On Feb 2, 7:58 am, "Eisboch" wrote:
wrote in message

ups.com...



Not a cigar - believe it or not, the power supply must have had
a thermal runaway or something similar.

It was more messy than dangerous, but the office filled up with
smoke - needed a new desk, had to have everything cleaned,
etc.

Interesting experience.

That sucks. Laptop or tower?
I leave my laptop on 24/7 and have often thought that maybe that's not a
good idea.

Glad it wasn't more serious.

It was a tower with a 400 watt power supply. I don't really know what
happened, but it definetly started near the power supply. There
really
wasn't a fire as such - the computer caught, but it didn't go further
than
that other than a lot of smoke.

The dogs actually alerted me to it. I was in the living room
watching
BSG from the DVR on the HD TV when Skye and Skippy starting sniffing
and sneezing - then Skye ran down the hall and started barking at the
office
door - then I smelled it. I ran downstairs, killed the power to that
side of the
house, grabbed the fire bottle and opened the door after checking to
see if
it was hot. Smoke everywhere - discretion the better part of valor I
called
911. Got the dogs out of the house, secured the cats in their carry-
all
and waited. Fortunately, no serious fire damage and no water damage
because they used dry extinguisher.

I am on the side of shutting them down - I've seen some research about
this and it doesn't seem to make a difference in terms of power
consumption
or reliability. On the other hand, I've seen other wise.

Personal choice I guess.

On Feb 2, 8:06 am, "JimH" wrote:
"Eisboch" wrote in message

. ..







wrote in message
oups.com...

Not a cigar - believe it or not, the power supply must have had
a thermal runaway or something similar.

It was more messy than dangerous, but the office filled up with
smoke - needed a new desk, had to have everything cleaned,
etc.

Interesting experience.

That sucks. Laptop or tower?
I leave my laptop on 24/7 and have often thought that maybe that's not a
good idea.

Glad it wasn't more serious.

Eisboch

I was thinking the same thing. We have 5 computers in the house running
24/7, including one laptop. The power cord on my old Dell laptop was
recalled and replaced because of several cases of them overheating and
catching fire.

I shut them down when I'm finished with them.

On Feb 2, 11:54 am, Wayne.B wrote:
On 2 Feb 2007 09:21:55 -0800, wrote:

If you wish to place blame, blame me.

Blame is lame, but if you insist...

Glad to hear the damage wasn't more serious. Was there enough heat
outside the actual chasis of the PC to have caused ignition? If so,
scary stuff.

I had an incident here two weeks ago with a 220 volt outlet for the
hot water heater. We woke up one morning without hot water, and when
I investigated, discovered there was no voltage at the heater.
Tracing backward to the plug and outlet outlet, one of the prongs had
formed enough corrosion to create a high resistance conection, which
in turn developed enough heat to burn away half of the outlet shell,
and melt off 3 inches of insulation on the distribution wire. No
external signs of heat or damage at all.

I hear you. When we were renovating the old farm house from knob
and tube wiring, we had an interesting situation after having new
panels
installed after about a year. Nobody thought of it at the time, but
the
panels were installed right over the water tank from the well. It was
galvanised and the humidity was rather high because of the field stone
basement. After about a year, had a similar thing happen to the 220
line to the stove. Moved the panels after that happened.

On Feb 2, 12:45 pm, "Mike" wrote:
ROFLOL! The way this guy just showed up and started popping off to anyone he
could, seemed strange. Now it makes sense, and is actually kind of funny.

It could have been real fun - we've had some real battles in the good
old
days - all very civil and all very nasthy. :)

Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. :)

On Feb 2, 2:58 pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:45:18 GMT, "Mike" wrote:
ROFLOL! The way this guy just showed up and started popping off to anyone he
could, seemed strange. Now it makes sense, and is actually kind of funny.

Didn't take him long to make my KF.

He has that effect on people sometimes.

On Feb 2, 3:51 pm, "Tim" wrote:
wrote:
Very
prolilfic author and in real life, very kind and generous with his
time and
knowledge.

yes, we could tell,.

I'm serious- he's a really nice guy and very interesting to talk to.

Truth is that many folks you might consider a**holes online, are usually
nice folks in person. The anonymity of the internet brings out the worst in
some people. Maybe it's pent up agression from home or work... it doesn't
really matter.

I've been involved "online" since 1983, starting as a member of Compuserve
and GeNie, then later as a staff member, then sysop, on a very popular
C'serve forum. I met quite a few folks as a result of my sysop duties. My
experience is that the biggest blowhards online, are generally the opposite
in person. Of course, there *are* exceptions to every rule, and I've seen
that as well g Funny thing, is that the reverse can be true as well. One
fellow, that I got along very well with "online" turned out to be a HUGE
butthead in person. Haven't talked to him since...

--Mike

wrote in message
oups.com...
On Feb 2, 3:51 pm, "Tim" wrote:
wrote:
Very
prolilfic author and in real life, very kind and generous with his
time and
knowledge.

yes, we could tell,.

I'm serious- he's a really nice guy and very interesting to talk to.

On Feb 2, 7:27?pm, wrote:
On Feb 2, 3:51 pm, "Tim" wrote:

wrote:
Very
prolilfic author and in real life, very kind and generous with his
time and
knowledge.

yes, we could tell,.

I'm serious- he's a really nice guy and very interesting to talk to.

Oh, I'm not doubting you, Tom.

But the old rule usually applies. "First impressions, are..."

Well, you know the rest.

I thought things would calm down a bit with the exception of the
occasional cross-dress .. OOPS! "Cross-POSTER!", yes. things have
been calm, well.. sort of

Especially since the one who is supposedly a karate expert from
atlanta has been off chasing home brew and BBQ. It's been so calm it's
almost boring.

Glad to have you back, and sorry for your mishap.

On Feb 2, 5:25�pm, wrote:
On Feb 2, 12:45 pm, "Mike" wrote:

ROFLOL! The way this guy just showed up and started popping off to anyone he
could, *seemed strange. Now it makes sense, and is actually kind of funny.

It could have been real fun - we've had some real battles in the good
old
days - all very civil and all very nasthy. *:)

Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. *:)

I think I'd disagree that trying to start flame wars, simply because
it might be fun, would be a good idea.

wrote in message
oups.com...
On Feb 2, 7:52 am, "JimH" wrote:
wrote in message

oups.com...





On Feb 2, 7:42 am, "JimH" wrote:
wrote in message

roups.com...

1 - Computer caught fire.

2 - Office smoke damage.

That sucks! Some here will blame it on bad karma. ;-)

Was it the power supply catching fire?

I guess - that's what the Fire Marshall said. Kind of a thermal
runaway.

How old was it?

Three years.


Are you going to notify the manufacturer of the computer and/or power
supply? It is useful information for them and may lead to a recall.

I would also pursue a claim against them to recover damages from the fire.
This failure and resulting fire is certainly not to be expected as the power
supply was certainly well within it's expected useful life.