Mysterious Computer Explosion Kills Programmer
Mysterious Computer Explosion Kills Programmer
Posted 04/06/2009 at 2:14pm
| by Andy Salisbury
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A software engineer at Tata Consultancy Services was found dead in his apartment in Velachery, India late last Friday.
The engineer, Vijayakumar, was living in the apartment with two other roommates, Vignesh and Ram Prasad. The latter of the two was home during the accident, but was in another room at the time.
Vijayakumar’s body was found charred in a suspected computer blast, according to Police. “We are yet to ascertain the cause of the blast. The computer was completely damaged and the deceased was charred,” stated an official. “Ram Prasad had gone to take bath. He told us that suddenly he heard a blast and when he rushed out he saw the charred body of his friend and fainted. It sounds quite unbelievable. We have not heard of such a case before. But the scene of the accident seems to suggest that the youth was killed in an accident as his body was in the sitting position in front of the burnt computer.”
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DMI PC Repair
April 07, 2009 at 5:42am
See kids this is what happens when you buy a Dell, and work for IBM.
rchandru
April 07, 2009 at 1:51am
Now believe me when I say this. I live in Velachery, Chennai, India and I live in the same apartment as Vijaykumar. This guy committed suicide by self-immolation. Explosion of any sort did not occur and there was no laptop in his house!!!
jwalch.hawk
April 07, 2009 at 11:52am
I would've actually considered that possibility... Until this comment was posted.
ghot
April 06, 2009 at 11:38pm
.....Windows Vista that "did him in" :)
Take an OS, and edit out all the efficiency, and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
Keith E. Whisman
April 06, 2009 at 11:00pm
Looks like the fire was put out with a Dry Chemical ABC Type Fire Exstinguisher. That yellow/white dust all over it gives it away.
MyNameIsNas
April 07, 2009 at 5:25pm
Looks like a Thinkpad to me. I can see that there's a Touchpoint and also maybe an older version of Lenovo/IBM UltraNav..... Cant really see the second right&left button though..
Update: Sorry guys.. guess it was Dell..hmm.. Found similar happenings too.. And also looks like at the same spot.
http://www.tracingadget.com/50226711/eaeee_ceeccc_114657.php
Keith E. Whisman
April 06, 2009 at 7:55pm
Israeli Agents killed a terrorist with a bomb in a phone. They called him and he answered and they pushed a remote button and the bomb blew his head off.
I wonder what the story is on the guy that died. If he was a terrorist or something.
Also Ram Prasad sounds like a Jewish name. He could be a Mussad agent.
jwalch.hawk
April 06, 2009 at 7:26pm
Can anyone 100% ID the laptop in the picture (I saw one comment below suggesting it's a Dell Latitude)?
What appears to be the source location of the explosion in the picture is on my machine (which is certainly not the one pictured) pretty much right over the hard drive, which makes the big frigging hole right there a bit suspicious.
WarCrime342
April 07, 2009 at 9:57am
I'm 100% sure it's a Dell and I'm 85% sure it the D600 model. When I saw this article I immediately took my laptop out to check what had exploded. It's right where the battery was.
WarCrime342
April 07, 2009 at 9:57am
I'm 100% sure it's a Dell and I'm 85% sure it the D600 model. When I saw this article I immediately took my laptop out to check what had exploded. It's right where the battery was.
WarCrime342
April 07, 2009 at 9:57am
I'm 100% sure it's a Dell and I'm 85% sure it the D600 model. When I saw this article I immediately took my laptop out to check what had exploded. It's right where the battery was.
Digital-Storm
April 06, 2009 at 7:22pm
That looks more like the guy that was in the shower murdered him, and then burned the laptop. Seriously, it looks like the laptop was closed.
Lord Omega
April 06, 2009 at 6:30pm
Macs do not explode. It was a battery explosion for only lithium-ion batteries could explode withough any kind of warning and kill with that much heat.
devin3627
April 06, 2009 at 6:05pm
a worker somewheere or whatever's cell phone battery exploded while he was working in really hot heat. sounds kinda similar???
notailmouse2
April 06, 2009 at 4:44pm
Thermite was stuffed underneath the hd to easily destroy data it was accidently ignited
WarCrime342
April 06, 2009 at 5:24pm
Then the HD is located on the LEFT side of the touchpad. I believe it's the same model I have too. Latitude D600. That hole you see if where the battery once was.
WhiteRabbit22
April 06, 2009 at 4:10pm
Couldn't this have been an assasination? Hard drive bomb? I've seen people make emergency hard drive destruction devices, like hackers trying to hide stuff. Maybe he made one and accidentally set it off?
skhills
April 06, 2009 at 3:30pm
The fainting bit seems a bit too convenient. It'd be an easy way to answer "I don't know, I was unconsious" to any questioning. Now if the victim was the one taking the bath, I'd buy it...
bingojubes
April 06, 2009 at 3:12pm
it looks like the laptop was closed when it blew up. but don't count on my lack of forensics experience.
sorry to hear about the engineer. strange but i don't want to get that brand of laptop, ever.
dag1992
April 06, 2009 at 3:13pm
Does look like it was closed, and the hard drive just exploded, maybe he tried overclocking it somehow...
Keith E. Whisman
April 06, 2009 at 2:47pm
He probably had a faulty battery with a Lithium leak. Lithium is highly corrosive and I guess can explode as some cell phones using Lithium batteries have exploded into flames in airplanes. I assume that the casing of the Lithium battieries were compremised while the aircraft was pressurized and de-pressurised for high altitude flight.
Also Magnesium is used in the production of laptops these days and magnesium does not play nice with other metals. The Magnesium in the laptop could have reacted to another metal made worse by the heat generated from the components of the computer. In fact the Battery could have burned undetected until the heat reached magnesium parts in the laptop and the magnesium exploded sending components and hot fluids and gases into the victim thus killing the poor man.
rayatwork05
April 07, 2009 at 6:07am
only problem is if that picture is the same that exploded.....that wasnt the battery compartment that exploded. looks like an IED we used to make in military for spec ops stuff.
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