on one of the aluminum 'legs' of the case (the seller had attributed it to the computer being placed near a dog's water bowl, and foolishly, I'd believed him). Somehow, the coolant had managed to not affect the power supply (located along the bottom of the case), as the computer actually worked perfectly fine for a month after I bought it.

One day, I noticed that the fans had kicked into high speed while the unit was in sleep mode, and as I went to see what was wrong, they shut off. The next time I brought the computer out of sleep mode, things seemed OK at first, but the fans soon kicked into high gear, accompanied by a lovely burning smell! I actually managed to get the machine to shut down normally, after which I let the room air out while I repeatedly kicked myself for spending so much on a lemon. Fortunately, i was able to use many of its parts to upgrade an air-cooled PMG5 I got for cheap sometime afterwards, so it was not entirely in vain.
-Adam

[Kaylyn]

Re: bulging batteries...I went round and round in circles with a guy at an auto parts store that said "batteries RARELY explode" when I came in looking for one in the middle of a road trip after smelling sulfur coming from my battery compartment. He kept saying "you need an alternator, I promise you your battery isn't on the verge of exploding." I finally got the new battery, swapped it in the parking lot, and brought the old battery in for the core charge refund. It was bulging. He took one look at it and said, "oh...guess yours WAS about to explode" and shut up and processed the transaction.

[Geek King]

I had a power supply blow a capacitor once. Heard the POP! and smelled the ozone, but everything kept working until I powered it down. Didn't figure out what was really going on until I tried to turn it back on and got no response from the power button. After I replaced the power supply, I popped the dead one open for the hell of it, and the capacitor had stripped itself of the rubber cover and dented the inside of the power supply case. It gave me a new respect for the energy in those things!

[AdamAnt316]

I had a power supply blow a capacitor once. Heard the POP! and smelled the ozone, but everything kept working until I powered it down. Didn't figure out what was really going on until I tried to turn it back on and got no response from the power button. After I replaced the power supply, I popped the dead one open for the hell of it, and the capacitor had stripped itself of the rubber cover and dented the inside of the power supply case. It gave me a new respect for the energy in those things!

Yep, capacitors can go boom with a vengeance. When I was in high school, a couple of the other students in the electronics shop were trying to build an AC inverter using plans they found on the internet. Something was definitely not right, as the thing was putting out roughly twice the intended voltage, and was making a nasty whining sound. I made sure to stay far away during their troubleshooting process, and before too long, BANG!!! one of the big electrolytic capacitors in the unit went flying halfway across the shop! They did eventually manage to get the unit working correctly, but I never entirely trusted it after that...
-Adam

[RichS]

I had a customer's sound card release the magic smoke just installing a driver for it. This was over 10 years ago, it was a Windows 95 machine where Windows XP had been out for awhile, and the sound card was ancient. I had the side cover off of the computer to find out the make/model of card, I thought I found the right driver for it, restarted the computer, and just as it was booting into Windows, the card started to smoke.

I immediately pulled the power from the computer. When I took out the card, the sound chip had a perfect hole the size of a pencil eraser burned in the middle. We found another sound card to replace it in our stash that had working drivers.

I did have a power supply fail on me in spectacular fashion once. I went to start my computer, and nothing happened. Checked power connections, and flicked the on/off switch on the back of the supply. When I turned the supply back on, there was a low-pitched hum, then I could see sparks coming from the back of the supply. I switched my power off at the surge protector when that happened. Thankfully, no damage other than the supply.