Magic Blue Smoke » fried

Part 431KD20 Varistors blow

MagicBlueSmoke — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:11:29 +0000

Part 431KD20 Varistor

These varistors were protecting a transformer when they died. The transformer was protected as the fuse blew – thanks to the varistors. Credit: bhungy

Xbox PCB charred

MagicBlueSmoke — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:39:55 +0000

Xbox with charred PCB

Two views of the same xbox board that not only lost the blue smoke but also lost the black smoke. Credits: Daniel Celion from Sweden.

Motherboard with badly damaged PCI slot traces

MagicBlueSmoke — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:22:01 +0000

Credit: Anonymous

Varistor on UPS cracks

MagicBlueSmoke — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:16:06 +0000

Board with blown MOV

Closeup of failed MOV

The burned part shown appears to be a MOV (Metal-oxide Varistor). The purpose of a MOV is to have a very high resistance until a certain voltage is reached at which point it will conduct current, in this case from “Hot” to “Neutral.” This property is useful for surge protectors. Original poster says this UPS was involved in an electrical fire. Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttstam/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Xbox power supply failure damages pcb

MagicBlueSmoke — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:44:55 +0000

This appears to be an Xbox revision 1.1 where the power supply failure caused significant damage to the PCB. The vented capacitor in the picture is a 680uF/16V capacitor which shorted, damaged the FET, and led to the failure of the power plane. Ideally the power supply should sense failure conditions and shut down. The FET was a Philips 21N06. Credits: Ahmad Tabbouch of http://ultrakeet.com.au.