First, or most memorable, encounter with the magic smoke.

[Torvaun]

Damn, what a screw up

Is it possible to check if the mobo is still intact without installing a new processor?

The rest of the parts are working.

Look for physical damage, charring and the like. When you get right down to it, though, you'll need to pop a new processor in to see if that still works. What socket are you looking for, I might have spares.

[MotorToad]

When I was 13 or 14 I "acquired" a string of lights, basically a tygon tube filled with a series of bulbs that were alternating in five sets (which I didn't know) so a sequencer could make that rolling bulb effect for signs or whatnot. All I knew is that it had six identical wires on the end and some sort of application of electricity would light them up. I hooked three to power and three to ground and ¹/₅ of the lights lit... so now to figure out which was ground (the wires were too tight together to trace). Somehow, I can't picture how, the third or fourth experimental wiring try I had wired power directly to neutral. I hit the switch and heard a pop, I had vaporized and inch of copper wire. Not the frilly stuff in the light, but the power cord I was using. It burned a hole through my blanket, sheets, and mattress.

I also plugged a car speaker into a wall outlet to see what 60 Hz sounds like. Apparently it sounds like a pop. I knew it would blow the speaker (I just wanted the magnet) but I was kinda hoping it'd make *some* sound before it went. Next time I'll use a potentiometer.

I also let the smoke out of a car. I friend was looking at a Lexus Camry (ES-300?) and I took it for a test drive. It seems these engines have a tendency to clog the oil drains from the rear head, emptying the sump. I'm guessing this was enhanced by some sort of dealer-installed magic oil leak fixer fluid. Driving up a bridge the car made a *CLUNK*, power went down, a lot, but I was able to make it up the bridge at full throttle at about 30 mph and dropping. At the top I clicked it to neutral with the throttle still wide open and the engine didn't even rev up. When I let off the throttle it stopped completely and didn't budge when I put it back in gear (just to see, y'know? ). At the bottom of the bridge I pulled over and checked the oil. There was nothing on the stick but smoke! Really, smoke came out of the dipstick hole. By the time the dealer got to us to take us back to their lot the dipstick was showing full, fresh and clean oil.

Curiously, I haven't let the smoke out of a computer (yet).

[enk]

Damn, what a screw up

Is it possible to check if the mobo is still intact without installing a new processor?

The rest of the parts are working.

Look for physical damage, charring and the like. When you get right down to it, though, you'll need to pop a new processor in to see if that still works. What socket are you looking for, I might have spares.

Sounds great, it's an LGA775.

The board is an ASRock 775V88+ and the processor is... was... a Pentium 4 Northwood 3.0 GHz.

Nothing to see whatsoever, but I didn't notice smoke either when it happened.

Where do you live? I'm assuming those coordinates are not for real

[Torvaun]

Don't bother, I don't have any spare P4s about. Maybe one of the other geeks around here does...

[enk]

Don't bother, I don't have any spare P4s about. Maybe one of the other geeks around here does...

Naw, I'll just take this as a sign that I should make that upgrade to Core 2 Duo

I'll test the motherboard when I stumble upon a P4 or a Celeron someday. Twas a fine board after all.

Btw. If the board has been fried, what are the chances I'll damage a new CPU by using the two together?

[wing]

enk:

You obviously did something else wrong or have a truly crap motherboard. A modern CPU will trip its own internal thermal safeguards before self-immolating, and a modern motherboard will shut it off before even that point. Also, unless you left the damn thing sitting for a LONG TIME, the heatsink should not have gotten that hot (unless you did something idiotic like load all the way into an operating system)

(Upon further reading, apparently you're using an Asrock motherboard, which qualifies as "truly crap" and a P4 3.0 Northwood, which was notorious for having its thermal safeguards set outside the "laws of physics" safety zone, and also for producing more heat than 75% of main sequence stars. Buy a new motherboard to go with your new CPU. Keeping that junker isn't worth the effort)

[davean]

Damn, what a screw up

Is it possible to check if the mobo is still intact without installing a new processor?

The rest of the parts are working.

Well, if the motherboard is good and the CPU is fried, it is reasonably likely you might get a beep code. Of course, diagnosing which of the CPU or Motherboard is fried is damn difficult with no spare parts.

It should have had a thermal shutoff event and not fried your proc though.

[enk]

Damn, what a screw up

Is it possible to check if the mobo is still intact without installing a new processor?

The rest of the parts are working.

Well, if the motherboard is good and the CPU is fried, it is reasonably likely you might get a beep code. Of course, diagnosing which of the CPU or Motherboard is fried is damn difficult with no spare parts.

It should have had a thermal shutoff event and not fried your proc though.

I tested it again with a friend yesterday. There's no beep, nothing, but what I didn't notice before was that the southbridge got extremely hot.

The PSU when plugged into the wall outlet eats 9W. When I connected the ATX plugs to the board, power consumption rose to 20W (which then slowly increased to 24W where it was stable (and the southbridge was too hot to touch)), but the PSU fan didn't start which I guess the board should always do even without a processor.

Then we noticed the CMOS clear jumper pins were bent and were touching each other. I have no idea how this has happened but I also have a hard time imagining it has always been like this. The manual says "Please remember to remove the jumper cap after clearing the CMOS". Maybe switching it on with those pins shorted fried the board..?


Maybe the board is dead but there's a chance the processor is still good?

[mazzilliu]

In high school the entire programming class each had a small re programmable robot that we would modify to compete in different events. One of the events was a tog-of-war contest and as the robots were a front-wheel-drive sort of device, one of my modifications was to reverse the orientation of the circuit board, in effect making it rear-wheel drive. due to the arrangement of the offsets there was no good place to rest the circuit board on. So I used the next best available insulating material(many layers of tissue paper, and notebook paper for good measure) and taped the whole thing on top of the chassis. apparently the tissue paper was not the right sort of tissue paper because as soon as I turned the thing on the magic smoke escaped. My modification ended up being double sided tape on the bottom of the wheels, so even though I did not win, at least I did not lose.

[Enneract]

First time I ever opened up a PC (and set out to do it with the intention of replacing\upgrading a motherboard, at that), I managed to fry the brand new mobo after playing around with bios passwords, forgetting it in 5 minutes, resetting it via jumper, and forgetting to move the jumper back when I reconnected the power. tiny puff of smoke, and the cpu fan controller no longer functioned, thus mobo would no longer post. Took it back to the store, played innocent and returned it. I was very pleased with myself.

[enk]

if the motherboard is good and the CPU is fried, it is reasonably likely you might get a beep code.

Can anyone confirm this?

Edit: It seems so, found this

It should have had a thermal shutoff event and not fried your proc though.

Do all motherboards support this?

[b.i.o]

if the motherboard is good and the CPU is fried, it is reasonably likely you might get a beep code.

Can anyone confirm this?

Yes. The beep codes are usually something the motherboard does on its own.

[enk]

if the motherboard is good and the CPU is fried, it is reasonably likely you might get a beep code.

Can anyone confirm this?

Yes. The beep codes are usually something the motherboard does on its own.

Ok, then I'm sure the board's gone.

Then if I test the processor in another board, is it probable that this board can be damaged if the processor is bad?

[Torvaun]

Not probable, but I can think of a couple ways that it could happen. Try finding a crappy board that's due for the recycler already to test it on first, just to make sure it doesn't kill it.

[cad3]

First Magic Smoke:

Computer Engineering Class.

Built the circuit using a bread board; but we were getting a sine wave instead of a square wave output. We couldn't figure out for the life of us was wrong. Spent the entire period trying to get it to a square wave. Finally, in a fit of desperation, we decided to flip the transistor we had around.

*pop* cracked the casing and the magic smoke that makes it work was released.

The teacher wandered on over (as a good 3/4th s of the room smelt of burnt electronics ), and asked what we were doing. We had just replaced the burnt transistor. So we showed him the sine wave, and asked what we were doing wrong; because we couldn't get a square wave out of our circuit.

He said, "No. It is suppose to be a sine wave. That's right. Move on to the next task." and then walked away.

We just stood there looking at each other, and the wasted hours and pretty much just thought:

"Wat?"

[EvanED]

I was hoping I could get pictures of this, but it won't happen, so I'll just tell the story.

Basically, I was sitting at my parents' computer (this was a Pentium 100, so a good while back). The computer is on the desk, set diagonally out from the corner, so the area behind it is in deep shadow. I hear a *pzzchzz* noise, and out of the corner of my eye the corner briefly lights up, I see sparks, and the computer turns off. Turns out of course that the power supply was fried, but that's not the end of the story.

Before continuing, I will mention that we replaced the PS with one from our 386. That one lasted until the computer was retired.

Anyway, so I took apart the dead power supply. (I later learned that this was a Bad Idea™ because of capacitors holding possibly lethal charges and whatnot.) Inside one of the corners of the case was a black spot of soot, and by it is, in particular, a resistor that is totally fried. The fuse is also blown. Out of curiosity, I wonder what would happen if the fuse were replaced. ("Maybe that resistor isn't that important...") But I didn't have a spare fuse. What I did have was a plentiful amount of stranded wire. So I took a very short piece, stripped off the ends, then bent the strands out so it looked like a capital 'I' with big serifs at the top and bottom. I then put it on top of the fuse clip.

I did know that what I was doing was pretty stupid, so I had the sense to put on safety glasses, and stood pretty much as far away from the PS as I could. Switch cord fully extended, and my body further away along my outstretched arm. I hit the switch, and get another great *pzzzchz* noise. The wire I had on top of the clip flew up into the air, hit the ceiling, and fell to the floor a few feet from the table where the PS was sitting. Looking at it afterward, part of the fuse clip and wire had actually melted. The fuse clip was deformed a bit, and a bit of copper from the wire had melted onto the clips. It was pretty awesome. (In retrospect, in addition to being glad I wasn't shocked by the caps, I'm also glad I didn't trip one of the house breakers.)

[steelfrog]

My first 'smoke' experience dates back a couple of years. I had bought a brand spankin' new video card and stuffed it into my box. I wasn't aware that Power Supplies came in different capacities at the time, nor that you could max them out. I managed to play a couple of hours of gaming and "poof". Everything was gone. The shortage blew the video card, motherboard, RAM and CPU.

[b.i.o]

My first 'smoke' experience dates back a couple of years. I had bought a brand spankin' new video card and stuffed it into my box. I wasn't aware that Power Supplies came in different capacities at the time, nor that you could max them out. I managed to play a couple of hours of gaming and "poof". Everything was gone. The shortage blew the video card, motherboard, RAM and CPU.

I guess I'm lucky my PSU died a slow, relatively painless death when I first put in a card it couldn't handle, rather than exploding .

[The_En6ineer]

Fortunately I have only ever been observer to the release of the magical blue smoke. But when your friends have assured the professor overclocking his PC is perfectly safe, you are thankful to not have taken part in a surprise overclocking experiment when he's gone home for the day...
The smokes aroma now invokes visions of suffering amoung the less fortunate of those friends. I however, remember it fondly as the olfactory representation of "I told you guys so".

[Rummy]

This isn't MY most memorable moment, but its somebody's.

I work at a company that makes computer hardware including hot-swappable power supplies. All the hardware are kept in large labs adjacent to the cubicle area. Two days ago the floor filled with the acrid, nose-burning smell of "magic smoke." Considering my lack of proximity to the lab, I figured whatever happened must have been pretty cool. An e-mail showed up within an hour warning people not to hot-swap power supplies until further notice under any circumstances.

Apparently some of the hardware guys were doing a little testing and ran into an arcing problem on the power supply connectors. The circuit board delaminated and the connectors are now charred. There was so much heat, some of the copper liquified and shot upwards to later be found clinging to the roof of the chassis.

[Aperfectring]

I work with hardware in a rack-mounted chassis that uses an external rack-mounted power supply. The power supply we were using was rated for a maximum output of 2000W at 48V. The chassis, fully loaded with power hungry blades, can draw upwards of 3500W at 48V. Someone in the lab forgot this, and put one too many blades into the chassis. There really is nothing quite like a 2000W PSU going up in flames....

[CookieMonster]

Batteries and motors also release lots of magic smoke, when i was building my last R/C car i was lazy and didn't bother filing the carbon fibre chassis slots properly. the result was the carbon fibre cutting through the heatshrink on the batteries, and them shorting out, melting part of the chassis and getting battery acid on my hands. i also managed to blow up an old motor, it looked pretty awesome though cos you could just see my car followed by a massive trail of smoke.
I saw somebody blow up a power supply once too, it started fizzing, so the guy just turned it off, there was a massive bang and a hell of a lot of smoke.

I blew up a power supply in electronis once too, the two wires on the output touched and there was a bang followed by lots of burning, i just swapped it with another and luckily nobody noticed

[segmentation fault]

hey does anyone know a good reason why a power supply would explode...literally?

[Torvaun]

hey does anyone know a good reason why a power supply would explode...literally?

Someone shorted across the fuse, then was abusive to it either by flicking the little red switch to 110 while feeding it 220, or shorted across a bunch of wires? Or both?

[segmentation fault]

Someone shorted across the fuse, then was abusive to it either by flicking the little red switch to 110 while feeding it 220, or shorted across a bunch of wires? Or both?

a friend said his exploded, and hes not the kind of person to be doing any of that. so lets just assume it just spontaneously combusted. the computer was on and running at the time.

[EvanED]

Depends on how facetious he is being. I sometime say mine exploded if I feel like being overly dramatic, but quickly follow up with "but not really".

[Torvaun]

Someone shorted across the fuse, then was abusive to it either by flicking the little red switch to 110 while feeding it 220, or shorted across a bunch of wires? Or both?

a friend said his exploded, and hes not the kind of person to be doing any of that. so lets just assume it just spontaneously combusted. the computer was on and running at the time.

It's almost certainly easier than how I described, that's just the path I would take if I were given a power supply and the goal of making it explode. If your friend has friends who are either evil, or ignorant, or both, the little red switch is probably the most innocuous way to send a power supply into a rather violent failure.

[Berengal]

Once in junior high, the class smarty-pants decided it was a good idea to flick the red 110V-220V switch on the psu on the classroom pc. Every single device in the machine opened their gates and released the magic smoke back into the wild.

Another time, a friend and I were making toast at his place. I noticed that the power chord lacked isolation on a small stretch, and commented on this. He started explaining why, and got as far as "well, the stove was on and..." before a big blinding flash and deafening boom, followed by complete darkness and silence which made me wonder if I had died for a moment. After about a minute of standing completely still, I asked "are you okay?". Ten seconds later a barely audible whisper told me "yes". He had managed to bridge the gap with his thumb, shortcircuiting the entire kitchen. The toaster's magic smoke escaped through my his finger.

[Aluminus]

Does he still have the thumb, like in a jar or something?

[Berengal]

He keeps it on a chain, usually around his neck.

Nah, it's fine. Aside from a slight burn, he was fine.

Toast was excelent, by the way.

[Mister_Penguin]

So, it turns out that the Genisis and GameGear power plugs look hella similar. You can see where this is going. I shoulda rtfm'd.

On the plus side, it smelled like mustard, so that was nifty.

[sethicus]

This isn't MY most memorable moment, but its somebody's.

I work at a company that makes computer hardware including hot-swappable power supplies. All the hardware are kept in large labs adjacent to the cubicle area. Two days ago the floor filled with the acrid, nose-burning smell of "magic smoke." Considering my lack of proximity to the lab, I figured whatever happened must have been pretty cool. An e-mail showed up within an hour warning people not to hot-swap power supplies until further notice under any circumstances.

Apparently some of the hardware guys were doing a little testing and ran into an arcing problem on the power supply connectors. The circuit board delaminated and the connectors are now charred. There was so much heat, some of the copper liquified and shot upwards to later be found clinging to the roof of the chassis.

I can't help but wonder if they had the power connected to the back of the power supply they were inserting. I guess the caps could be holding a charge, but without the actual mains power hooked up, I can't imagine that there would arcing sufficient to cause the copper splatter and the board to delaminate.

[Axman]

Tonight! HD 3870 X2s ablaze!

Both of them...

[b.i.o]

Ouch. Doing anything special with them?

[davean]

Ouch. Doing anything special with them?

Making a fire.

[Larson]

Tonight! HD 3870 X2s ablaze!

Both of them...

That's rough. Do explain.

[b.i.o]

Ouch. Doing anything special with them?

Making a fire.

I meant doing anything that made them release the smoke . What he does with them now is kind of a moot point.

[Arancaytar]

The toaster's magic smoke escaped through my his finger.

Now whose? His or yours? =P

[Axman]

Earlier this month, the house next door to my office was struck by lightning (I know, here I am pissed about my computer when this home was shooting gouts of fire from the gas line into the air so high people could see it from inside their homes a block away; I was there watching the firemen kick around bits of the meter biting through cheeks not to laugh and try to point at the bits of the meter that had blown the farthest) and most everything, at least to my eyes, seemed to work just fine.

The networking stuff was toast, but the test bench was running fine, isolated electrically and well-grounded as it was.

So, while I'm not in a position to say why I needed to set up a quad-GPU rig in my house over this weekend, or why this is all time-sensitive, I didn't want to have to do this at my office, and I brought back all the hardware and set things up at home. My trusty, now battle-hardened motherboard, a freshly unboxed 45nm processor, four flashy gigs of RAM dancing with Blinkenlights, a delicious RAID of Raptors. Set it up, empty boxes like drifts of snow across my living room, I happily hit the hand-brushed power button on my beautiful Silverstone chassis.

The fire that shot through my computer didn't last long, but when it's inside your computer, really, one second always seems excessive.

Of course, the worst thing is that the hardware all kludges along anyway, for entire minutes building up all those tearful false hopes before the inevitable blank screen. Except the NIC, it just burns its amber LED like a coma patient.

Hey, you'd well up with an eyeful of aerosol PCB and copper fumes, too, that shit's awful.

[bert5412]

my first encounter was when i was installing a new Power supply. I was 16 at the time and i had just spent about an hour convincing my dad that we didn't need to bring it to a computer shop to install a new power supply. well guess who was wrong... when i first installed it a heard a pop and saw an LED burn out i didn't think much of it so logged on to my computer, it was working and everything until i saw the smoke come up. in the end, lesson learned, pay the extra $40 bucks to get a store to do it for you. (also this happened only a few weeks after the 2 year warranty expired..)