friend's computer got burned up, any idea why?

[BarbForLife]

hey guys, when i was over at my friends house and we were playing tony hawk's pro skater 3 online on his computer, suddenly we smell something burning and then his screen went off and smokes are comming out of his computer, and then, it's flame comming out of his computer too, every thing got burned inside, what have caused this besides the electricity related problems

 

[Rapmaster]

his CPU fan probably busted

once the CPU fans goes, things will melt in about 2 seconds and possibly even burst into flames

Intel CPUs have a thing that enables them to shut down when the fan fails but some of the AMD-compatible motherboards don't support this


more info: http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q3/010917/index.html

 

[AMPowers]

That must suck. What kinda comp did he have?

 

[BarbForLife]

heh... funny you asked
- AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz with 266MHz bus supporting PC2100 DDR memory
- 512 mb RAM
- 3d blaster annihilator 2 ultra
- ATI Radeon 8500 LE
- 3Com 100 Secure Fiber-FX NIC
- NEC 16x DVD-Rom
- Plextor 40/12/40 cd-rw
- Seagate Cheetah 73.4GB Ultra160 SCSI 10000 RPM 80-pin
- HP 36GB 10000RPM Internal Ultra3 SCSI Hard Drive
- Sony 1.44MB Internal 3.5-inch Floppy Disk Drive
- Iomega 250MB Internal ATAPI Zip Drive
- Sony PCBacker II 9000e 12GB/24GB SCSI-2 External DDS
- Abit KR-7A RAID KT266A DDR motherboard
- Cooler Master DP5-6I11A-A1 FCPGA Socket A/370 Fan (is that the problem???)
- Lian-Li PC-60 Mid Tower
- Antec 512W ATX Power Supply
- HP ScanJet 7450C Flatbed Scanner
- Sony MultiScan SDM-M81 18.1-inch Multimedia LCD Monitor
- Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Personal Computer Audio System
- HP Photosmart 1315 Photo Printer
- Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical

there you have it! his whole setup, all of the internal hardwares are ruined... i told them it could be inproper cpu fan set up since it is a custom build and the people and the place sell them computers build it, so... they'll see what's going on

 

[Rapmaster]

a lot of the stuff should be salvageable unless you just let it burn for hours ...

i.e. the hard drive and CD drive, maybe some of the cards, shouldn't be ruined

probably just the CPU and possibly the motherboard

the fan itself is fine-- the problem would be if it fell off or failed due to improper installation

 

[Rapmaster]

look inside the computer-- if the CPU is the most melted, then that was probably the source (which is the only thing that makes sense anyway)

 

[BarbForLife]

told my friend to look, the cpu and the area around the socket where you put the cpu is burned out (just melted) including the ram, the fire lit up the power supplies and then electric discharge cause the short circut among the cd-roms, hard drives, and the cards. the back of the cd-roms and hard drivers are burned out, which makes them useless now, they installed sound cards, video cards, and nic onto another computer, non of them worked. the power supplies got burned out too, the fire lit up the printer parallel connector, speaker out put, monitor connector, and the scanner connector's pins which lies inside these connectors are burned up too (just become back and they tried onto another computer, not working) they'll take the monitor, printer, speakers, and the scanner see if they can get the connectors fixed, meanwhile, they are asking the company they bought the computer for money return since your conclusion, which is improper cooling fan installation

 

[Rapmaster]

wow

with all that damage it sounds more like the power supply exploded (??) but if the CPU looks like the source (due to melting) it could be that too-- and of course a fire could make the PS explode

but it should all be under warranty anyway, as that system sounds pretty new


there is a cool video of a burning CPU on the link I posted above if you haven't checked it out yet

 

[BarbForLife]

my friends' computer is costum build so there's no warrenty, but then again, it is due to the improper installation of cpu fan, so they replaced a new one for them, at the cost of 200 dollars "replacement fee", but since he's a spoiled kid (and i got him into d2 too), his parents are willing to pay anything for him (wish my parents would do that)

 

[Rapmaster]

there should be a warranty on individual parts (although it wouldn't cover something like this I guess)


you could take the computer store dealer to court, if your friend has never opened the case of the computer or done anything crazy like shake it or throw it down the stairs

once you open the case, there's a certain doubt as to whose fault it is (many dealers put a sticker seal across the case which you are free to rip open, but you assume responsibility)

Take'em to Judge Judy™ !

 

[BarbForLife]

bad news rapmaster, the store manage take back the pc which they replaced the old ones, the reason: doubt of responsibility, and yes they are take them to Judge Judy TM, or not... (some other judges i guess) yes they are pressing charges again that company and no it's not going to be on tv

 

[Grimlock]

I didn't know they made processor fans that fitted both intel and AMD chips.

 

[Rapmaster]

Originally posted by Grimlock
I didn't know they made processor fans that fitted both intel and AMD chips.

huh??

oh ya: the socket a/370 /intel fc sockets are similar so the fans usually work in any of them

 

[BarbForLife]

oh yeah, the fans my friend had works for both intel and amd

 

[Guest]

Tooo ........... Much............ Pron...........downloaded............

 

[BarbForLife]

huh???