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View Full Version : Any hard disc gurus? (mine caught fire)



Grenage
April 26th, 2011, 10:43 AM
Now, this is a first for me; I haven't seen this happen in any computer - my hard drive rather spontaneously caught fire. Hardly ideal, but not the end of the world.

http://www.grenage.com/pain.jpg

I find it hard to believe that a hard drive alone could have done this, and am suspecting the power supply. I don't have any spare units to test with, and short of another component... catching fire, I can't rule out the existing PSU. I don't own a tester.

So the question: Does anyone know if a hard drive could itself have defective components, to the degree that this could happen?

Paqman
April 26th, 2011, 11:03 AM
So the question: Does anyone know if a hard drive could itself have defective components, to the degree that this could happen?

For sure. It's happened right by the power connector, so it looks like a short has drawn a whole truckload of current and burned out your drive. I'd suspect the drive over the PSU, as current is drawn not pushed. I'm surprised you didn't have a fuse or breaker go though.

Grenage
April 26th, 2011, 11:14 AM
For sure. It's happened right by the power connector, so it looks like a short has drawn a whole truckload of current and burned out your drive. I'd suspect the drive over the PSU, as current is drawn not pushed. I'm surprised you didn't have a fuse or breaker go though.

Cheers for that; I'll hold off replacing the PSU for now. I forgot to add to my post, that something else has been occurring lately; if I play a game (Bad Company 2), the the computer will generally lock up after 5 minutes. However, if the computer has been on for at least 15 minutes then the computer will never crash. I can't see any bad capacitors on the motherboard, and that was my first suspicion (figuring that 15 minutes might allow some sort of charge to be in place). I should probably just shell out the £40 just to see if it helps.

I was also surprised that a fuse didn't blow; the computer didn't even restart.

grahammechanical
April 26th, 2011, 12:50 PM
Is the burnt section behind the power connector? Is that not the power connector on the right at the top? I am the kind of person who when he sees a black box with wires coming out cannot resist opening the box up to look inside.

Could you please remove the four screws holding the circuit board and lift off the circuit board and see what is actually burnt. Some people simply replace blown fuses and when the machine switches on and works they are happy. They never ask, why did the fuse blow? Is something seriously faulty with this equipment. Try to work out how this happened before putting more money at risk.

London, England had a very heavy thunderstorm the other day. Did Portsmouth have any thunderstorms just before this happened? Are any of the cables trapped or chaffed? Do you have a similar hard disc around? If you realy want to experiment you could fit a circuit board from a working hard disc to the disk with the damaged circuit board and you might be able to get access to your data? Crazy idea I know.

Regards.

Grenage
April 26th, 2011, 01:00 PM
Is the burnt section behind the power connector? Is that not the power connector on the right at the top? I am the kind of person who when he sees a black box with wires coming out cannot resist opening the box up to look inside.

Could you please remove the four screws holding the circuit board and lift off the circuit board and see what is actually burnt. Some people simply replace blown fuses and when the machine switches on and works they are happy. They never ask, why did the fuse blow? Is something seriously faulty with this equipment. Try to work out how this happened before putting more money at risk.

London, England had a very heavy thunderstorm the other day. Did Portsmouth have any thunderstorms just before this happened? Are any of the cables trapped or chaffed? Do you have a similar hard disc around? If you realy want to experiment you could fit a circuit board from a working hard disc to the disk with the damaged circuit board and you might be able to get access to your data? Crazy idea I know.

Regards.

Ahoy there.

We didn't have any thunderstorms, and nothing else was affected; I'm going to assume that the mains power didn't surge, since that would certainly have roasted a fuse. The affected section is directly behind the power connector, yes.

I toyed with the idea of swapping the board over as there's a good chance it will work, but the drive is in warranty. The data isn't important, and removing the screws would make tampering very evident, now that they are covered with carbon.

It's a very bad picture, so it doesn't do the damage justice - the board corner really is just a piece of charcoal now. :)

Paqman
April 26th, 2011, 01:40 PM
Some people simply replace blown fuses and when the machine switches on and works they are happy. They never ask, why did the fuse blow? Is something seriously faulty with this equipment.

Tell me about it. Even supposedly qualified and experienced technicians working on expensive equipment do this with fuses and MCBs. Makes me bang my head against the wall.

grahammechanical
April 27th, 2011, 01:05 PM
Hi Grenage

I have been thinking. Yeh, bad habit. I know. There are mechanical parts to hard drives. There are little motors that spin the actual discs. If the mechanical parts weren't as free to move as they should be, then intense disc activity soon after startup (such as a game) might cause the OS to lock up because it is not getting the data it demands when it demands it. Whereas, letting the machine run for a few minutes before loading the game might allow an increase of temperature in the case to free up the moving parts. So, no lock ups of the OS.

But, with heat expansion comes an increase in friction and the little motors spin faster and faster to keep the discs spinning as fast as the should spin. The motors draw more and more power. The tracks on the circuit board get hotter and hotter and the circuit board burns.

It is an explanation that satisfies me. That kind of thing should not happen to a hard disc, even one not under warranty. It most likely was a faulty hard disc.

Regards. I hope you get your money back.
Regards.

Grenage
April 27th, 2011, 01:36 PM
Ahoy there!

It still happens without the charcoal'd drive plugged in, and the data transfers were ok between disks on the desktop. I'll replace the PSU and let you know if it makes any difference. :)

psusi
April 27th, 2011, 03:52 PM
That picture is pretty bluree, can you try to get a cleaner one?

I agree, there likely isn't anything wrong with the PSU. It looks like a short in the circuit board there, possibly caused by moisture.

Grenage
April 27th, 2011, 03:58 PM
That picture is pretty bluree, can you try to get a cleaner one?

I agree, there likely isn't anything wrong with the PSU. It looks like a short in the circuit board there, possibly caused by moisture.

Hi Psusi;

Unfortunately I don't own a camera, just an old iphone 3g; I think my wife might have one, so I'll replace the image if she does.

Rasa1111
April 27th, 2011, 03:59 PM
eh, pic is good enough to tell the corner is charcoal,
that works. lol

Never seen that either!
How did you 'catch' it?

dh04000
April 27th, 2011, 04:06 PM
Wow, didn't know drives can go up.

Grenage
April 27th, 2011, 04:19 PM
eh, pic is good enough to tell the corner is charcoal,
that works. lol

Never seen that either!
How did you 'catch' it?

"What the hell is that smell?"

psusi
April 27th, 2011, 04:26 PM
You just smelled it and the system didn't shut down? Didn't hear anything? It sounds like it was a slow burn rather than a sudden flash. Was this a humid day without the A/C running? Had the system been on long when this happened?

Grenage
April 27th, 2011, 04:32 PM
You just smelled it and the system didn't shut down? Didn't hear anything? It sounds like it was a slow burn rather than a sudden flash. Was this a humid day without the A/C running? Had the system been on long when this happened?

It may have started as a slow burn, but it definitely didn't finish that way. The charring around the mount is quite large - there's a lot of carbon. No A/C here (England), and the humidity is very low at this time of year. The drive is still in warranty, although I'm not sure they'd waste much time looking at it.

The machine didn't shut down, but it's only a secondary drive.

psusi
April 27th, 2011, 04:46 PM
Normally if there is a dead short, the PSU will shut down instantly. Had the machine been on long?

Grenage
April 27th, 2011, 04:50 PM
I'd say about 7 hours or so, so quite a while.