So, I almost caught my system on fire ... am I still at risk?

Here is how it happened...

I took out my old 80gig harddrive (which I had fried earlyer today) to replace it with this new 160gig WD one. Well, in order to do that, I had to unplug the IDE cables and the power cables (along with the one to the floppy).

So then I put new HD in, plug everything back in, power up, AND... the power wire that was connected to my floppy all of a sudden turned into a bright red, and my case was almost full of smoke. My heart skipped three beats, almost wet myself, and stood there like a moron for 5 seconds staring at it in awe.

Then I yank the power cord in the back of the PSU, let the case air out for a bit, and look at the power connector that just caught on fire. All the sleeving for it have melted (there were actually 4 little wires with their own sleeves going to the little floppy connector), so I took some electrical tape and separately sleeved them back together.

No way am I going to reconnect that floppy back with that same connector, but I was just wondering if I damaged the other connector that was running off the floppy one. It was running to the DVD drive, right above. That connector seems fine, but I don't know if it will catch on fire at any time.

It is plugged in ATM (the one to the DVD), but I would like some advice. If I am not clear enough, let me know (I am still shaking ).

thanks all.

Well your first step is to find out why that happened. Really examine your floppy drive and look for any discoloration,, burning or even a stain. It sounds like you planning on just using that PSU? You should remove it from the case paper clip jump the green wire and a black wire on the MB connector. Place it in say a cardboard box and then with the PSU power plug it in and see what happens; is the fan turning is it glowing? I would not do any of that, but would throw it away, but i dont know your situation. About other components being fried? Its hard to tell, you could have lost everything, the short to ground could be anywhere? The damage could be none to total. Good Luck and this is just my view, these kinds of things are kinda inconsistant as to the extent of damage.

Well, I am in the process of installing windows, so I assume nothing is fried as of now (except wire and maybe floppy).

I forgot to mention, the reason it did that is because I had the floppy connector in there somewhat crooked, the pins were all crooked on the back of the floppy when I looked at it. So taht was that, I'll just buy a new one (but now I dont have a connector to hook it up to).

So, as of now should I expect any more fires?

Dosent seem so, as long as you have found the source, seems like you got lucky. I would still monitor the voltages on that PSU. And of course you now know, inspect connections prior to take off.

turd said:

Dosent seem so, as long as you have found the source, seems like you got lucky. I would still monitor the voltages on that PSU. And of course you now know, inspect connections prior to take off.

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I will keep an eye on the voltages, but I just hate that fact that I pretty much ruined this PSU. I was going to sell it, but no one wants to buy a PSU with a wire that almost caught on fire.

If I still want a floppy, can I buy a "4pin to floppy" concector?

That is funny, sorry about that thought....I just tried putting together a new System and somehow the HD started to smoke...still trying to figure out why.

Psu

dreIU said:

I will keep an eye on the voltages, but I just hate that fact that I pretty much ruined this PSU. I was going to sell it, but no one wants to buy a PSU with a wire that almost caught on fire.

If I still want a floppy, can I buy a "4pin to floppy" concector?

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What brand of PSU? I would be asking myself why it did not trip on an overcurrent situation before doing that kind of damage. Hihger end PSUs have overcurrent as well as overvoltage protection. It does not sound like this one has that feature, other wise it would ahve tripped.

2Busy said:

What brand of PSU? I would be asking myself why it did not trip on an overcurrent situation before doing that kind of damage. Hihger end PSUs have overcurrent as well as overvoltage protection. It does not sound like this one has that feature, other wise it would ahve tripped.

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it is an Antec True480 watt... I would assume it is a higher end psu, no?

dreIU said:

it is an Antec True480 watt... I would assume it is a higher end psu, no?

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I would have thought so. I went to the Antec site and was reading up on the True 480, and it does not support over current protection on the output. It supports over voltage protection. At a quick glance it looks like the Smart series supports over current, but not over voltage. Just for funnies I went to the PC Power and Cooling site, and even their low end units support both over voltage and over current. Obviously, over voltage is important, but so is over current. I would honestly have thought Antec would have supported both. Vantec supplies support overvolt, overcurrent and short circuit. If short circuit is detected, you have to cycel power off to the psu to get it to reset and unlatch.

Yea you can buy a connector, you could even splice that old one in or solder if enough left.(dont use the fried tap) Just orange to red, yellow to yellow, black, black to black, black. If you dont have a meter, just use a flashlight and make a continuity tester for your fried floppy plug. Tape one wire to the bulb ground and leave end loose,then tape the bulb plus to the battery plus and run another loose wire off the battery ground. Check your meter first by assuring you can light the bulb by putting the two loose wires together. Then just stick one wire into plug point one and then touch each other plug point and make sure you have no fusing of contacts. Check all possible combinations. Check your floppy drive same way in case, make sure that you cannot light the bulb when you have one wire grounded in the case and the other touching either of the two hots of the floppy.