[OT] Overnight rendering PCs - firehazard?

[Jkun]

I build PCs for home users now and then. Not professionally, just a hobby that pays a little money.

Now I got an older fellow who wants a PC to do some basic NLE, but on a budget. He plans on letting the rendering of effects and edits run at night. He's seen that old video of Athlon XPs going up in smoke (Tom's) and is a bit nervous about this.

Now however, he's got me worried. He says his insurance company will not cover any fire damage done by a PC, because PCs are a too high risk.

I never heard of any statistic that would support this. Also, I wonder even if something would get that hot in a PC due to shortcircuit, what would actually burn except for some plastic bits.

Anyway, what worries me is that if such a thing should happen and if the insurance companies indeed won't cover fire damage if a PC starts it, I could be held liable.

As I said, I do this for fun, I'm not a company with professional insurance for liability and such.

Has anyone seen or read any statistics about this, or insurance company info etc. that could shed some light on the risk involved?

TIA!
J-kun

[Dr Mordrid]

It's total BS and time to get another insurance company since a PC isn't any more of a fire hazard than a TV or other electrical appliance. They're certainly not as "dangerous" as a gas appliance.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jkun]

Thanks for your response Doc. You did pick a poor example though - TVs are a fire hazard (though not limited by insurance). I hear often on the news that an imploding TV set was the cause of a fire. Now, an imploding PC, that'd be a sight From Bigtower to SFF...

Seriously, I have seen several PCs at work suddenly burst into a cloud of vapour. The cause was always a poor quality powersupply that blew a capacitor. Apart from a lot of vapour and some electrolyte fluid messing up some plug-in cards, no harm was done. There's about 50 test rigs that keep running 24/24 here.

I'm just curious. can a PC at all start burning, is there enough combustible material in there to produce fire or smoke (as smoke damage also falls under fire insurance)?

J-kun

[Brian Ellis]

Practically, what is combustible in a PC? Well, any organic material. The biggest quantity is in the printed circuit boards and they CAN catch fire. But, they are usually made from self-extinguishing materials to the US UL (Underwriters' Laboratory) specification 94-V0, so they cannot propagate a flame.

You do not say where you are situated, so double-check with your client's insurance company. I've never heard of this, before. I know that in my Household Policy, not only is fire caused by computers covered, but so are the computers themselves and the installed software, but not data.

What is essential if running a computer 24/7 in a house are a) ensure hanging curtains etc cannot impede air flow and/or catch fire themselves, in the unlikely case of an accident and b) preventive maintenance to remove fibrous dust, hairs (cat hairs are devilish), dustballs etc from the inside and periphery of a 'puter and its peripherals.

Above all, if using a CRT monitor, it must be switched off when not required to be seen, especially for overnight rendering. This is the most likely component to fail fatally.

[thop]

TVs/Monitors usually only implode when they are turned on not while they're running, so i wouldn't worry about it.

[Brian Ellis]

I was not thinking about implosion, which is a rare case, but thermal stress on the electronic components. This usually occurs after some time of continuous use. Every case I've seen of a TV or monitor rendering its soul has been due to this, except one when a monitor was accidentally switched when set to 110 V, causing instantaneous failure of the power supply.

I have also seen (rarely) the results of fires caused by a fault causing a resistor to overheat. In every case, the printed circuit was charred for a maximum of ~25 cm2 before it self-extinguished. O course, it caused smoke damage inside the casing.

The most extreme case was in a high power circuit (380 V AC, 20 A) where an accidental short circuit was quite dramatic.

[Taliska]

My only experience in this area was when I was sitting in front of my computer at work and noticed a plume of smoke coming out of the top of the monitor casing - didn't hang around to find out whether it would ignite, just switched it off and cursed.

Taliska

[Taliska]

Oops, downloading and pressed the 'Save Changes' button twice!

Taliska

[Ray Austin]

Jkun,

Don't worry about it.... there are many safeties built in to computers that would shut the computer down. Obviously the AMD cpu burn story was some time ago and as far as I know AMD corrected the situation.

Anyways I would say electrical wires in the wall, the furnace or A/C would start a fire way before a computer would. If this individual is that concerned about it he shouldn't be rendering over night.

It is still IMHO very low risk. He should however make sure the computer has enough ventilation and keep dust clear from the monitors air holes etc. It's usually a lack of maintenance that causes alot of problems.

If his insurance policy doesn't cover fire damage "no matter what the cause.... other than ARSON! "... he should get some more quotes.