Smoked some electronics today!

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65LoveAffair

65LoveAffair

Whovian
Joined
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Hey everyone. Hope you all had a good day today (well, yesterday now), but I just needed a place to vent. My laptop and our TV got lunched today. My wife's oldest son was visiting, so I hooked my laptop up to the TV so we could watch a movie. As soon as I plugged the HDMI cord from the TV into my laptop, flame shot out of the socket and the TV and my laptop both went dead. (I hate the smell of frying electronics at anytime of the day!) The good news is that it didn't go any farther than that. As my 11yo said, at least it didn't do anything to the house. It also didn't fry anything else that was plugged in in the same area. We did a little investigating, and noticed that the surge protector that the TV is plugged into has a light that is supposed to light up as long as the protector is plugged into an outlet with a good ground. That light doesn't come on where we had it plugged into. So, for whatever reason, we've got a bad ground on that outlet. We plugged the laptop into a different outlet, so the difference between the grounded and ungrounded outlets caused a short across the HDMI cord as soon as I connected the two, and <POOF!> All gone! The hard drive in the laptop was okay, so I didn't lose any data. Now we're just out a TV and laptop. But like my son said, it could have been worse.

20160808_011608.jpg
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This is the HDMI connector on the motherboard of my laptop. I don't think they were ever intended to look like that!
 
Home owners insurance ? Ours has a 1 thou' deductible which is very close to new TV and new laptop retail cost. I wouldn't file that claim unless I wanted to upgrade. Better luck going forward.
Do consider adding a android firestick or box. Lots of brands, some as low as 25 bucks fully loaded.
The same sparks flying scenario could happen but... the 25 bucks versus the cost of a computer ?
I wont go into why a external device is better than loading aps directly on the android smart set TVs.
 
so essentially an ungrounded outlet!? yikes - best get that tended to right away - <~~ a note from Cptn. Obvious
 
Hum. This gets interesting.
That's about the time Delta said their world wide computer system shut down.
Now we know.
This is all a cover in a war with the Daleks.









Tardis-JPEG.jpg
 
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krazykuda said:
You smoked some electronics...

Did you inhale???
Click to expand...
Unfortunately it smelled more like the dogsh*t than it did the Maui Wowie...

RedFish said:
Home owners insurance ? Ours has a 1 thou' deductible which is very close to new TV and new laptop retail cost. I wouldn't file that claim unless I wanted to upgrade. Better luck going forward.
Do consider adding a android firestick or box. Lots of brands, some as low as 25 bucks fully loaded.
The same sparks flying scenario could happen but... the 25 bucks versus the cost of a computer ?
I wont go into why a external device is better than loading aps directly on the android smart set TVs.
Click to expand...

Yeah, our policy has a higher deductible. I'm pretty sure I can fix both myself and only be out a couple hundred. I know its the motherboard on the laptop, and without opening it up (that's next on the agenda), I'm pretty sure I fried the main board in the TV. I've sourced both parts, and it's definitely cheaper to just fix them. At least, it is for me. I will look into the firestick, though. Thanks!

adriver said:
Hum. This gets interesting.
That's about the time Delta said their world wide computer system shut down.
Now we know.
This is all a cover in a war with the Daleks.
Click to expand...
That's entirely possible! I definitely exterminated my laptop and TV yesteday!
 
Damn not the fun kind of smoke show. As Scampmike said, I would get the outlet fixed. Or maybe a "skull n crossbones" outlet plate?
At least you can fix yourself.
 
4spdragtop said:
Damn not the fun kind of smoke show. As Scampmike said, I would get the outlet fixed. Or maybe a "skull n crossbones" outlet plate?
At least you can fix yourself.
Click to expand...
God only knows how long that outlet has been bad. We've lived here for over 10 years, and have never touched the outlet other than to plug things into it. Before us, the house belonged to my grandparents for a little over 50 years. So who knows? Can an outlet lose its ground over time? I'm not an electrician, so I don't know.
 
65LoveAffair said:
God only knows how long that outlet has been bad. We've lived here for over 10 years, and have never touched the outlet other than to plug things into it. Before us, the house belonged to my grandparents for a little over 50 years. So who knows? Can an outlet lose its ground over time? I'm not an electrician, so I don't know.
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go buy a polarity checker - won't be surprised to find it's reversed... and yes, like any wire, it can loosen or degrade (though it is RARE)- do you have mouse (the live furry kind) issues?
 
An "ungrounded outlet" should not have been a factor. I would approach this problem from several directions.

IMMEDIATELY check the neutral ---NOT the ground---between different circuits in your house. In other words, ALL neutrals should be AND MUST BE at the same relative voltage. Do this by starting with the two outlets involved in the problem. Find a couple of good heavy loads......like portable heaters. "String" your multimeter between the outlets and measure from neutral to neutral. HINT.........if properly wired, the outlet has slightly larger / taller slot. This is the NEUTRAL. The slightly smaller / shorter slot is the "hot."

Measure the voltage between neutrals with NO loads on the outlets, with ONE load one ONE outlet, then switch ONE load to the opposite outlet. Finally put the two loads on BOTH outlets. In each case, the neutrals should be ZERO voltage between the two.

If this all "passes," then either the TV or the laptop had a fault and "did you a favor" by blowing itself up, or else poor design in the first place, which equally "did you a favor." That is, YOU could have been the "circuit" between parts of the defective device and whatever else
 
ScampMike said:
go buy a polarity checker - won't be surprised to find it's reversed... and yes, like any wire, it can loosen or degrade (though it is RARE)- do you have mouse (the live furry kind) issues?
Click to expand...

While this is not a bad idea...........reversed outlets SHOULD NOT CAUSE problems on modern appliances. The "Chinese" products we buy should NEVER depend on outlet wiring / grounding to be "safe." In other words they should be "designed in" with proper ISOLATION.
 
Smoked some electronics today - - oh yea, did you get a buzz!? buzz - get it!? electronics, buzz... bwaaahahahaha :rofl: sorry... LOL :lol:
 
It sounds like the TV and Laptop were fine individually. Most electronics will function fine individually if the polarity was reversed on the outlet. But, if one was reversed and other correct, it would have been a direct short when you tied them together. Zap! Still same deal though. Verify if one of those outlets is wired wrong. On a dead circuit you can visually check. Black (hot) wire should go to gold or bronze screw. White (neutral) should go to silver screw. Green or bare wire goes to green screw or housing or... (have seen a number of variations) or sometimes ground wire not even present even though three prong outlet :eek: If that wiring is reversed, I would be checking the whole house.
You can also get an outlet tester for under $10 that will verify correct wiring if power is on. I know Home Depot caries Klein brand. Don't turn it back on if visibly burnt.
 
There was power flowing there that shouldn't have been because that socket wasn't burned like that from a ground problem.
More like the TV had a short in the HDMI circuit, or something was shorted to that circuit.
Anyway, what kind and model of laptop is it?
I have 6 or 7 laying around here with no RAM or hard drives in them (hard drive failures on most of them)
 
65LoveAffair said:
I do have an HP laptop that died as well. Motherboard went out, but the hard drive is still good and I haven't scrapped it yet. It was an HP DV7.
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I have one of those (with a dead board of course)
That sucks.
 
TrailBeast said:
I have one of those (with a dead board of course)
That sucks.
Click to expand...
Eh, it was a thought and I appreciate it. I have one other dead Dell, but it's a board issue as well. I'll figure something out. Thanks for trying, though!
 
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65LoveAffair said:
Eh, it was a thought and I appreciate it. I have one other dead Dell, but it's a board issue as well. I appreciate it. I'll figure something out. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Somehow I managed to quote myself. Not sure how that happens. Oops.
 
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zkx14 said:
It sounds like the TV and Laptop were fine individually. Most electronics will function fine individually if the polarity was reversed on the outlet. But, if one was reversed and other correct, it would have been a direct short.
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This would be DAMN poor design and is most probably not to code in this modern world. This (design strategy) was supposed to have been tossed out with the "All American Five" (radio). If you are not aware, this was the huge proliferation of 5 tube AC/DC kitchen radios, most of which used the same series-wired vacuum tube setup, and which could be VERY dangerous in some cases. "Pun intended". The Hallicrafters (Halliscratchers) S-38 series had a METAL case as was a ---you guessed it---series string, AC/ DC radio. I had one when I was a kid, and it's a miracle I wasn't seriously killed..........

S_38one.JPG


A sample diagram of these very dangerous machines. Look at the very bottom where the "117V AC/DC" connector comes in and goes to GROUND. Most of these were made before the invention of the "fat blade" polarized AC plug. This means that if you reversed the plug, the "ground" was now HOT........120VAC above ground!!! Even worse, even if it was "correct" it would REVERSE (due to the circuit) when the on off switch was cycled

aa5_genericschematic.jpg
 
I got a few 2.5 HD's for Trailbeast. Lets assemble one and get it out to him.
 
First thing to remember............... Never let the magic smoke out because it wont work no more.................I have yet to find a way to put the magic smoke back in.
 
chryslerfat said:
First thing to remember............... Never let the magic smoke out because it wont work no more.................I have yet to find a way to put the magic smoke back in.
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Wow... I haven't heard anybody mention the magic smoke since I was in the Navy. Good times!
 
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