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Narrow escape with Dell PSU
by Bruce Ure at 23:05 16/06/11 (Blogs::Bruce)
So I turned my 3 monitors off at the mains (all in a single 4-way), then about 30 seconds later remembered something else I had to do so I turned them back on.
After about 20 seconds I thought I smelt a sort of soldering type smell, then another 20 seconds and I was *sure* something was not right... I looked down and flames and smoke are shooting out of my Dell monitor's PSU and it starts to spit and pop.

I pulled out the mains cable and felt the PSU... it was red hot.

If I'd not been in, like if it had been on a timer switch or something, the house would probably have burned down.

Sheesh.

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Narrow escape with Dell PSU Bruce Ure - 23:05 16/06/11
Re: Narrow escape with Dell PSU Steve - 23:16 16/06/11
Whoa! Lucky there!!

What caused it to burn?!

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stevepa

Re: Narrow escape with Dell PSU Bruce Ure - 23:23 16/06/11
No idea. Switch mode PSUs, of which this was one, all have so many potential modes of failure that some of them are bound to be catastrophic and dangerous. My money's on a capacitor shorting out and a safety cutout failing to cut out, something like that. BIt worrying though. Makes me think I need to revisit my policy of always keeping wall warts and other external PSUs on ceramic tiles to reduce the chances of them catching other stuff (floors, carpets, furniture:) alight. I used to do that but I stopped. Time to start again maybe.

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- Deleted User Account - 09:24 17/06/11
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