My pc went up in flames :-( any ideas why?

[homer1969]

Pc fire :-(
My pc went up in flames this Saturday morning when my better half turned it on. She had the sense to kill the power to it and shout for me to come down stairs. i then carried the burning pc outside to put out the flames. Very lucky the house didn't go up.
My question is it looks like the fire started in the fan controller area this came complete with the nzxt phantom case.
Has anyone known these cases give any trouble?
Or do you think fire started else where in system?
All components are fried apart from 1 hard drive that didn't have my good data on it .

 

[SeekaX]

Probably a combination of dust and a damaged cable.
There is a lot of damage on the height of the ODD, i'd consider that an option for the start of the fire as well.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Considering there is damage below the fancontroller I would actually say this was more than likely the optical drive than anything else and I can honestly say this is the first time Ive known any components like this catch fire

 

[Remmy]

It looks like it's originated around the power connector of the ODD. I've never heard of something like this happening, is it insured in any way or do you just have to shoulder the cost?

 

[remember300]

I've seen oxidation and black marks but never flames or this kind of burning in a PC case, and those was from 6 year old computers, stuck under desks never cleaned...
But that case looked pretty clean hope you find the fault.
All i can think of is maybe lots of removing and pushing back onto the same head may of striped back some of the wiring on the head and caused a short circuit but that normally would of cut a PSU out. Unless it was literally a tiny connection thats fused over.
Glad you and the family is all ok!

 

[homer1969]

I had to carry the pc outside with it in flames lucky house didn't go up downstairs of house full of black smoke and fumes. Its covered under my house insurance but with the excess and the probable rise in insurance premiums not sure it would be worth claiming.
Fans cleaned out every 3 months so no dust build up (am a comptia cert tech).
Bit of a worry mind. Do you think the power supply should of shut down cos I would of thought the optical drive must of pulled high amps to create enough heat to go up in flames ?

Fml not got the funds to build a new one as yet

 

[remember300]

You only need a tiny spark, a little dusk and poof fire!
You need more volts than amps to make a spark normally would need to be a recurring spark to create ignition on stuff thats electrically shielded like any electrical units should be. Have you had any storms or anything recently, with an anti surge adapter in place, as some damage may of occurred in the PSU and this was just the icing on the cake.

 

[Wraith]

Yike's! This is only the second Optical drive I've seen that's done this in the last 6 years, and that was a el cheapo generic made in china drive which overloaded on the molex connection.

 

[homer1969]

No thunder storms I know of and defo had no electric cuts as I have not had to reset cooker time clock etc like I would have to if we lost electric.
Just wanted to try and get to the bottom of it in case its a hardware fault and it happens to someone else. Family all fine thanks just lucky missus noticed it in time.
Worse of all it has killed the two hard drives with my important stuff on but the 3rd hard drive with crap on is ok. sods law I think

 

[Wraith]

You could take it down to your local Fire station and ask if they can see the ignition point?

 

[remember300]

Was the casing just burnt? cos if the diskette in side is fine some of that data can be recovered by taking the a HDD specialist with a clean room, and maybe able to get some of it off, never know might get most

But i do understand you, maybe just a bad cable causing something or a prob in the optical bay.

And good idea Wraith

 

[SeekaX]

Was the casing just burnt? cos if the diskette in side is fine some of that data can be recovered by taking the a HDD specialist with a clean room, and maybe able to get some of it off, never know might get most

But i do understand you, maybe just a bad cable causing something or a prob in the optical bay.

And good idea Wraith

The rig seemed to be quite old and he said that he can't afford a new one. Those HDD recoveries are usually not cheap, so i doubt it's an option.

 

[homer1969]

That's a good idea I will put it in my van tomorrow and pop in when im passing

 

[remember300]

The rig seemed to be quite old and he said that he can't afford a new one. Those HDD recoveries are usually not cheap, so i doubt it's an option.

I never said it was cheap but if they where photos of my nan ... and all i had (which it is not i have back ups everywhere) id pay to get them back, was just letting him know its an option.

 

[SeekaX]

I never said it was cheap but if they where photos of my nan ... and all i had (which it is not i have back ups everywhere) id pay to get them back, was just letting him know its an option.

Yea i know. If the HDD is burnt though it's probably as expensive as a budget build.

 

[remember300]

Yeah very true depends what was on there. And i guess the other side is you pay if they can get it or not. which sucks

 

[homer1969]

Was the casing just burnt? cos if the diskette in side is fine some of that data can be recovered by taking the a HDD specialist with a clean room, and maybe able to get some of it off, never know might get most

But i do understand you, maybe just a bad cable causing something or a prob in the optical bay.

And good idea Wraith

The casings are fine just a bit of smoke damage. windows wont recognise the hdd but Im just running easeus data recovery as we speak as its recognised the hdd as a lost partition just another 25 mins on this 500g hdd then its the 2tb hdd turn.
Only trouble is I think my phone has more power than this old pc im having to use

 

[remember300]

Pah that sucks, tbh most phones are pretty powerful nowadays,

 

[SeekaX]

Pah that sucks, tbh most phones are pretty powerful nowadays,

The laptop i bought four years ago has worse specs in some areas compared to my phone.

Oh well, i am glad that you were at least lucky enough to find a way to recover the data. Hope it works out for you.

 

[homer1969]

its just finished and guess what it recovered?
A big fat Zero