Melted Harddrive

[Jjohn]

Hi, I recently bought a thermaltake 420W PSU and plugged it in to my
(previously) fully functional computer. I connected only my
motherboard and one ide HD. The second I turned it on I heard a
clicking or popping sound and began to smell something burning. So I
immediatly turned it off and followed the burning smell to my HD. One
of the microchips on its circuit board was chared and a few of the
tiny wires connecting it were melted. Two questions.
1) Is it feasable to purchase an identical harddrive and swap circuit
boards in an attempt to recover the data.
2) What is the most likly source of the damage? The Harddrive, PSU,
house wiring, or electric company. Right now im leaning towards the
house wiring as I live in a somewhat old building. I never had any
problems with my old 300W PSU though.
Any help would be appreciated.
Mike

 

[ChrisJ9876]

From: (e-mail address removed) (Jjohn)

Date: 06/10/2004 8:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id: <[email protected]>

Hi, I recently bought a thermaltake 420W PSU and plugged it in to my
(previously) fully functional computer. I connected only my
motherboard and one ide HD. The second I turned it on I heard a
clicking or popping sound and began to smell something burning. So I
immediatly turned it off and followed the burning smell to my HD. One
of the microchips on its circuit board was chared and a few of the
tiny wires connecting it were melted. Two questions.
1) Is it feasable to purchase an identical harddrive and swap circuit
boards in an attempt to recover the data.

Might be worth a try. I don't know if any unique stuff is stored in an eprom or
something like that. Check out the psu first, as I indicate below.

2) What is the most likly source of the damage? The Harddrive, PSU,
house wiring, or electric company. Right now im leaning towards the
house wiring as I live in a somewhat old building. I never had any
problems with my old 300W PSU though.
Any help would be appreciated.
Mike

Very highly unlikely to be due to house wiring or electric company. Considering
it's a new psu, it's quite possible that the connector that you plugged the HD
into is wired wrong - like maybe having the 5v & 12v leads swapped. Check it
out with a voltmeter, comparing it to the old one. Check the other connectors
too.
Or , could be it was just a coincidental component failure.
Chris

 

[Michael Culley]

1) Is it feasable to purchase an identical harddrive and swap circuit
boards in an attempt to recover the data.

I've heard reports of this working, even when using a similar board from a different sized hard drive.

2) What is the most likly source of the damage? The Harddrive, PSU,
house wiring, or electric company. Right now im leaning towards the
house wiring as I live in a somewhat old building. I never had any
problems with my old 300W PSU though.

The power supply is most likely the fault. Try to claim the cost of the HDD and most likely your motherboard from the people whom
you purchased the power supply from.

 

[Apollo]

Hi, I recently bought a thermaltake 420W PSU and plugged it in to my
(previously) fully functional computer. I connected only my
motherboard and one ide HD. The second I turned it on I heard a
clicking or popping sound and began to smell something burning. So I
immediatly turned it off and followed the burning smell to my HD. One
of the microchips on its circuit board was chared and a few of the
tiny wires connecting it were melted. Two questions.
1) Is it feasable to purchase an identical harddrive and swap circuit
boards in an attempt to recover the data.
2) What is the most likly source of the damage? The Harddrive, PSU,
house wiring, or electric company. Right now im leaning towards the
house wiring as I live in a somewhat old building. I never had any
problems with my old 300W PSU though.
Any help would be appreciated.
Mike

Further to the other replies, which I completely agree with, check the molex
plug that you connected to your hd against the others or your old psu to see
if wired incorrectly.

I would take the new psu to a reputable pc repair centre (or electronics
repair centre) and get a written report. You will need this evidence if
you're going to try and claim the cost of the hd (and perhaps data recovery)
from the psu manufacturer.

Call me cynical if you like but if you report this to the psu manufacturer,
they are likely to ask you to send the psu back and your evidence will be
gone, all you can hope for then is a replacement psu.

HTH