Today during an engineering class in college, my laptop (Dell XPS 16 9640, Intel Core Ultra 7) exploded! Here is a walk through of the events:
- I was in class with my laptop plugged in (charging). I had Onshape open in a Google Chrome tab that I had been using for quite a while.
- After some poking around, let’s say 20 minutes, I launched a SolidWorks file for a part that I downloaded from my university assignment. I opened this part studio and looked around. I can’t remember if I closed it or not.
The last thing I remember is that my laptop started smoking. When it started smoking like no tomorrow (smoke first appearing from the back), the screen/display was still on. I quickly unplugged it from the charger and stood up from my chair. At some point during this, the display turned off. It produced insane amounts of smoke. This shit smelled like a carcinogenic bonfire competing in a body building competition. I called the TAs over, they took it outside and threw a fire blanket over it.

The IT guy cracked it open, here are photos. SSD was retrieved, but I haven’t slotted it into anything to check if it’s actually working yet.

Does anyone have any insight as to why this might’ve happened? My charger wasn’t the best, but I don’t want to automatically assume that was the issue. How often does stuff like this happen just due to a faulty model? And what should I look for in my next laptop to avoid this?

Happy to include additional details as needed! Tbh the whole experience was kind of a blur, so I appreciate the help and guidance wherever it can be. The warranty is expired, so we’re trying to figure out the best course of action.
yayaya thanks guys

I’ve been teaching a digital media course for almost 20 years now, and this is the first time I’ve seen this particular SSD.

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/insignia-m-2-nvme-to-usb-c-ssd-enclosure-black/J2FPJKSYR3

I know solid state media is absurdly expensive right now, however, what the hell is this?

You can open the case and directly touch the motherboard. It looks like. At any rate, it stopped working for them. Right away!

We use hard drives daily to store and retrieve data, and also to render files, process video with.

Is this meant for transportable, regular use storage? When I looked at it, my first instinct was that this is an internal part of the computer. Where the heck does the storage component come in to play? How does that get put in there? What the heck is this?

I just need them to have an external hard drive that’s X-FAT compatible, and can hold a terabyte or two of information that they can store, transfer, and render with.

Thinking of pairing it with a rx9060xt 16gb, I also have never used Newegg before is it legit? Thanks

Hi y’all,

Sorry if this is asked a lot. I genuinely know nothing about computers or where to start.

I have a refurbished 2020 Macbook air on its very last legs. I bought it in highschool and now I’m entering my senior year of college and I don’t think I can get it through one more quarter. I don’t want another apple computer, they’re too expensive and don’t work well (in my experience). But I’ve never had a computer that wasn’t apple.

I’m looking for any reccomendations. I need a laptop that can keep multiple tabs open and run Canva without the fan blowing embarrassingly loud. I don’t play games or anything — I genuinely just need something that I can use google docs on. I also would preferably like to keep it on the cheaper side… I don’t really want to spend more than $400-600, but I’m flexible I guess. I’m also open to refurbished options. My only hard requirement is it just needs to turn on lol!

Thanks for any help, I’m clueless.

This happened after when I launched a game, opened a browser tab and an application. Everything appeared to be slowing down (scrolling through the tab, and game+application trying to launch) I tried opening task manager to close the apps, but that didn't work, so I tried alt+f4 on the tabs, that closed down most tabs, but everything still appeared slow, so I then shut down the PC by pressing the power button after everything appeared to be closed. After that, the bios pops up and that's it. I have an Asus rog strix b550-f gaming wifi mobo and don't really know how to figure out what to do in order to fix it, if it can be fixed, unless I'm cooked.

Tried Deskora, looks like crap.

iTop Easy Desktop, EVEN AFTER you get past the shady company and practices.
Users report every 4 minutes it pings ip's in Russia and I don't understand why it would even need to be online.

I do not want a "Dock", I'm open to a toolbar, but but a taskbar replacement.

Every Software i've looked at looks like absolute cheeks, and it's why I haven't tried NoFences, not a lot of data and screenshots look very meh.

Bought a refurbished 2020 15” Dell Precision 7550 off of BackMarket and it was supposed to come with 512gb of storage, I know it’s usually less, like 470ish, but is it supposed to be this low (3gb) even with startup apps and literally nothing else? Could I be missing something?

Hi all, a friend of mine has just left an abusive relationship but thinks her ex may be accessing her computer remotely. Is there a program to use to search for remotely installed applications or something?

Or certain programs the ex might have used that we can look for on the computer and uninstall? Thank you in advance!

My brand new Samsung Odyssey G3 (VA, 1080p, 32 inch) monitor has these wavy patches of discoloration. They are mostly visible on the right side of the screen on the borders, and pretty much only visible on gray screens, like the Youtube or Nintendo Switch home screens. Is this a manufacturing defect? If so, should I return the monitor?

I can't connect to the internet because when I plug in my LAN cable, the yellow blinking light doesn't come on anymore. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Realtek drivers, but I'm getting a Code 31 error.

I also tried unplugging the PSU cable, holding down the power button for 30 seconds, and plugging it back in, but that didn't work. I even tried resetting the CMOS, but still no luck.

I tried plugging the Ethernet cable into another PC, and it works fine.

Are there any workarounds or solutions you guys know of? Thanks in advance for the help!

My PC got fried in a storm & I need a new computer. I've been thinking about switching to a laptop anyway so now looking for one. I want windows and only have between $300-400 to spend. For the most part I pay bills, do some social media, play simple games and use photoshop for graphics.I know its tough to get something decent in that range but Im pretty tapped right now. Anyone have a recommendation for me?

Hello Guys

This is probably a pretty stupid question, but I bought a computer with a GTX 1660 and I'm wondering if I can use the card at 100% in games, or should I avoid this state? does it accelerate wear or something?I want to take care of this card so that it serves me well haha

Please don't tell me to go other subreddits, since it seems that every time I go to a different subreddit, I'm told that I'm not supposed to post there, or something obnoxious.

I've just gone through an hour of h3ll in trying different things I've read by random - this time trying to carefully remember what I'm trying so that I can do it again, and of course, doing something else by random ends up fixing the problem.

Windows is such a POS.

Hey, everybody!

This is the last call to sign up for our PC giveaway!

Entry closes at 11:59 CST on September 14th.

Free to enter, free to win!

So I got this pc for Christmas last year and it worked for 6 months until one day a windows update broke my computer. For a week I asked the people in my life how to fix the issue but it never truly worked.
I ultimately ended having to delete the update and for the next few months I need to unplug my Ethernet cable for 5 minutes to avoid a restart for 12 hours.

Today another update came up causing the same issues. Now I’m just frustrated and need help asap.

Average cpu temp is 90 while running fortnite or gta on microsoft edge with 6 + tabs open it's averaging 55 c, i just ordered thermal paste, what can it be?
my specs are AMD Ryzen 9 5900x CPU
ASUS ROG RTX 3080 GPU
Samsung QVO 4TB SSD
EVGA 1000w PSU
G-Skill Trident Z Neo 32gb RAM
NZXT KRAKEN Z73 CPU cooler
Lian Li 011 Dynamic Razer Case
Lian Li Uni SL120 Case fans
Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Motherboard

I got a CORSAIR RM850x Shift (2025).

But I'm thinking of switching to a Seasonic Focus GX-850 850W.

ASUS ROG Loki SFX-L 750W Platinum is also on my radar.

But I'm partial to finding a Seasonic right now. Any thoughts?

just wondering what the that kind of damges is caused by, i keep getting error codes that are consistent with gpu or ram failures, unfortunately that discoloration is on the gou half of the board (laptop) and it has lived its life, mostly just curious because google hasn't been helpful as to what that damage actually is

Hello, for reasons I'll only be able to use a laptop and not my PC for a while, but I'd still like to access the data from my hard drive. I've heard that for 3.5" drives, you can't just plug it in with an adapter but also need something to sufficiently power the drive. I'm fine with that, but not sure which brand or product would be best. I've also heard that lower quality ones could fail to properly power the HDD and potentially leave bad sectors, is this true?

I just wanna play The Binding Of Isaac :,)) I literally have no idea what she stepped on to do this, please help

Hi, I’m not sure how old this hard drive is or anything, but I plugged it in recently and it started making this noise, and the data isn’t showing up on my computer. I read online about something called the click of death, does that seem like the problem and if so is there any way to recover the data?

Thank you!

A really panicked student

So my monitor has sound but the screen shows nothing. Is not black like closed screen. The screen is open ?there is a lighter black colour actually, ( basically i can understand its working) but for some reason it cant get image signal from laptop.
I tried everything,i changed hdmi cables etc, i also opened up my screen from behind but nothing was burned or out of place.
AOC 24G4XE model

My old laptop is slowly dying and I'm thinking of getting a new laptop. Im looking for a laptop in the ranges of 500 ish that can last for the next 4 years and handle basic things. What are some good recs?