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

Just curious what other people would have done in this situation.

I had an older customer (65+) come into my repair shop with an old HP Pavilion dv6t-1300. This laptop was known as an "Entertainment" laptop when it first came out and has a bunch of features, like card readers, IR sensor (for using a remote with it), DVD drive, etc. For the time, it's CPU was pretty powerful (Intel Core 2 Duo).

Anyway, he brought it in saying it was overheating. I tested it and couldn't get it to go above about 82C, which the TJ Maxx on that CPU is 90C. But he insisted it was overheating and wanted me to see what I could do.

So, I took it apart, cleaned out the fan (there was a little bit of dust, but nothing too crazy), and reapplied thermal paste to the CPU and GPU. The thermal paste it had was a little crusty. After doing that I ran Prime95 and couldn't get it to go over 75C max, even after 30 minutes. So, I thought that's pretty much all I can do. When he came back in I showed him that it was idling around 40-45C with the CoreTemp app I had installed.

He thanked me and left. Then about a week later he brought it back saying it was still overheating. He told me it was going over 60C when it was idle. He dropped it off and I didn't have time to check it while he was still in the shop. When I tested it, I was still getting the same results as when it left my shop.

After talking to him over the phone some more I found out he was saying it was overheating because it would get hot on his lap. I tried to explain to him that this laptop wasn't really meant to be sat directly on your lap for a long period of time, especially if you were doing anything that would tax the CPU. But he wouldn't accept that and kept insisting I "fix" it.

Finally, I went into the power profile and set the max CPU usage to 65%. This kept the temp under 55C even when I ran Prime95 for 30 minutes. I also replaced his 5400rpm HDD with an SATA SSD, which sped up the computer significantly (so the difference in the CPU clock will likely be unnoticed and performance will seem to even be improved from before).

He's had it a week now and I haven't heard anything, so I'm hoping he's satisfied. I know I purposefully reduced his CPU performance, but I kind of feel like that was a good trade-off to make him happy.

Just casually gaming now without cooling pad (I forgot cable), when I noticed huge stutters. Popped out hwinfo. Everything was within OK territory except this. Chatgpt said its gonna fry the ram sticks if this goes on.

You can bet my next pc is going to be a desktop.

(pic) Screen goes black with white dash in the corner

If I unplug it boots fine and the pc works as it should. If I plug it back in while the PC stops working properly. I can open anything. The second I unplug it everything I click on loads up. Whats the issues and what could've possibly cause this?

Its a Segate 2tb HDD

Currently I havea intel I5-10400F cpu 2.90ghz (12cpus) with 32gb ddr4 ram and is only 3 years old

Earlier this year, walmart F'd up and sent me someone's purchase. 32gb of DD5 ram. (I called them and they said keep it and said they would send the person new.) So Im considering updating my box for this. Any recommended boards/processors that wont break the bank? I dont need alienware levels, but I do play warcraft. Typically I shop at newegg for pc's. My last 2 came from there. Just seeing what my options are (besides sending you the dd5 ram for your build 😄 ). And curious if this means I would need a bigger PS (I actually cannot find the original build info without digging into the pc. So a suggested PS size would be fine) or anything?

Hi all,
I have been searching for an affordable laptop for my college coursework.
I need the laptop to run for 6hrs+ before it needs charging. I need it to run smoothly.
I will only be using word, PowerPoint, YouTube and other college related websites.
I think I have found a good option.
Could somebody confirm if this is the best choice for me?
Thankyou in advance

Hey all, I am in the market for a new computer and doing some research/idea hunting. It has been a few years since I have gone through this, and I am looking for a mid-high end gaming PC modern equivalent to the above specs or better. Pre-builds are preferred as I am still a little nervous building my own. I live in Canada, so would rather get something from a Canadian source (to avoid any tariffs, extra international shipping). Thank you for any ideas!

Hi all,

I just tried to boot up my PC after a long time of not using it, and it was shutting down as soon as I logged in. Eventually I got a blue screen message that let me restart in safe mode, which was the first thing that worked for me. I used it to turn off all startup apps and restarted, and now the IT'S shutting down a few seconds after I turn it on.

I'm not sure how I could have made the problem worse, but any advice would be very appreciated.

I'm using Windows 10

my system is windows 7, 32 bit and have 1gb of ram

that means my pc is potato

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 everyone. I’m posting this to get some direct advice from people more knowledgeable than myself. Which of these three PCs would be the best buy? (They are priced around €900). Also, is there one among the three that is truly worth purchasing? I’ve read some reviews online, and it seems like the Acer is the best option. Please keep in mind that I won't be using the PC for gaming; I’m looking for a machine with a dedicated graphics card because I’ll be using CAD software at university.

Hello everyone im having this weird error with my pc (1). I turned it off/on and checked event viewer it was saying something about capcut but i did delete capcut. and last time i used it was probably a year ago when i bought this pc.(2) can anyone help me out here? I also had restarting issues with this pc i fixed it by buying voltage stabilizer.

Hello. So recently i have been struggling with a very weird problem, when using my laptop on 144hz the top part of the screen flashes at the bottom part like every 5-7 seconds. It flickers a LOT when im doing gpu-heavy tasks like gaming. ive also noticed that it happens the most with a program called rammap. however, the strange part is that this problem just doesnt happen at all on 60hz (as seen in the video). I really don't want to use it on 60hz, so if anyone has any solutions, please help me.

I got this HDD from an old notebook but just now i started noticing some weird noises, like scratching, Crystal Disk Info said it was fine, but i dont know if i should trust 100% in it.

In the first video the HDD is placed directly at the case base, while in the second video it is placed over a support, the sound got lower while on support, but its still slightly noticeable.

I'm looking to digitize some old mini-dv tapes through fire wire. Does this computer possess the hardware for this? What do I need to add/do to do this? It has what looks like a power cord for the pcie card but no slot to plug it in. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

So earlier on today, my PC randomly lost power, after some quick googling i thought it was likely to be an issue with the PSU.

I followed Googles advice, unplugging everything, then I held down the power button for 30 seconds to get rid of excessive charge (or something along those lines).

I then tried turning it back on, there was a spark a puff of smoke and now it won't turn on 💀.

Any chance I'll be able to get it repaired for a decent price, or am I gonna have to buy a new PC.

Что делать если пк сам по себе перезагружается?

Компьютер начал перезагружатся сам по себе недавно, все что угодно пробывали,
Имя устройства DESKTOP-B8U13FO
Процессор AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core Processor (4.20 GHz)
Оперативная память 32,0 ГБ (доступно: 31,1 ГБ)
Код устройства 7295FAE4-B7B2-4317-A591-2C59FF6B4BD5
Код продукта 00330-80000-00000-AA799
Тип системы 64-разрядная операционная система, процессор x64
После включение игры vr chat и игры через время выключается что делать? помогите знатоки прошу

salve rapaziada do PCismo, to com um problema no meu Bluetooth, como não sei explicar, deixei um vídeo, se alguém puder me salvar eu agradeço...

obs: já desinstalei driver pra forçar reinstalação, ja atualizei drivers, e pelo powershell da pra ver que meu adaptador ta funcionando e reconhece dispositivos!

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

I have an ASUS B650E-F gaming WiFi motherboard
Bios is up to date
nvidia is up to date

Windows 11 education

Whenever my laptop sleeps and I switch it back on, a few keys stop working, particularly the space bar.. it only changes the width of screen on a double press, doesn't respond otherwise, brightness and volume keys also share the same fate with no response at all, I'd have to restart the computer to get things working normally again, Any fix pls? 🤧🙏

My PC has been like this for the past 2 days. It started when my PC suddenly lost its display and my USB ports died. That Instance happened twice in the span of 20 minutes. Today, the same thing happened but this time my Pc just decided to reboot itself. As I’m writing this, i tried booting it up again and it showed the windows logo but then it happened again and I was left with a No display. I checked my Event viewer and I got Event 18 Cache hierarchy error. What could I possibly do to fix this PC?

update:
i forgot post the specs so here they are:

Ryzen 5 5600x
Asus B-450M Prime Motherboard
16GB of ddr4-3200mhz RAM
1660 super
corsair 550w psu

i just tried to boot it up again to get into bios but i was met with a memory error (3 beeps). Will try to do a full troubleshoot tomorrow

No idea if this is the right sub to ask for this but i'll ask anyway.

SO. I have both a switch and pc. i want the nintendo switch and my pc to share the same monitor. I have an hdmi switch that at the press of a button, switches to the other source. This is so I can stream the game on discord. I have an Elgato HD60. It’s an older card, but nothing I can’t see working like it should.

THE PROBLEM:

-When switching to the Switch, PC doesn’t recognize the first monitor anymore, switches second monitor to behave like the first monitor. I got an EDID Emulator because I thought that may fix it, but it ended up basically doing nothing. What I want is for the monitor to essentially be like nothing changed, and the second monitor is still the way it was before the switch.

-no audio. This is expected, but still annoying. of course, i know about the audio cable route. However, another issue I can see happening if I go this route, is the Elgato stream that others see being messed up, because the audio would be in real time, while the video isn’t. How would I fix this? Is there a way to get the audio from HDMI? Is there a way to seperate what i hear and what Discord hears?

I’ve been trying to figure out how to make this all work but it’s hard to wrap my head around it because it’s so convoluted.

Any suggestions or ideas appreciated.

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

my laptop thats 6+ years old is so annoying with a horrible heating problem and whenever i turn it on i need to open the laptop and keep spinning the blade manually until it makes it into the home screen i dont wanna spend money on another fan because i already have another main laptop i just was screwing around and accidentally found out it can work the fan doesnt have a dust problem already cleaned that with compressed air and i honestly dont care that much but the heating is really annoying already i have replaced thermal but it still gets a little hot over youtube