Fire safety?

JamBurglar

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So I have a Donkey Kong that is on a surge protector. It's backed into a corner, making the on/off switch hard to access so I use the button on the surge protector to turn the machine on and off.

Anyway, the other week, I play DK for an hour or so. When I'm done I hit the switch on the surgeprotector as usual to kill the power. I watch TV in the same room as the game for an hour or two and then I go upstairs and change because I have a soccer game to play. As I'm coming back down the stairs I smell a strong burning rubber smell. After searching around the house I find that it seems to be coming from the area of DK (which has been switched off at the surge protector for over an hour at this point). I unplug the game from the surge protector. I open the back and don't see anything out of the ordinary. Although I was expecting the smell would be way worse in the game, it wasn't. Next, I opened the coin door and checked in the front, same thing, no visible issues. I could never localize where the smell was coming from but I'm almost certain it was DK because its the only thing electric I have in that area of the house. By the time I had inspected the game the smell had pretty much dissapated.

The next day I opened her up again and looked around the monitor. I didn't see anything unsual to my newb eyes. I also pulled out the board (which is a 4 board set because it's an early model upright) and didn't see any evidence of burning or a fire.

After all that I that I plugged the power chord back into the surge protector, powered on, and the game works just fine. I've played for hours since then with no issues. I've started completely unplugging the game since then because I'm paranoid (even though I figure it makes no difference whatsoever).

Anyway, two questions.

(1) Is this something I should be pro-active about as far as finding any potential issue and fixing it. Or is it something like an insect crawled back into the monitor and got zapped. I really don't want to loose the board or my monitor down the road if I can avoid it.

(2) How big of a fire hazard are these old games? Is there something I can do to make sure it doesn't burn down my house and kill my 2 cats while I'm away for the weekend?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
So I have a Donkey Kong that is on a surge protector. It's backed into a corner, making the on/off switch hard to access so I use the button on the surge protector to turn the machine on and off.

Anyway, the other week, I play DK for an hour or so. When I'm done I hit the switch on the surgeprotector as usual to kill the power. I watch TV in the same room as the game for an hour or two and then I go upstairs and change because I have a soccer game to play. As I'm coming back down the stairs I smell a strong burning rubber smell. After searching around the house I find that it seems to be coming from the area of DK (which has been switched off at the surge protector for over an hour at this point). I unplug the game from the surge protector. I open the back and don't see anything out of the ordinary. Although I was expecting the smell would be way worse in the game, it wasn't. Next, I opened the coin door and checked in the front, same thing, no visible issues. I could never localize where the smell was coming from but I'm almost certain it was DK because its the only thing electric I have in that area of the house. By the time I had inspected the game the smell had pretty much dissapated.

The next day I opened her up again and looked around the monitor. I didn't see anything unsual to my newb eyes. I also pulled out the board (which is a 4 board set because it's an early model upright) and didn't see any evidence of burning or a fire.

After all that I that I plugged the power chord back into the surge protector, powered on, and the game works just fine. I've played for hours since then with no issues. I've started completely unplugging the game since then because I'm paranoid (even though I figure it makes no difference whatsoever).

Anyway, two questions.

(1) Is this something I should be pro-active about as far as finding any potential issue and fixing it. Or is it something like an insect crawled back into the monitor and got zapped. I really don't want to loose the board or my monitor down the road if I can avoid it.

(2) How big of a fire hazard are these old games? Is there something I can do to make sure it doesn't burn down my house and kill my 2 cats while I'm away for the weekend?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

How old is that surge suppressor and did you look at that thing? Cheap ones especially can be an issue when they get old enough. If possible, I'd open that guy up and have a look (and a sniff) around.

Also, get a plug tester and make sure that your wall and the power strip are both actually wired correctly. I KNOW that that sounds dumb, but unless you wired the wall yourself, or you've already tested it, you don't know that someone didn't make a mistake (the former owner of my house had a habit of putting in outlets upside-down for a nice hot/neutral reverse).

If there is a burning smell from DK, then yes, you should be trying to fix it. But you've already examined a lot of things and there's no evidence inside of any issue. I'd proceed to the next step outward and make sure the next item in the chain isn't the one that's got a problem.
 
I'd definately go over that surge protector and maybe even replace it with a high quality one.
I have my DK plugged into one and then plugged into a switchable wall outlet so I can flip it on using the light switch, I don't think you can be too careful with 30 year plus games.
 
+ whatever ..... check the surge protector.

I've had one go up in a blaze of glory in my daughters room before. Only things plug into it were a laptop and small lamp type things. Totally smoked itself.
Surge protectors have a component in them that does the actual protection that when it starts to fail (from surges possibly) can either go wide open and no longer protect from surges, or they can go dead shorted and cause havoc.
 
The surge protector is actually brand new, but it was not one of those $150.00 ones you see at the home theater stores. I think I paid $20 or so at Target. It second most expensive one they had. I had never thought of the outlet! I'll check both regardless.

Is there any way it was a part in the game and its still working regardless of a component burning/melting?
 
Definitely check the surge protector. If the switch was off, then there should have been no complete circuit to the game. But, if the surge protector itself is failing, it could get hot/burn/smell. I have had the switches wear out and start sparking before. Happened a few months ago on my under-monitor surge protector/power strip thing. Went to shut it off, the switch cracked and the plastic rocker had come loose. The little metal element in there was shooting sparks and making a lot of buzzing.

Also had one where the MOV inside blew up. That one was just a regular plastic 6-outlet power strip. Don't know what happened, but I had plugged some device into it, and then a minute later, the power cut out with a *doomph!*, and a nice puff of smoke came out of the power strip.

Several years ago, I had power strip plugged into an extension cord. It was a normal cheap plastic one on a 50 foot orange cord. Uncoiled the cord and inadvertantly dropped the power strip on the floor. The plastic was old and brittle, and it shattered in a shower of sparks as the little metal rails inside shorted together.

-Ian
 
Surge Protectors are not a catch all as many think. As long as the power strip is plugged in there always a possibility that it could start a fire...I've seen it first hand investigating Fires as Arson Detective. The suggestions you had on here are pretty good to follow. Usually first start at the plug and inspect the wiring to the plug..is it properly grounded..wiring insulated...anything come loose or exposed that shouldn't be (ie wires not insulated or touching)

Also people have a habit of using surge protectors and then running that wire under things..if the cord itself is pinched and its plugged into the electrical outlet it can start a fire. We had one where a wardrobe closet pinched the cord underneath it..over long period of time it caught fire...just make sure your wiring is good and you don't put things on top of the cord...and your not overloading the circuit to that plug...
 
something's rotten in Denmark... I'd keep searching till you find the burned component. What's weird though is usually a short will trip your breaker. I wonder if it wasn't the game at all, and something else??
 
Does the outlet look like this? :)

outlet.jpg
 
I'd certainly keep trying to find where the smell came from. Typically the burning smell goes away in the room, but the stuff that was burning usually keeps the smell for quite a while. If the power strip to the DK was off, I'd guess it wasn't anything inside the game... like others said, check the power strip/outlet.

Yesterday I was moving games around and pushed a game up against an outlet, and the lights turned out. I pulled the game back away from the wall and they turned back on. I pulled out the outlet and found that the lights were tapped off that outlet using the quick push-in connections on the back of the outlet, but there was no tension and it just slid in and out. I replaced the outlet and used the side screw terminals and everything was good again. But I'm glad I found that now before something bad happened.

I do keep a fire extinguisher on every floor... and the one in the basement with all the games is a large one. I'd definitely recommend it as well.

DogP
 
First, thanks for the replies. It's much appreciated.

Also, I checked the surge protector, a brand new Belkin 7 outlet dealy that has a 2000 Joule energy rating (http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=511542) I couldn't open it because of the crazy triangle screws but I smelled all the outlets and checked them and nothing. Indicator lights still saying I'm "protected" and no issues with my outlet being grounded (there's a light for that too.)

No evidence of anything wrong with the outlet either.

I opened up the game again this moring and gave everything a twice over. I'm not really seeing anything that looks burned on the montior, power supply (which is new), transformer, plugs, or board. Its a 4 board set so its really hard to see everything without taking it apart, which I didn't do. The board looks pretty dang clean.

Since the power was cut at the protector I was thinking it was that too but no evidence of anything. I know the montor holds a charge. Any chance that dust or a bug or something hit voltage and that's what it was? Does anything on the board hold a charge?

Weird.
 
Since the power was cut at the protector I was thinking it was that too but no evidence of anything. I know the montor holds a charge. Any chance that dust or a bug or something hit voltage and that's what it was? Does anything on the board hold a charge?

Nothing on the game board will store a charge. The monitor stores a charge in the picture tube, but it's a very high voltage, low current sort of charge. Also, it's insulated - a bug is not going to get "zapped" on it like a bug zapper or anything.

Honestly, it might not have even had anything to do with the game. If there was something in the game that was burning, you would have smelled it when it was on - not when it was off.

-Ian
 
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