MacInferno Part II: The full story of how the cable company incinerated my Powerbook.
On November 28th, I posted a blog about a customer’s equipment being destroyed by her local cable company, and the data recovery that ensued. The intended effect was to remind people people of the importance of backing up their data. Nearly all of the responses to the blog expressed disbelief that the event happened, and questioned the authenticity of the damage to the components. Evidence of the catastrophe follows.
I asked this customer permission to use her detailed account of what transpired along with photographs that she took at the scene.
I ordered high speed broadband internet from the local cable company. On November 16, 2006 a technician arrived to install it.
He connected the coaxial cable that was coming into the wall from outside into a cable modem for Mac. He then connected an Ethernet cable out of the modem and into my fully loaded Apple 15” Powerbook.
After over an hour, and with the installation CD still spinning in the laptop, the technician said he still could not get the proper signal into the modem/computer. He said he was going to trace the coaxial cable from the wall up onto the roof and see if he could solve the problem.
About 10 minutes later I was standing on the back porch just outside the window of the computer work desk when I saw a bright flash of light accompanied by a very loud explosion at the work desk. It was as loud as an illegal M-80 on the Fourth of July. After being stunned and confused for several seconds, I ran inside my home into a thick cloud of grey smoke which smelled like gunpowder. Then I ran outside and yelled for the technician, thinking that perhaps he had been electrocuted.
Everything on the desk was blackened with soot and burned either partially or completely. Three external hard drives, a digital camera, videotapes, papers, CD’s, etc. The floor, wall, and radiator cover were burned, along with the tabletop.
Every cable that was connected to the laptop, Ethernet, Firewire, Power, and USB, was forcibly shot out of each portal, and each portal covered with the black soot. Metal bits and electronic debris from the power cable hub and other cables was scattered around the room and some wires had split apart into copper shreds. Molten silver metal flecks are still lodged in the windowsill.
A supervisor arrived later that day and after surveying the scene and materials, conceded that their company had caused the accident. He noted, in particular, the internally fried coaxial cable.
It seems likely that the young technician connected the rooftop end of the cable to a similar-appearing, but now obviously incorrect electrical cable. In any case, both technicians stated that the company-installed “system” of cables on the roof were “a real mess” and were unsafely stretched over and near an electrical box and associated cables.
Their company has assumed liability but has been disappointingly slow in rectifying the damage, work interruption, and substantial inconvenience they caused. I am happy to say that the technician was not hurt in the incident, and that my data was recovered by OnDeckTech successfully.
Here are additional photographs of the disaster:
Note that because we didn’t find it necessary to identify the cable company specifically, I used the “secret” iPhoto editing mode to remove the name and logo of the responsible cable company from some of these pictures.
December 11th, 2006 at 1:58 am
[…] La historia completa por aqui, esto pasa cuando se equivocan con un cable […]
December 11th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Now thats COMCASTIC!
December 12th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
[…] Read it in full on Mac Blog […]
December 14th, 2006 at 11:18 am
[…] Attach a power cable to your cable modem. […]
December 16th, 2006 at 12:34 am
[…] MacInferno Part II: The full story of how the cable company incinerated my Powerbook. Don’t assume that the technician sent by a company knows what they are doing … (tags: mac) […]
December 17th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
OMG.
This is why no one other than me touches my gear……
December 17th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
Have you tried rebooting?
December 18th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
[…] Check out the article over at MacWork.com […]
December 18th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
[…] New Rule at CNL’s House From this point going forward, Nobody enters my house to do any kind of installation without a security check, passed drug test, and certification that they are not an idiot. Security Check, Please. Flame Grilled Powerbook Sleeping Beauty-Tech […]
December 18th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
“Have you tried rebooting?”
That only fixes Windows…
December 18th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
I can relate as something similar happened when our office moved to a new building. We have coaxial runs because some offices do get catv. Anyhow the coax wasn’t hooked up to anything but ran past a couple electrical conduits.
When one of the electricians moved the coax toward our brand new HP4108 switch, the tip of the coax hit the power supply. We heard a loud pop and watched as the switch went dead.
The landlord took full responsibility and we had a replacement part within a couple of hours. But that was quite the spectacle.
December 18th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
We are discussing this incident on an Electrical Forum, and would be pleased with more information or pictures of ‘What” the cable guy connected to.
http://electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/007884.html
December 18th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
[…] I’ve had some things go wrong on the job, but at least I’ve never caused this much carnage… the total tally from the pictures is at least a terabyte of storage, an aluminum powerbook, and all other associated gadgetry… holy cow. Posted by Karl Katzke on Dec 18 2006 under Uncategorized […]
December 19th, 2006 at 1:24 am
How the cable company incinerated my Powerbook…
This [macwork.com] is almost unbelievable. Some guy ordered high speed internet through his cable company, and had them come out to install it. The technician ended up connecting an RG-6 coax cable to the house’s electrical system, sending household c…
December 19th, 2006 at 4:21 am
Why aren’t you naming names? People who do stupid sh** like this deserve to get aired up, made an example of and hopefully NEVER,EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER allowed to work on anything electronic EVER again!
Like not even the CD section of the local Wal-Mart.
December 19th, 2006 at 6:13 am
[…] Proof, as if it were needed, that just because a guy has a badge from a big company, doesn’t mean he knows what he is doing. “A Comcast customer’s Powerbook exploded after a Comcast tech plugged coax, connected to her computer through her modem, to an electrical wire.” […]
December 19th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
[…] via Mac Blog […]
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:08 pm
[…] Cable Company Incinerates a dude’s laptop!(Doh!) […]
December 26th, 2006 at 6:46 am
[…] If you own a Mac you probably have an affinity for it. More than if you had a Dell or Gateway. Here’s the story of a poor guy that had his Powerbook explode when the cable company was there. The kicker is, they took responsibility for the whole thing. […]
December 26th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Smells like B.S. to me.
December 27th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
In my house in Lanka the problem is lighting. The internal modem on my laptop got fried because the telephone connection got hit by lighting. Also finished off my mate’s TV, and the coconut tree next to my house.
Less spectacuarly, you can completely destroy a laptop by choosing the wrong bios update out of two to use. Local Acer dealer refused to do anything, and demanded $500 for a new motherboard. I choose to buy a new computer and keep the HD, memory and battery (at least I’ve got a spare sreen).
December 27th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
I have yet to see a cable installation that didn’t have at least 25-50v potential in the drop line.
December 27th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
wow what a noobish comcast guy. i usually do these things myself , or follow the guy around till he leaves so i dont need to worry
February 11th, 2007 at 1:31 am
I particularly got a kick out of the “Give This To Your Computer” caption on what I think is the CD case, LOL
March 8th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
“Have you tried rebooting?”
“That only fixes Windows…”
Exactly! With Macs, just plug it in, and it works!
March 27th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Just an observation, but when you move into an apartment, and they tell you the cable is on, do you check for current first? Or do you just plug your tv into the wall and pray? Playing devil’s advocate a bit here, but this technician just won the lottery. One in a million shot.
July 30th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Heres what most likely happend, From my 14 years in the cable company. Coax hardline cares 87-90Volts AC to power the many line extenders and optical nodes along the way. When a cable is to be connected to this energized system it is done with a tap. A tap lowers the signals on the main line and removes the voltage from the ports. Some taps allow this 90vts to pass thru the ports. For the reason of powering up phone termanals and addressable taps. These ports can have the voltage turned on and off by the movement of a jumper. If the technician could not get a good signal he most likely tried a direct connection to the tap without checking for voltage (or the jumpers placement) And BOOOM goodby computer
August 29th, 2007 at 10:57 am
I’m callin bullsh*t on this one. I hate Comcast as much as the next guy but theres no way that connecting it wrong would do that. If anything, it would just fry the modem.
October 30th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Yes, and the moon walk was faked, too.
This was real folks, even if it could have been described better.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:03 am
you got hit by lightning. blame god.