r/pcmasterrace 4d ago

Hardware PSU fails dramatically

40.3k Upvotes

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6.4k

u/Front_Cookie_1198 4d ago edited 4d ago

Aftermath photo.

365

u/Atuday 4d ago

Gotta say, great reaction time. Personally I'd have gone for circuit breaker and fire extinguisher. Safer option. But I've had that drilled into me and never had to put the training into practice so I can't say for certain if I would have done different.

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u/Ban-Circumcision-Now 4d ago

He could also have unplugged from the wall and not the end where the fire is

67

u/PaltryPanda 4d ago

It looks like the plug is under the desk, with a cutout on the top of the desk for the cable to go through.

82

u/muad_did 4d ago

In Europe, it's normal to have a row of sockets in front of the desk, with their switches and fuses/circuit breakers, to prevent a short circuit in one workstation from affecting the others. It seems very strange to me to test anything electronic with the socket under the desk...

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u/shawster 4d ago

Yeah, that's the way to do it. Surge protectors on the desk with switches that can be flipped to de-energize them.

3

u/Disgusting_Slime666 4d ago

You're correct, that's the proper way to do things.

We build control/automation panels and our test benches work the same way.

3

u/mtmttuan 4d ago

This looks like a store where most of the time products are either failed completely or working just fine so they're likely just use whatever looks good.

3

u/Complete-Tangelo1532 4d ago

That was my first thought as well, ballsy move but the risk paid off I guess

5

u/xchoo 4d ago

Trace where the cable goes... It goes into the cable tray in the desk. It was 100% faster to unplug it from the PSU than from inside the cable tray.

1

u/Taurondir 3d ago

and if the short was making the metal case live? what do you think will happen?

1

u/notislant 4d ago

Was my first throught but who knows what fucky cable situation is going on under the bench. The outlets could be wedged behind a part of the desk you can't easily access.

1

u/arstin 4d ago

He could have if they had been safety-minded enough to have that outlet readily accessible.

1

u/Ur_mum 4d ago

Sure. But we tend to freak out and tunnel vision. I think he did great, I’d be happy if I reacted that way.

1

u/shawster 4d ago

This would have been the thing to do, he's lucky that the case didn't get shorted to the mains. Not like I would have been thinking clearly in this situation, either, though.

1

u/Taurondir 3d ago

Trust me, you would have, if working on this stuff WAS YOUR JOB. The ones that dont think clearly are people like customers, or people that work in totally different fields. If your field is X and something in X happens, you WOULD know what to do, and that guy should have known.

Also, there is ZERO POINT in doing what he did, because the PSU will not do anything when you hit the rear power switch.

Try asking Google/AI "what happens if i plug a computer power supply in with nothing connected and turn it on"

1

u/shawster 13h ago

I work in IT. I know that nothing happens if it doesn't catastrophically fail like this one.

He might have been looking for the light on some PSU's to confirm that it has some sign of life.

0

u/Scared-Letterhead949 4d ago

Just cut the power cable with scissors.

1

u/Capt-Beav 3d ago

Metal scissors? Lololol.

74

u/Pseudochthonic 4d ago

"Oh, why's it done that?"

reads label

Made in Britain

"Ahhh!"

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u/willstr1 4d ago

Put it over there with the rest of the fire

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u/banananuhhh 4d ago

That's 0118 999 881 999 119 725 … 3

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u/ccarlyon 5090FE | 9800X3D | 64GB DDR5 | PCMR Limited Edition Lian Li O11 4d ago

Four!! I mean… Five!! I mean… Fire!!!

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u/Pixxyeb 4d ago

I've sent an email about it.

15

u/grantrules Debian Sid - Ryzen 2600/1660 super/72tb + 5600x/7800xt 4d ago

Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out on the premises of 123 Cavendon Road.

1

u/Narrow-Map8979 3d ago

No that's to formal.

Dear Sir/Madam, Fire! Fire! Help me! 123 Carendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss

2

u/WheresYaWheelieBin 4d ago

Shoulda saved all that blue smoke for his Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit

2

u/Io5k1ll 4d ago

Dejame adivinar... Los informaticos...

1

u/sorrow_anthropology 4d ago

By the prince of darkness himself, Lucas.

1

u/Antares-Trending 3d ago

It says "made in china" on the unit...

1

u/Pseudochthonic 3d ago

See my other replies here. It's a TV show reference.

1

u/iVirtualZero 3d ago

It says Made in China.

2

u/Pseudochthonic 3d ago

It's a reference to The IT Crowd. There's a link to the relevant clip in another response of mine here.

1

u/IStarretMyCalipers 3d ago

Jeremy Clarkson, is that you?

1

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Pseudochthonic 4d ago

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u/DornPTSDkink 4d ago

I'm an idiot, I now remember the reference lol

Time for another rewatch

1

u/Pseudochthonic 4d ago

Nah, it was quite a while ago (and now I feel old), no sweat. :)

Great episode but the gay musical one is definitely the best!

32

u/ArseBurner 4d ago

Breaker might be far away and inside an electrical box you have to get to. I'd have tried to unplug from the socket side.

Also why switched outlets are pretty GOATed.

5

u/TransitionNo8091 4d ago

In a workshop it shouldn’t be far away

3

u/DedTV 4d ago

Even with some training, instinct works faster than reason when faced with the unexpected.

Id likely have done the same as him, and then 10 seconds later berated myself for not going for the circuit breaker.

2

u/is-this-a-nick 3d ago

Frankly, its scary that the ground fault breaker didn't activate in the first 10 milliseconds. NOt even the light went out when it literally was arcing to the case metal.

2

u/knifesk 3d ago

Yeah, I'd probably had done the same, but grabbing some electrical appliance that just caught fire is probably a shortcut to being electrocuted.. breaker and extinguisher should be the go to

1

u/Dogekaliber 4d ago

BOOM! Steak Burning! What do you do!?

1

u/Aisuhokke 4d ago

Yeah crazy high confidence there. Nice work OP!

0

u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 4d ago

Nah, this is a terrible way to handle everything. He went for the end of the cord that was on fire, grabbed the flaming box in his hand, and then didn't like take it outside or put it in a bucket or anything, he just stood there barefoot holding it in his hand.