"My Computer Has Never Exploded With Sparks and Fire" Topic

I have been watching old Star Trek episodes again.

In Age of the Archons, the master computer emits sparks and smoke when presented with a logical error in its thinking.

In A Taste of Armagedden, Spock "links" all of the computers to a central unit, and a single disruptor shot causes the computer system to go up in flames.

I somehow feel cheated that I have never had a computer explode, emit sparks, produce flames, or even grind to a halt because I outwitted it with my logic.

And here I thought this was click-bait for an OP of…

"Until NOW."

Well when all the Enterprise bridge stations have a small charge of c4 underneath them, what do you expect.

This may not count but many years ago one of the control systems engineers rigged up a little box that he attached to the back of his PC. It contained a few flashing LED's a fan motor for rotating a wheel against some plastic to get that crackle-snap effect with a dozen kids caps* for the bangs. He used it twice on unsuspecting newbies to the department.

(*Caps – small explosives, used to come in paper strips used in kids cap guns. Pretty sure they're illegal now)

I used to love the smell of our capgun after a smoke filled gunfight! ;-)

Trust me Bill, you don't want them to explode. Nope not something to be missed!

Mine either, but there were more than a couple of lawsuits with the stuff we built back in the day (there are at least 2 – 3 that I know of) – laptops, and/or power converters.

The plaintiffs lost their homes due to fires.

Buy a Galaxy 7, if you want drama.

I hear they're catching fire, or exploding.

;-)

Well…I got a government monitor to give up the ghost with a zap and a wisp of smoke. One of my staff said her monitor wasn't working. I said she didn't know how to show it who was boss. I smacked that sucker
upside the head and zap, poof…smoke. does that count? I never told her I knew it needed replacing and we had a same day service contract. Fun, though.

Wow, forgot I did have a monitor in college do some smoking action…

One of my staff members attended an UNDEX weapon effect trial on an in service warship (obviously at low levels, the owners didn't want their new ship seriously damaged). The shock ave caused a short in one of the control consoles which did indeed spark a lot and then burst into flames. Staff chappie said it was just like being on the bridge of the Enterprise :)

We had a desktop at my old office that suffered a thermal failure of the CPU. A load bang, the smell of burning plastic, and a dime-sized hole in the chip. A little smoke, but no sparks.

It's because we have circuit breakers. In the 24th Century, there will be no circuit breakers.

Usually electronic melt-down results in a puff of blue smoke (A very bad thing my support tech tells me). To get sparks, real smoke or explosions there has to be a problem with the power source (power supply or battery although capaciters can explode if wired backwards.)

I believe the new samsung big phone does emit smoke and fire. Bringing things up
to date

martin

Mine has..power supply blew..it was..impressive..only matched by the string of curses soon afterwards.

You wouldn't think transformers could explode in a puff of smoke either. Until a squirrel gets inside and starts chewing tasty insulation.
I remember one summer when three of them by our factory blew. You could even hear the BANG as the power went off.
Hate those tree rats.

I had one go up in flames. My daughter was 4 at the time, and my dad was watching her while I was out. She had apparently crumbled up some styrofoam packing and some of the little pellets were sucked into my computer and landed on the motherboard. Melting and fire soon followed. I was very unhappy when I returned home…

I had a power supply spark out and produce smoke on my last personal computer. Definitely not a fun moment!

When it comes to big sparks, I still remember the 1994 Northridge Earthquake causing the transformer in the backyard to start violently sparking. Being in a room overlooking the backyard on the 2nd story, I had a good view of it and considering there were no lights (due to the power going out) it was quite a sight.

I'm just disappointed that my screen doesn't have DOS based programs with massive fonts like movie computers. My phone doesn't have a massive font either.

I feel cheated.

Bill, if you want your computer to explode, wire it inro a 440V line. That should do the trick.

Ask HP nicely they may let you have one of their batteries.

link

Back in the olden times, my shop had a mainframe with a disk drive that was taller than I was. Once I was unlucky enough to be next to it when it "crashed;. BANG!
No smoke, no flames but just as dramatic. ….And it was normally a loud shop.

Back in the day, the business school where I was doing tech support invested heavily in laptop computers made by Zenith. We discovered the hard way that the older models died a rather spectacular death (smoke, flames, melting/burning plastic) when their batteries (which could not be replaced) were charged for too long.

LT

My computer at work did actually this last year.

Came back from a meeting and pugged it into my docking station at my desk and it went up in smoke with actual flames coming from the docking station.

So yes it does happen.

I have had chips explode, lodge in the ceiling, flames in a disk drive, and saw pics of a 10" platter lodged in a door from a very costly HDD at the time.

The CPU exploded on me when I had the cover off looking for the issue, the customer was shocked, and ask if that happens alot.

The flames was in on old 5 1/4 floppy drive, when he turned on the system it burned like a candle.

Had another drive 3 1/2 that would cast out sparks if they tried to format a disk in it.

The 10" platter was a pic my lead at NASA had from a HDD system that threw a bearing, it was about 3 feet up stuck in the door.

So yes it does happen, but in 45 years I have seen 3.

Oh also found the old network cable, coax, had a live 120 volts running through it once.

I keep my tower, printer and monitor in a basin half-filled with water just in case such a thing ever happens. You can't be too safe, can you?!?