r/pcmasterrace • u/Front_Cookie_1198 • 1d ago

Hardware PSU fails dramatically

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

36.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

342

u/Atuday 23h ago

Gotta say, great reaction time. Personally I'd have gone for circuit breaker and fire extinguisher. Safer option. But I've had that drilled into me and never had to put the training into practice so I can't say for certain if I would have done different.

178

u/Ban-Circumcision-Now 22h ago

He could also have unplugged from the wall and not the end where the fire is

65

u/PaltryPanda 22h ago

It looks like the plug is under the desk, with a cutout on the top of the desk for the cable to go through.

74

u/muad_did 22h ago

In Europe, it's normal to have a row of sockets in front of the desk, with their switches and fuses/circuit breakers, to prevent a short circuit in one workstation from affecting the others. It seems very strange to me to test anything electronic with the socket under the desk...

12

u/shawster 20h ago

Yeah, that's the way to do it. Surge protectors on the desk with switches that can be flipped to de-energize them.

3

u/Disgusting_Slime666 18h ago

You're correct, that's the proper way to do things.

We build control/automation panels and our test benches work the same way.

3

u/mtmttuan 17h ago

This looks like a store where most of the time products are either failed completely or working just fine so they're likely just use whatever looks good.

3

u/Complete-Tangelo1532 21h ago

That was my first thought as well, ballsy move but the risk paid off I guess

3

u/xchoo 22h ago

Trace where the cable goes... It goes into the cable tray in the desk. It was 100% faster to unplug it from the PSU than from inside the cable tray.

1

u/notislant 22h ago

Was my first throught but who knows what fucky cable situation is going on under the bench. The outlets could be wedged behind a part of the desk you can't easily access.

1

u/arstin 21h ago

He could have if they had been safety-minded enough to have that outlet readily accessible.

1

u/Ur_mum 20h ago

Sure. But we tend to freak out and tunnel vision. I think he did great, I’d be happy if I reacted that way.

1

u/shawster 20h ago

This would have been the thing to do, he's lucky that the case didn't get shorted to the mains. Not like I would have been thinking clearly in this situation, either, though.

0

u/Scared-Letterhead949 22h ago

Just cut the power cable with scissors.

1

u/Capt-Beav 9h ago

Metal scissors? Lololol.

72

u/Pseudochthonic 22h ago

"Oh, why's it done that?"

reads label

Made in Britain

"Ahhh!"

42

u/willstr1 22h ago

Put it over there with the rest of the fire

30

u/banananuhhh 22h ago

That's 0118 999 881 999 119 725 … 3

7

u/ccarlyon 5090FE | 9800X3D | 64GB DDR5 | PCMR Limited Edition Lian Li O11 17h ago

Four!! I mean… Five!! I mean… Fire!!!

12

u/Pixxyeb 21h ago

I've sent an email about it.

16

u/grantrules Debian Sid - Ryzen 2600/1660 super/72tb + 5600x/7800xt 21h ago

Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out on the premises of 123 Cavendon Road.

1

u/Narrow-Map8979 6h ago

No that's to formal.

Dear Sir/Madam, Fire! Fire! Help me! 123 Carendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you. All the best, Maurice Moss

2

u/WheresYaWheelieBin 22h ago

Shoulda saved all that blue smoke for his Lucas Replacement Wiring Harness Smoke kit

2

u/Io5k1ll 19h ago

Dejame adivinar... Los informaticos...

1

u/sorrow_anthropology 19h ago

By the prince of darkness himself, Lucas.

1

u/Antares-Trending 14h ago

It says "made in china" on the unit...

1

u/Pseudochthonic 10h ago

See my other replies here. It's a TV show reference.

1

u/iVirtualZero 12h ago

It says Made in China.

2

u/Pseudochthonic 10h ago

It's a reference to The IT Crowd. There's a link to the relevant clip in another response of mine here.

1

u/IStarretMyCalipers 7h ago

Jeremy Clarkson, is that you?

1

u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

1

u/Pseudochthonic 22h ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBfxjSFAxQ :)

2

u/DornPTSDkink 22h ago

I'm an idiot, I now remember the reference lol

Time for another rewatch

1

u/Pseudochthonic 22h ago

Nah, it was quite a while ago (and now I feel old), no sweat. :)

Great episode but the gay musical one is definitely the best!

35

u/ArseBurner 22h ago

Breaker might be far away and inside an electrical box you have to get to. I'd have tried to unplug from the socket side.

Also why switched outlets are pretty GOATed.

6

u/TransitionNo8091 22h ago

In a workshop it shouldn’t be far away

3

u/DedTV 19h ago

Even with some training, instinct works faster than reason when faced with the unexpected.

Id likely have done the same as him, and then 10 seconds later berated myself for not going for the circuit breaker.

2

u/is-this-a-nick 14h ago

Frankly, its scary that the ground fault breaker didn't activate in the first 10 milliseconds. NOt even the light went out when it literally was arcing to the case metal.

2

u/knifesk 8h ago

Yeah, I'd probably had done the same, but grabbing some electrical appliance that just caught fire is probably a shortcut to being electrocuted.. breaker and extinguisher should be the go to

1

u/Dogekaliber 22h ago

BOOM! Steak Burning! What do you do!?

1

u/Aisuhokke 18h ago

Yeah crazy high confidence there. Nice work OP!

0

u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 20h ago

Nah, this is a terrible way to handle everything. He went for the end of the cord that was on fire, grabbed the flaming box in his hand, and then didn't like take it outside or put it in a bucket or anything, he just stood there barefoot holding it in his hand.