printer died

[curious aardvark]

I've seen that quite alot over the years.
It's usually because the plug is a poor fit or just hasn't been pushed far enough into the socket.
The burn marks are causde by the electricity actually bridging the gap between the pin and the socket - ie: they are not quite making contact with each other- but are close enough for the power to arc across the gap.
You cna usually both hear such sockets 'fizzing' and usually smell the burning as well.

And yeah when the capacitor in a power supply goes it really GOES !

Computer power supplies have very large capacitors in them. Like c cell batteries.
Twice I've had one explode on me while I was peering at the back of a computer. Huge bang, massive spark about 6 inches long and both times I very nearly crapped myself.
I'm a LOT more careful these days.

Slightest sign os a psu issue and the old one comes out and a new one goes in before I go anywhere near the power switch. :-)

The best one I ever had (it's relative, the owner wasn't as impressed as I was) was entirely my fault.

We had a loose power switch on a computer - and like pillock i was poking around the connectors with a screwdriver while the thing was switched on.
Next thing something 'bit' my hand, there was a huge bang and smoke coming from the wall socket where it twas plugged in.

Nice weld spot on the shaft of my screwdriver - the fuse in the mains plug had literally vapourised - nothing but molten glass and burn marks left.
The computer was fine.

The surmise was that the mains power had come out the wall - then run down the screwdriver and headed back to the wall - mwhere the fuse and it had an argument and the fuse lost.


And no, i don't do silly things like that any more :-)