In my computer room I have the pc, monitor, tv and various other bits and peices plugged into a 4 gang extension lead, which is plugged into a single wall socket placed behind the desk, under the monitor. The last few days I've heard a few breif pops and ticks which I thought were coming from behind the monitor. The psu on this monitor failed about 2 years ago and it was repaired and ok till now. I thought "Oh well, looks like the monitor is on its way out again", but as you do you, you hope it will be alright so you carry on using it. Last night I was on the pc when everything connected to that 4 gang switched of for about 3 seconds, can't rememeber if there was a pop or tick just prior to this cos it happened out of the blue. Anyway, when the power came back on there was a loud crackling coming from the plug in the wall socket, accompanied by obvious burning. Panicing slightly I hesitated diving straight for the socket switch as is was right next to the red hot plug, although I did switch the monitor off. The power was still on during this cos the TV came back on. After about 5-6 seconds the cracking stopped, still supplying power to the tv, so then I flicked the switch on the socket and the plug was extremely hot to the touch. When it cooled down enough I pulled it out and the neutral pin had melted the plastic around it, and also the neutral hole on the socket. I took the plug apart and from what I could tell the live wire was undamaged but the blue and earth wire insulation had burn away and had obviously made a short. My house still has an old style consumer unit with the old style wired fuse plugs and no rcd or trip switch that I can see.
As I said these pop noises I assumed were coming from the monitor but could have been coming from the plug as it is behind the monitor just above floor level.
So the question is can anyone throw any light on what might have happened here? Is it possible for a monitor failure to end up burning out the plug in the wall socket? Why didn't it damage its own plug which was in the 4 gang? Is the monitor a red herring and is it just a fault with the 4 gang, which must be at least 10 years old. Is it a fault somwhere else in the circuit? Why didn't any fuses blow? Would any rcd protection had prevented the potential for a fire?
I'm going to replace the wall socket but I'm a bit apprenhsive about plugging things back in, is there any test equipment which can test the safety of the monitor, etc?
As I said these pop noises I assumed were coming from the monitor but could have been coming from the plug as it is behind the monitor just above floor level.
So the question is can anyone throw any light on what might have happened here? Is it possible for a monitor failure to end up burning out the plug in the wall socket? Why didn't it damage its own plug which was in the 4 gang? Is the monitor a red herring and is it just a fault with the 4 gang, which must be at least 10 years old. Is it a fault somwhere else in the circuit? Why didn't any fuses blow? Would any rcd protection had prevented the potential for a fire?
I'm going to replace the wall socket but I'm a bit apprenhsive about plugging things back in, is there any test equipment which can test the safety of the monitor, etc?