@jak.willis

Hello welcome

There is a lot of factors to take into consideration, lack of ventilation, build up of dust, air vents blocked with build up of dust, and age of Pc.

CPU overheated, CPU cooler may have been faulty.

It's obviously overheated, remove the hard drives and see if they can still be accessible, I think your Pc is toast.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

 

Hello,

What are the chances of the hard drives being damaged?

@jak.willis

Hi

No-one can state said condition of hard drives, as stated you will need to remove them to investigate, but the fact you quickly turned off Pc, they should be fine.

Open Pc and sniff areas of the system with power off. The smell of burnt electronics lingers and you can usually trace it to the area of failed parts.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

@jak.willis

Hi

No-one can state said condition of hard drives, as stated you will need to remove them to investigate, but the fact you quickly turned off Pc, they should be fine.

Open Pc and sniff areas of the system with power off. The smell of burnt electronics lingers and you can usually trace it to the area of failed parts.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

Yeah, it absolutely lingered last night, we had to open all the windows. And, yes, I turned it off as quickly as possible when I noticed the smoke.

How exactly do I open up the PC? I have never done it before and am no expert.

@jak.willis

Hi

There are loads of YouTube videos to help you out.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

@jak.willis

Hi

. . . . . How exactly do I open up the PC? I have never done it before and am no expert. . . . .

As this is an electrical issue, the damage could be extensive to the point where all components are 'fried', I had this occur several years ago, also not forgetting your own safety, I would advise you take the computer to your local computer repair shop to be looked at.

John EB
Forum Moderator

@jak.willis I would guess that something like smoke would come from the power supply. Usually, if important components like the processor or graphics cards get too hot, the computer will turn itself off. If you had enough time to turn it off by yourself, for example by pulling out the power cable, it's not that serious for the hard drives. This would be like a power black out, which can sometimes happen.

If the power supply smells burned you can simply get a new one and replace the old one.

@jak.willis

Hi

I agree with John @johnebaker as you stated you have no knowledge of pc hardware, I would not try to switch it back on or replace components.

The advice was too look inside and see what the damage was to any components as you wanted to know, I still think your Pc is toast, but you could take it to a computer repair shop which may prove costly.

I would look at purchasing a new PC.

Your main query was to obtain the hard drives to save any data as you have no backups, simply opening the case while disconnected from mains power and unplugging and removing drives would solve your issue.

You could take it to a hardware shop just to simply remove the hard drives for you if you are not comfortable opening Pc.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

I hope this helps.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

@jak.willis I would guess that something like smoke would come from the power supply. Usually, if important components like the processor or graphics cards get too hot, the computer will turn itself off. If you had enough time to turn it off by yourself, for example by pulling out the power cable, it's not that serious for the hard drives. This would be like a power black out, which can sometimes happen.

If the power supply smells burned you can simply get a new one and replace the old one.

Well I didn’t hear any bang or anything. First thing I noticed was the burning smell, and then the smoke coming out the back of the PC. I say I turned it all off from the wall as quickly as possible, but looking back I think the machine itself did blow or turn itself off before I actually ripped it out the mains. This was all while the smoke was pouring out.

@jak.willis

Hi

I agree with John @johnebaker as you stated you have no knowledge of pc hardware, I would not try to switch it back on or replace components.

The advice was too look inside and see what the damage was to any components as you wanted to know, I still think your Pc is toast, but you could take it to a computer repair shop which may prove costly.

I would look at purchasing a new PC.

Your main query was to obtain the hard drives to save any data as you have no backups, simply opening the case while disconnected from mains power and unplugging and removing drives would solve your issue.

You could take it to a hardware shop just to simply remove the hard drives for you if you are not comfortable opening Pc.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

I hope this helps.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

 

Yes, I rung up my local computer repair shop and explained the situation, and he said not to attempt turning it back on as that could potentially cause a house fire. He said to write the PC off but still bring it in to see whether the hard drives can be rescued. I just bloody well hope they aren’t destroyed.

@jak.willis

Hi

Yes I would also say Pc is a write off, take it into shop and fingers crossed the hard drives are okay.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

@jak.willis

Hi

. . . . . How exactly do I open up the PC? I have never done it before and am no expert. . . . .

As this is an electrical issue, the damage could be extensive to the point where all components are 'fried', I had this occur several years ago, also not forgetting your own safety, I would advise you take the computer to your local computer repair shop to be looked at.

John EB
Forum Moderator

Were your drives un-damaged? I mentioned to Stephen just now that looking back I think the computer did blow or turn itself off just before I disconnected from the mains. This was all while the smoke was coming out the back. And the burning metallic smell lingered for quite some time, even with all the windows open.

@jak.willis

Hi

Yes I would also say Pc is a write off, take it into shop and fingers crossed the hard drives are okay.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

Thank you. I’ll let you know of the outcome.

@jak.willis

Hi

Yes keep me updated. 👍

Stephen

Forum Moderator

@jak.willis

Hi

. . . . Were your drives un-damaged? . . . .

Unfortunately not - only one of the 3 internal drives, a small SSD, survived mainly because it was not connected to the power pack which failed catastrophically - no smoke but one heck of a bang plus the smell of burnt components, the rest of the PC internals had to be replaced ie new power pack, motherboard, CPU, Hard drive x 2, DVD writer, I also took the opportunity to upgrade to what was then a top end spec PC - not the current one.

My external USB backup drives were not connected and powered up at the time, so they escaped damage, they contained all my backup images of the C: drive that I could restore Windows and most programs and data from.

I image the C: drives of my PC and laptop every 4 weeks, and full data backups weekly for such cases as a catastrophic failure.

John EB

@PATIENT-X @johnebaker

So it’s bad news, guys.

I took the PC in this morning and the man said that the hard drives are what blew up, along with the rest of the machine. So the motherboard, RAM thing, etc.

I asked what the hell could have caused this and he seemed to think that it was caused by a power spike. So as you can imagine, I’m pretty worried about connecting a new computer in case the same thing happens again!

I also asked what the hell I’m gonna do now because I have so much data on those hard drives, and he said the only thing I can do now is send them to a data recovery specialist - which of course will cost me a lot of money. It’s either that or he said if I can find an exact replica of the motherboard thing on the drives (where the burns are).

@PATIENT-X @johnebaker

@jak.willis The data is stored on the magnetic disks inside the case. So they might still be intact but that's definitely a case for professionals.

Now you'll have to decide whether the data is worth it or not.

@jak.willis

Hi

Sorry about the outcome.

Generally circuit boards are uniquely identified by the hard drives.

If the platters are protected in enclosure some company's could recover at a very expensive cost to you.

But the heat itself would de-magnetize the magnets inside hard drive.

FYI you will need to get yourself an adaptor with mains surge protector for a new PC system and make monthly backups of your hard drives.

Stephen

Forum Moderator

@jak.willis

Hi

From the damage to the power connector of the drive in the right image above this looks to me like a catastrophic failure either in the drive or the powerpack.

The other drive looks to be physically OK both connector strips look fine, however if it too is very likely damaged.

As @SP. commented - 'The data is stored on the magnetic disks inside the case. So they might still be intact but that's definitely a case for professionals.'

Most definitely expensive as this would require removing the platter(s) and install them in a recovery drive - all the electrical components in the drive ie the onboard electronics, motor and the read/write heads are all likely to be dead.

@PATIENT-X

. . . . But the heat itself would de-magnetize the magnets inside hard drive. . . .

Unlikely - the temperature inside the drive would have to rise to 250°C or higher depending on the magnetic coating composition.

John EB

@jak.willis The data is stored on the magnetic disks inside the case. So they might still be intact but that's definitely a case for professionals.

Now you'll have to decide whether the data is worth it or not.

I see what you’re saying.

I don’t even know where to start to be honest. There are many data recovery places but the problem is none of them are nearby. Nearest ones to me would be London and Brighton. And I don’t feel comfortable sending them via post in case they get lost or something.

@jak.willis

Hi

From the damage to the power connector of the drive in the right image above this looks to me like a catastrophic failure either in the drive or the powerpack.

The other drive looks to be physically OK both connector strips look fine, however if it too is very likely damaged.

As @SP. commented - 'The data is stored on the magnetic disks inside the case. So they might still be intact but that's definitely a case for professionals.'

Most definitely expensive as this would require removing the platter(s) and install them in a recovery drive - all the electrical components in the drive ie the onboard electronics, motor and the read/write heads are all likely to be dead.

@PATIENT-X

. . . . But the heat itself would de-magnetize the magnets inside hard drive. . . .

Unlikely - the temperature inside the drive would have to rise to 250°C or higher depending on the magnetic coating composition.

John EB

 

I just can’t understand how the hell this all happened in the first place. The man in the shop just said caused by a power spike. Why should that suddenly happen? It’s never ever happened before. But from what he was saying, the age and state of the PC hasn’t played a part in this, it all points to the power mains.

@jak.willis

Hi

. . . . The man in the shop just said caused by a power spike. . . .

Makes me wonder if he has had more computers come in with the same issue in the days after yours blew.

Did you have any thunderstorms in the area when the PC blew?

Depending on where you live, voltage spikes can occur - I live in area with a lot of heavy industry a few miles away and the mains here is very noisy at times.

I found this out after a powerpack failure and put in an APC Uninterruptable Power Supply between the mains and the PC and Monitors to stop surges, its alarm was going off every time the mains voltage dropped.

John EB