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General discussion

I'm having terrible luck with floppy drives this week...now a FIRE

Mar 3, 2004 2:17AM PST

This computer had a bad power supply...I replaced the PS, hooked up the harddrive, floppy drive and booted up. Immediately the box filled with smoke and I powered down (case cover was still off) and pulled the plug from the outlet.

The back of the floppy drive was billowing smoke and the wires from the floppy drive power connector were melted completely...as were the wires going to the harddrive power connector.

I can replace the floppy drive...however, I'm wondering now how to do away with the wires at that end of the power supply....

There are more floppy connectors and more power connectors that can be used once I know how to get rid of the melted ones. Can they just be cut off and then small electrical 'screw caps' put on the ends of the wires like you do with normal electrical wires? This is out of my league....but I learn quickly.

Jeezzzz

TONI

Discussion is locked

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Re:I'm having terrible luck with floppy drives this week...now a FIRE
Mar 3, 2004 2:23AM PST

Warning: All advice given is without warranty or safeguard. The reader accepts all celestrial and temporal damages.


Simply than that is to use a pair of wire cutters and snip them off as not exactly the same length. Then just tape them up with a little strip of electrical tape. The only "trick" here is that they don't end all at the same point.

If the damage was severe, I might remove the supply from the machine, open it up and go all the way back to the inside of the supply and snip them off where they are soldered to the power supply printed circuit board.

Your choice.

Bob

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Thanks, Robert...electrical tape and varied lengths did the trick (NT)
Mar 3, 2004 3:32AM PST

.

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Re:I'm having terrible luck with floppy drives this week...now a FIRE
Mar 3, 2004 2:23AM PST

I would replace the P/S. Actually unless you set it up on the wrong voltage or something, I would take it back and get them to replace your floppy as well.

Who's fault?

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Box filled with smoke...
Mar 3, 2004 9:22AM PST

....my eyes would of filled with tears. What a traumatic expirence. Glad to hear nothing major (in PC or out) was lost.

~Tom

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Re:Toni, essential to establish cause of ANY fire!!
Mar 3, 2004 10:22AM PST

It goes without saying that standard procedures involve the detection of the CAUSE of any fire, and in this case it appears that a short in the floppy drive circuitry was the culprit, as its power connector is usually at the end of the run. I would definitely chuck it and install a new one. (Cheap)
Then again, a spiking PS may have rammed a surge down the run, causing a burn-out current for the gauge of wire used.

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Re:Re:Toni, essential to establish cause of ANY fire!!
Mar 3, 2004 7:36PM PST

I replaced the floppy drive...it turned out that the small piece of black plastic immediately in front of the pins had broken off which exposed part of the card and that's what caused the overheating issue and black billowing smoke (melting plastic). I had noticed the small piece of black plastic at the bottom of the case earlier but couldn't easily physically determine where it had come from so ignored the warning bells that actually entered a corner of my mind ahead of time and plugged everything up. Once I pulled the floppy drive out and looked at the back of the pins area, comparing it to the replacement drive, it was easily apparent where the problem originated....the user (me).

I had the computer up and running for about four hours straight after that checking other things (ran a dos scandisk on the large harddrive as well as other troubleshooting things) and had no further incidents regarding power problems.

Toni