Brown trousers moments with PSUs...

Brian8bit said:
Not a dodgy PSU, but forgetting about the PSU. Most of the time I just take the side off my case when I need to do any hoking around and leave everything plugged in (but switched off) but I was replacing a graphics card and didn't even think, despite the PSU running away underneath and grabbed the card to pull it out. Queue a zap and that "holy **** I feel weird" buzz you get after electrocution. My arm ached for hours after as well.
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What from 12V whimp :P
 
My NorthQ 850W psu went bang last year while playing a game. It was pretty scary actually and it made a huge pop sound, I was amazed my wife slept through it, was half expecting her to come rushing up the stairs and never let me touch my PC again :)

When I was at uni I had a much closer shave. Came back to halls after a weekend away, went in the kitchen to make a toastie, as you do. It wouldn't power on so I thought OK, fuse has probably blown. Put a new one in, switched it on. I was just about to tap the (metal) top of the sandwich toaster to see if it was getting warm when suddenly a HUGE spark leapt out of the back and arced over to land on top of it! :eek:

I was literally stood there for what felt like minutes, all numb, not really hearing anything, I think I must have been in shock or something. A couple of seconds later and I would have been touching it....
 
Touched some caps when I took my PS1 apart many moons ago, 'twas a rather shocking experience.

Also saw water literally pouring onto a 415V power board, that was quite surreal!
 
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not had a PSU problem before. but a few weeks ago a friend asked me to pop round as his computer wont turn on

when i got there he told me he almost died when he flipped the little red switch on the back of the psu

i instantly raged. why didnt he tell me that was the reason his pc wont turn on, christ after explaining to him what an arse he is i went home leaving him alone with his purple shirts box of crap

cool story bro
 
Not had any problems with a PSU but did with another computer part along time back.

Had the PC tower on a desk which just happened to mean the CD ROM was about head height when you were sitting at it. Was playing Red Alert at the time, always remember that as you got 2 disks with it, one for allies and one for NOD or something like that and after this happened I could only play one side, anyway all of a sudden there was a cracking noise from the CD drive. Next thing I know the drive is half open and no disk is inside! Disk had exploded and forced its way out of the drive right across the room!

Was finding bits of the disk up against the opposite wall which was about 25ft away. Still to this day don't know how it missed my head. From that day on PC's stay on the floor!
 
Ive only had 1 psu blow up in my face and that was an ANTEC one that was considered to be decent at the time.... scared the hell out of me.

Ive shocked myself a couple of time with 240v - its quite surreal i recommend it to anyone.
 
Not a PSU - but having a multimeter set to measuring resistance instead of voltage whilst connected to the mains creates quite a bang.
 
When I was doing my IT Course, the first month we had to assemble a PC and install Windows from a Ghost image, as soon as I turned on the power BOOM.

I was leaning over the case to switch it on, really did make me take a few steps back, but I laughed afterwards because the PSU was made by a company called ACME :D.


lbratch said:
Not a PSU - but having a multimeter set to measuring resistance instead of voltage whilst connected to the mains creates quite a bang.
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LOL :D
 
Had a lot of incedents with PSU's blowing on me. But nothing tops it as good as this story floating around the net:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie.

What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant,
allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety.....?? WAY TOO COOL! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home.

I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. AWESOME!!!
Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right?

There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it
would work as advertised. Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another.
The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries. All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5' long, less than
3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, “no possible way!”.

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best.

I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, “Don’t do it dip-****”. Reasoning that a one second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, and then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs?

The cat was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to 'mug' yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative?

SON-OF-A-BITCH, THAT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading
glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still
twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling. Apparently I **** myself, but was too numb to know for sure and my sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair.
I'm still looking for my nuts and I'm offering a significant reward for their safe return!!


P. S. My wife loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!
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I got a nasty jolt from a fruit machine I was working on. In that particular model, the mains lead didn't plug directly into the PSU. It plugged into a socket in the cabinet which was connected to the PSU, which was an inch or two away. Being a careless idiot taking stupid shortcuts, I didn't bother pulling the machine out and disconnecting it from the mains. I just turned off the PSU. OK to work on the machine that way - no power to any of the components. However, that left an inch or two live straight from the mains and the shielding was faulty.

Fortunately, I touched it with the back of my hand so my arm jerked away from it. That hurt quite a bit and I couldn't move my arm for a while. I had a bit of a panic about that.

Lots of minor cuts to my hands. The insides of many fruit machines are worse than cheap PC cases - it's just sheet metal cut and bent to shape, usually in the way of components. You'd think that people who work on them would have some input into the design of the interiors, but no.
 
my usb hub leaks power back to ground... so if you are touching anything grounded while plugging/unplugging the cable to the computer, you get a nice 5V shock.

iPhone also, entire case (including screen) is powered when connected to charger.

Not bad shocks, but I shock myself on one of those around once a week.
 
when I was at work expirance about 5 years ago the coordinator was telling me about the time a monitor ( CRT one) blew him acorss the room...literly exploded with him in front and took him acorss the room...thats why he stands to one side of them now :p
 
When I was about 13 - I had recently built my first computer & my computer was complaining of not enough graphics power - So I looked at the back of my PSU and noticed the switch that changes the power from 50Hz to 60Hz.

I thought - Surely 60Hz means more POWAH!! - So... Whilst the computer was still switched on - I made the switch :p

It blew up in my face - Was a definite "Am I still alive moment?" :p Couldn't hear anything for about 10 minutes afterwards :p
 
Rotty said:
A few years ago I reached on top of a sever cabinet and put my hand into the psu of a DLT drive with the cover removed

I saw a big spark emerge from my chest and jump to a key in a server ( nearest ground ) left a burn on my chest for over a year
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:eek:

Other than a smidgen of cuts the worst happened to me involved a friends PC. He was just getting rid of it and I needed to switch it on to get out a disk. Simples enough, but the PSU blew and a huge amount of sparks shot out the back. I actually didn't get electrocuted, but didn't dare move for like 20 seconds waiting for any current to die down! :p
 
Had a moment like this whilst out in the states but not to do with computers.

The boiler's pilot light went out leaving us with no hot water. The directions were quite simple to get it going again. Switch the Gas supply to the Pilot position, hold down the Pilot switch and the Ignition switch for 5 seconds. Release the ignition switch and hold the Pilot switch for 30 seconds, then release. If the Pilot remains lit, switch the Gas supply to the On position. Repeat process if the Pilot goes out. Simple enough :)

After about 10 minutes of trying, my friend couldn't get the pilot to ignite, so I decided to try. After a couple of tries, I got it lit but it went out when I released the Pilot switch. Next try, as soon as I struck the Ignition switch, all the built up gas in the Pilot chamber ignited creating a very big explosion. Thankfully the entire boiler didn't explode but since my face was inches away from the pilot viewing window when the big bang occurred, it scared the **** out of me!
 
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