My Router caught on fire this afternoon...
 

That was a new experience. I started to notice my internet was slowing down more and more to the point I had dial-up speed. So I called my ISP, they had me unplug everything, replug in. No better. Ok, we will send a tech out.

After I hung up, I decided to unplug EVERYTHING my router, all the cables, etc. Well when I plugged back in my router, I was looking down through the little air grate and saw tiny flames and smelled wires burning. Yucch. It explained the slow internet, lol.

Swapped it out with a new one, and I have fast internet again. No more checking DSL reports and getting download speeds of 20kb for me. :D

That router is only a few months old, never had one do that before. I'm just glad it did it while I was in here, and not in the middle of the night.

That is absolutely bizarre!?! |shocking|

Glad it all turned out okay hun. |thumb

I would be contacting that company right away. Never know, could be a fauly batch of routers they tossed out. Had the same thing happen to a few Dell servers (1650's) a few years back. Dell said there was nothing wrong with them, then came out with a notice they had bad chips that was overheating and causing fans to cut out, then causing small smoke alarms. LOL We ended up getting over 60 servers replaced with 1850's for free and they were upgraded with 512k more worth of ram and and extra 100 gigs.

Good for you!!! |thumb
At least your house will not be caught in fire. :D

someone else told me to call the company, and I'm going to do that tomorrow. I agree, that is bizzare.

Wow very bizzare! I'm thankful it happened during the day for you also, that could have been awful! Gald you caught it and your up and running|thumb

Holy crap V! Yea, very glad it happened during the day and while you were home |shocking|

I once had an aquarium start on fire, but never a router. (stupid fucking fish broke the heater) If any electric appliance in this house has a fault and starts to burn, the first thing I'm doing is running to the backyard for some kindling.

A router on fire...well that's certainly unusual. I've had a powersupply on a comp burn out (that's a stench you won't soon forget), but I never thought a router could set on fire, lol.

I had the something similar happening 3 months ago.
When I could only download stuf at 3 kbs with a 10 Mbps connection I knew there was something wrong :)

Did all the tests the cable company told me to do about 4 times before they sent somebody over who replaced the modem with a much smaller on that performs a lot better. You got to love evolving technology :)

Something catches on fire and that's a serious issue. If they don't send someone out to get the router and want you to send it in document everything. Take pictures of it, write down the date and time and all the detail can you remember.

That's a serious issue that could endanger lives and they'll want the issue to go away.

I've seen things over heat, melt, smoke and even had chips jump off of boards but never any thing catch on fire.

I worked in a call center and anytime we had calls on fire, or even a burning smell or smoke, we would treat it as a saftey issue. You definiately should call and make them aware of it, if not for yourself, for others.

All electronic devices are powered by magic blue smoke. When this smoke escapes, the devices stop working.

-- definitely call the manufacturer and let them know. You'll probably get a new router out of it, but, they need to know it is a potential safety issue.

I've burned out 3 power supplies, and the stench is the same for the router. Overwhelming burning electrical wires. I must be hard on electronics.

I'm on hold for Linksys customer service. The first time I called, I tried tech support, and got a woman from India whom I could tell was thinking "and WHAT do you want me to fix or troubleshoot?"

Man, when I call in, I'd just like to talk to someone from this country, is that so wrong? |angry|

Yeah, it feels like you are on a factory assembly line when talking to Linksys customer support. They just want to move you from point A to point B. The absolute worst is when I talked to SBC for my DSL and actually had someone cut me off when I was talking and tell me to "shut up and do what he tells me" I was fucking pissed but also wanted to get my problem solved so I didn't go off. I was mainly just stunned. Good Luck with that.

Yes - you are wrong. GW says that Americans don't want jobs.

Holy Shit! You may want to have that circuit checked out and use some sort of surge protection if you are not already.

I had a big surge protector on that line. I think it was a bad circuit board inside the router, since that is what went.

I finally gave up talking to anyone on the phone, after two different people who couldn't even figure out how to spell my name, when I spelled it to them. I wrote a letter to customer service telling them about the problem. What a damn waste of 2 hours trying to call them. I just wanted to |catfight| those people.

Two hours! Did you at least get a good Curry recipe?

If not, I got ya covered. :D

Thank goddess Virginia you were awake and working when it happened!! Maybe we all should blog about it using Lynksys and Fire as our main key words. that might wake them up.

Gawd, that frosts my balls when I get a tech support person on the phone that can barely speak english |angry|

Given your power supplies that died, Bluemoney has a good idea. I'd get that circuit checked out...or at the very least, put a UPS on your systems to 'condition' the power. The UPS will probably also give you an idea of how dirty that circuit is if it's constantly going off. I had to re-adjust my UPS here in Florida to keep it from screaming constantly. Also, had FPL come out and clean up some of their stuff in the area...which helped a bunch.

must be a major problem a router usally runs on voltages under 12 volts with fuck all amps , i would be arking up something savage over that , shit like that could burn someones house down

Oh boy... :D

I always switch off everything before going to bed. Maybe I am paranoid but I feel safe only this way.

I got this from Linksys after I sent them a letter telling them about it:
Virginia,


Thank you for contacting Linksys Technical Support.

We humbly apologize for the inconvenience you experienced. We took note of your complaint, and we will do our best to improve the quality of service we provide.

If you have any further questions, feel free to visit our knowledge base at http://www.linksys.com/kb or send us an e-mail at support@linksys.com so that we can assist you. Once you get to the Knowledge Base section, either type in the Answer ID or the keywords under Search Text and click Search.


Sincerely,


Christian Lara C. Diamante
Badge ID 13285

Well, that's a damn disappointing response |banghead|

I run a Linksys here too and have always thought better of them than to send out a canned reply when their product could have caused serious damage to your home and/or personal safety...grrrrr

Honestly V, think I'd be doing some searches to find higher contacts at Linksys...email...phone...something. Hell, call corporate headquarters...not tech support. You're dealing with idiot minions that obviously don't give a shit. It's time to gnaw on someone that can actually walk and chew gum at the same time |catfight|

I agree... time to move up the food chain a few levels

I think you should open the product, take pictures of the burned parts and make a web site out of it. Something tells me that you could get plenty of link backs and eventually a much more acceptable response from Linksys.

I know I'd love to see it :)

The problem is that the minions that responded to you actually get graded on how many complaints that they handle without escalation and often how many calls they can take in an hour. This is all part of stupid middle management that offers incentives to employees to use form letters, not read the customer comments and in more then one case simply hang up on as many customers as they can in one hour.

take that approach after exhausting all other means of getting an answer from someone higher up in the chain

If your burning up power supplies as well as you router I would still be concerned about how much current (Amps) are flowing through that circuit in your house.

Remember, Mr. Electricity is our friend but can also be a fucking asshole.

i agree..
I'd start with Charles H. Giancarlo, the top Dawg..you won't get past the gate keeper but will get to a voice who will react, I think.

I have an internal phone number and name from my database but i'm not sure what good it will do you. However I'd call it and ask for Mr. Giancarlo and see what happens.

Victor Tsao
(949)261-1288

(from my 125K database)

I know from past experience when I cannot get an effective answer, I start at the chairman or highest ranking official in the company and work my way down.. it usually takes less time than going through the 'channels"

Fucking sux that you have to go through that.. it could have been life threatening and they need to respond in kind. |catfight|