Is this possible?

Person claims that the led lights on the front of their laptop spontaneously caught fire and did this kind of damage:

All that's there is a tiny daughter board that houses the LED lights(power, hdd, battery) and the mic and headphone ports. It is connected to the main board by a small ribbon cable. The only thing I though of is maybe an insect got in there and shorted something out, but I had a hard time believing a little led light could catch fire and cause that kind of damage.

Apologies for the crappy picture.

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Comments

wastedtime

While I have never seen an LED do this much damage. I have seen some that were defective/powered incorrectly heat up and break/pop.

tiersten

If there is a short and sufficient current was available then its possible that some of the wiring or PCB traces could have gotten hot enough. I'd say it was fairly unlikely however due to gauge of wire used and the current that would be used to light those LEDs.

You see pictures of laptops that have burst into flames because the battery malfunctioned or the charger circuitry malfunctioned. In both cases, you're dealing with circuitry that passes large currents during normal operation so the fault current would be large.

TheShadow

The LED itself, should not do it. However a typical LED has an avalanche effect dropping about six tenths of a volt requiring a current limiting resistor to stop burn up. The resistor can generate enough heat if there is a short else where. Typically the resistor is only rated at one quarter watt and may be a surface mount block. If something happens to force more current through the LED resistor series you have an instant cigar lighter until the weakest link opens.

Another possibility is de-lamination of the copper etch on the circuit board. If it curls away from the circuit board they can get quite hot before making like a fuse and opening up. Either mentioned condition can melt through the case plastic if that is what the picture is showing.

I seriously doubt that an insect is the cause but the short could be the result of someone spilling a little dHmO on the laptop.

hex_omega

You could've just said H2O. Or water.

Insects, liquids....either way it is not covered under warranty. Thanks for the responses.

TheShadow

Sorry I have been reading too many of Dynamik's posts.