My Compter lit on fire. Moddings Fault?

M

MattDamen

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 3, 2005
Messages
158
So my brand new stacker case is now ruined and I think it is a mod that did it. I had just sleeved my wires and hooked it back up. Ran fine. So after the fire. we found out that it started at the bottem of the case. all i had down there was Two UV bulbs to make my sleeving glow and 2 80 mm fans. Could my power supply shorted out or something?
 
Damn.. first off.. sorry to hear of your loss.

The only modding component that ever gave me a scare was the power inverter for the CCFL. I actually had one smoke on me while I was using my pc. And I am sure it would have caught on fire, if I didn't immediately turn if off.

I doubt the sleeving your PSU would have caused an issue, unless you some how knicked the wires, and had bare wire exposed.

As for the bulbs it self, I don't think they can cause a fire. Mainly since they are incased in a plastic shell. But my thought would be the CCFL inverter. After I smoked my inverter, I never leave the lights on when I am not around.

SAD
 
ya I was takin a nap at the time and i woke up to my room bein hella smoky and smellin like crap. Massive burnt parts. It was horrible. Then we had to use the fire extinguisher. So now every thing is gone. like 1500 dollars down the drain. Wonder if insurance covers it?
 
i dont believe insurance will cover it. but it would be nice if it did. there was no natural disaster or anything of that sort to cause it, it was just a faulty product. no insurance cover. i dont think im explaining this right. can anybody back this up?

very sorry to hear about your loss.
 
Probably wired up one of the wires incorrectly (or did you sleeve everying w/o taking off the molex connectors?)

Power supply modding, do it at your own risk..........and dont do it if yer a monkey! :D


Since you're Matt Damon though, you should be able to afford it :D
 
yeah one day I started up my computer when my wife and daughter were asleep. So as I started it up, I was telling my wife that the computer wasn't going to wake up my daughter (computer room turned into her bedroom when she was born) SOOO as I'm turing it on and telling her this, a BRIGHT ORANGE FLAME erupted out of the case window!!!!

yeah so that's my story, I feel like were a little off track from the OP but maybe our loss will help him/her sorry with theirs.
 
some parts may be recoverable though, CPUs and such are very resilient... same with some other parts...

sorry to hear about it :( my guess is an inverter... mabye you wird something wrong when you redid it after sleeving :(
 
It's actually in the ATX standards that any short must not cause anything more than smoke. Therefore, even if you did screw up the wiring theres no chance that alone could start a fire from the PSU. Something actually had to fail to do that, not just a short.

My guess would be the inverter or a component in the PSU.. but i'd guess the inverter because it's probably made on a budget of about 50cents.
 
0mega said:
some parts may be recoverable though, CPUs and such are very resilient... same with some other parts...

sorry to hear about it :( my guess is an inverter... mabye you wird something wrong when you redid it after sleeving :(
Click to expand...

everything except the mobo was salvaged from my fiasco
 
Man,

Sorry for your loss.


.........reaches into case to turn of CCFL lights before going to bed.....


You'd think they'd make these inverters SAFE, right????!!!
 
Ya seriously, Well if my dad can do enough sweet talkin... I can get 2k for my computer from our renters insurance. But I have to put it back in a original case... But ya I am also thinking that it was the inverter or something. becuase all of my CCFL was insinerated, as well as 1 of my 80mm fans are gone, my watercooling rad plastic was starting to melt and my case got so hot that it is halfway stuck to my desk. Guess what looked like wood was plastic :( but thx for the sympathy guys. Oh and thx for the guesses on what it was. That helped me determine the source in a heartbeat.
 
I'm betting it's the wire on the UV rods. I've seen it happen many times through personal experience and others. You have to be careful with the wire. The wire is very flimzy and if you kink it to much it will short and start a fire. I did an experiment on one that I knew was going to flame up because I was setting up my rig and noticed that the wire was starting to discolour. So I shut down and pulled out the ccfl and turned it back on outside the case. Sure enough the wire shorted and burnt right through the wire. If I kept it on I'm sure it would of started a fire.

When I get home from work I'll post some pics of the burnt wire if I still have the rod.

I'm guessing that the wire on CCFLs is not the proper gauge for the power running through it.
 
xBuddhax said:
I'm betting it's the wire on the UV rods. I've seen it happen many times through personal experience and others. You have to be careful with the wire. The wire is very flimzy and if you kink it to much it will short and start a fire. I did an experiment on one that I knew was going to flame up because I was setting up my rig and noticed that the wire was starting to discolour. So I shut down and pulled out the ccfl and turned it back on outside the case. Sure enough the wire shorted and burnt right through the wire. If I kept it on I'm sure it would of started a fire.

When I get home from work I'll post some pics of the burnt wire if I still have the rod.

I'm guessing that the wire on CCFLs is not the proper gauge for the power running through it.
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There have been many "my ccfl tubes caught on fire" horror stories, so I'm guessing it was the tubes and not the inverter. Trust me, with the ~ 600v from an inverter, I've lit a napkin on fire (That's a fun experiment... You didn't hear it from me though)
 
I'm very sorry to hear about this man, I'm sure it's rough as hell. Do you have any pictures or access to a digital cam? I'd like to see pics of this.
 
yeah, just wait a for a good storm, then call the isurance company the next day, tell its from lighteninjg hitting your place.

BANG, new pc.
 
holy moly... its like getting kicked in the balls, well, sorta. Sorry bout the flamin comp. That sucks.
 
tweaked said:
yeah, just wait a for a good storm, then call the isurance company the next day, tell its from lighteninjg hitting your place.

BANG, new pc.
Click to expand...

A $1200 PC is worth the risk of getting caught lying to insurance?

Lying about RMA's isn't that bad, but I'd really think twice before risking ending up in a federal pound-me-in-the-ass prision over a computer.
 
that sucks for your pc, but then again screw the pc at least your not dead and/or house burned town :(
 
Those power inverters for CCFLs have been known to blow up, somoene else here had a pic of a power inverter that was placed under a video card and totally melted the card.
 
Techx said:
that sucks for your pc, but then again screw the pc at least your not dead and/or house burned town :(
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very true this is ;) sorry for the loss man.....i know id go crazy if something lik that happend to my computer which isnt worth much compared to urs and i cant even begin to imagine how ur feeling
 
Im sorry to hear about your loss and i would have to agree it was the inverter.

I dont beleive that going through insurance to replace it would be a federal take one up the ass matter as i know around here (southern ontario) that renters and homeowners insurance generally cover such catastrophies. i know my renters covered my reciever when it magically lit on fire and took the tv with it.
 
Here are the pics of the results of my test as promised. You can't see it in the pics, but there is a hole or gap in the wire where it completely incinerated.

burntccfl001.JPG

burntccfl002.JPG
 
P1010008.JPG

P1010009.JPG
P1010010.JPG
P1010012.JPG


Very sorry if the images are too big. Im new to this whole posting pictures thing and I hope that the pictures actually post. Not sure if I have to host them. So I hope it works. :)
 
You need to upload them to a file server.

Go here, upload the picture and copy the link and paste it in your thread.
 
I had 2 80 mm fans there. The one on the left melted entirly, and everything is ruined cause the fire extinguisher killed everything. Plus my case is actually melted to my table. It got so hot. that it is stuck to my computer.
 
Very sorry to hear about it. Just be glad only $1200 was lost rather than a $200,000+ house, or your life!

Scared me now, though, because I want to order these Cold Cathodes and am scared if they'll catch on fire. Any ideas?

Good to hear you're alright, as I just said. Also, if you had insurance on the computer itself, then it'd be covered, I think. But if you didn't get insurance on it, you can't do anything about it :(
 
DanMattia said:
Very sorry to hear about it. Just be glad only $1200 was lost rather than a $200,000+ house, or your life!

Scared me now, though, because I want to order these Cold Cathodes and am scared if they'll catch on fire. Any ideas?

Good to hear you're alright, as I just said. Also, if you had insurance on the computer itself, then it'd be covered, I think. But if you didn't get insurance on it, you can't do anything about it :(
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IMO cold cathodes are shit. I've lost 2 hard drives to crappy cold cathodes, and my friends have had problems with them too... they are never going near my case again.
 
Wow, that's quite some damage they caused.
Totally changed my mind on using cold cathodes. Not going to get them, ever.
 
Thuleman said:
Wow, that's quite some damage they caused.
Totally changed my mind on using cold cathodes. Not going to get them, ever.
Click to expand...

Hi guys,

I am from Singapore. This is my first time posting in this forum, so please pardon my ignorance.

Currently, I have 2*A.C.Ryan inverter with UV CCFL inside my RIG. I left them on for a night, well, forgetting to off them. :p

I woke up 8 hours later, they are still running happily :D

Inverters from A.C.Ryan are quite safe.
 
Well now you guys have me scared to put CCFL's into the batman case (in the worklog section).

I forgot where I got the ones I do have, should I make a custom enclosure for them to prevent any fire?
 
Well heres what I'm going to do in my new case. Im going to put the CCFL in there, but I am going to only use them at short periods instead of all the time. Before, I had my computer on at all times 24/7. I think that is why it overheated, so if you should use them I think that you should definitly use them for certain periods, then let them cool down :)
 
I don't leave my PC on anymore when I'm out or asleep and I still don't completely trust my one remaining CCFL either.

My own little horror story:
A couple of months ago I had my PC download some stuff and took a quick nap, woke up with the room smelling like burned rubber and black smoke coming from under my desk.. a power cord was on fire, as I went to pull it out of the mains the comp cut out (well at least I immediately knew what cord it was now), unplugged it at both ends and ran to the garden to put it out.
5 minutes later I go back upstairs and now the TV is smoking, it was connected to my video cards TV out /sigh... threw wet towels over it and ran it outside as well.
Total damage: one PSU, power cord, video card & TV.
The entire thing left me quite shaken, never in 15 years of owning a computer had I thought anything like this could happen.

The expert from the insurance company came over and he, as I, believed the cause was a shortcircuit in out electrical outlet so I did get reimbursed for my costs.

A couple of days after that, when I got my replacement parts and started rebuilding my PC I noticed the CCFL inverter had partly melted... after reading all this I'm really starting to wonder about the true cause of the fire.

Oh and for the record: it was a sunbeam inverter & CCFL
 
From what I'm seeing from the pictures it isn't so bad that you couldn't make a mod project outta the case.


If you are gonna throw out the case let me know please, I'd like it. :D
 
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