|
Hardware Use this board for problem solving and the discussion of Computer Hardware issues |
|
Topic Tools |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Smoke damage to computers
I recently had a house fire, the fire chief told me I could get my stuff out after the fire, and I removed several computers. Later the contractor who cam in and cleaned the contents of the house told me, they don't usually clean the inside of electronics, and recommend they get replaced. I'm concerned. it had been two months after the fire, and my computers seem to be working, how serious is it, since my main computer was on during the fire, until the power was cut, and my external drives were running too. Should I go through the hassle and get them replaced? or maybe just the external drives? What are thoughts on this? Too make matter more complicated I upgraded to Windows 10 and if I get new computers, I might have to buy another copy of Windows. I have two computers I built with oem O/S's.
|
#2
|
||||
|
||||
If they are running don't worry about it, any smoke damage should of had an immediate affect. Just make sure the inside of the case is clean, use compressed air, rag/q-tips with isopropyl alcohol works great also.
I would take the external drives out of the case and also clean them, a thorough cleaning of everything should suffice. |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
as far as the smoke damage, the previous post cover it all. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
My only concern might be if the smoke contained grease or oil particles that coated the heat sinks, that may result in a faster than normal, and harder to clean build up of dust sticking to the smoke residue.
I would make a backup of your data just in case, then contact your insurance agent. He/she should then tell you if you are authorized replacements. |
#5
|
||||
|
||||
Hi there. I did 20+ years in the insurance industry so here is my perspective:
We usually paid out to replace computer hardware that was "smoke" damaged. Simply because no-one can give the same guarantee of functional life after being cleaned after the event than the expected life before being "damaged". Your policy may differ so you would need to check with your agent/insurer as Bill suggests above. The "damaged" hardware was then sold as salvage, some of which I managed to buy and much of it made up many of the computers I built, along with a bunch salvaged from a power surge claim, and some from literally a "fell off the back of a truck" claim. Most of it is still running to this day, upwards of 10 years later, and the bits that aren't are mainly due to being upgraded while operational rather than failing. The biggest failure rate was probably optical drives (CD writers) so you'll probably need to replace that. Your external hard drives should be fine. The computer that was running at the time will have been inducting smoke and will need to be thoroughly cleaned to be safe. Whatever particulate matter is in the smoke could potentially be conductive and can create electrical shorts. To be safe, I would consider replacing the Power Supply since they are pretty hard to completely clean out. |
Bookmarks |
«
Previous Topic
|
Next Topic
»
Topic Tools | |
|
|
Similar Topics | ||||
Topic | Topic Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
White Smoke after PC Upgrade | Skyferia | Hardware | 9 | June 8th, 2016 12:44 PM |
Smoke from a SATA cable | lokishadow | Hardware | 5 | May 8th, 2012 04:23 PM |
Smoke Coming Out!!! | madmick96 | Hardware | 7 | February 4th, 2007 12:17 AM |
Smoke damaged computer | Cinders | The Anything Else Board | 2 | September 17th, 2003 06:32 PM |
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 09:36 AM.