A router can explode due to overheating, electrical faults, or physical damage.
A router can explode due to overheating, electrical faults, or physical damage.
Likely a power supply issue. To avoid it, position your router in an area with good ventilation and ensure the PSU is reliable. ISP routers rarely fail this way, so you probably won’t need to worry. If it does malfunction, your computer should still function normally (except for internet loss).
The TP-Link C20 uses an external power supply unit. A diagram of its internal structure can be found here: https://openwrt.org/_detail/media/tplink...her_c20_v4. The included PSU is a Class II isolation type. Such failures are uncommon, but possible if the main voltage leaks from primary to secondary. This would require a double insulation breakdown at the transformer. Another likely point of failure is the capacitor linking the two sides, though this is rare. What occurred? Someone likely experienced a surge from a high-voltage, high-energy event—possibly a lightning strike.
A cap or voltage regulator malfunction leads to a short circuit, sending incorrect voltage and causing a sudden failure. Power spikes can also trigger this issue.
Based on the fried Cat5 cable and LAN port, it seems like a power surge or lightning strike occurred.
Day 430 of urging users to submit images directly to the forum rather than using hotlinking to external servers (like Reddit). People often notice posts like this: Spoiler Oh and you also prevent link rot and broken posts, assuming LMG won’t delete old uploaded images every few years. When something gets a lot of attention, it’s usually a capacitor or a resistor, though the resistor needs to be big enough to physically harm other parts—you won’t find those inside a router.
The issue likely stemmed from a surge affecting the LAN port, possibly through the SOC or ethernet isolation transformer, causing scorch marks. It seems unusual that the PC remained intact despite this. If the surge originated from the router, it probably bypassed the long path via the LAN switch and transformers. The situation appears incomplete—some details are missing. I noticed the phone line was damaged by a lightning strike, which affected the modem and motherboard I/O chips. Additionally, older 10-BASE-2 networking equipment caused issues, damaging diodes in every NIC, though the 10-BASE-T ports on those cards still functioned.