Burning ember flew out of computer.

[smudgecat123]

My computer's FPS has been dipping occasionally while playing video games which I attributed to either the CPU and GPU overheating.

The problem seemed to go away when I cleaned out my CPU and GPU fans and left the side of the PC case off to allow more airflow.

But today it was dropping framerate quite frequently again and then it abruptly turned off and a burning ember of something flew out from either my CPU or somewhere on the motherboard and landed on the top of my GPU (the side without the fans on it).

I am obviously concerned that whatever component sent out a burning ember is damaged. I am also worried that my GPU may have been damaged by the ember.

The only thing I can think is that a component overheated to the point of something melting and setting on fire but I don't really understand how this could have happened so easily without any kind of software warnings or anything.

I'm not really sure what to do in this situation, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[greens]

Thermal problems are often caused by bad capacitors.
I've never heard of one exploding with heat, but i have seen them burst first hand before.

Check your PC for toostie roll looking nobs, those are capacitors.
Are any of them bulging, oozing, or exploded?
They aren't supposed to be like that.

 

[smudgecat123]

That sounds like it could well be the problem. I haven't been able to find any damaged capacitors on first inspection so I'll have to take some components out tomorrow to get a better look.

Supposing I do find a broken capacitor, is there any chance of a repair or should I start looking for a new mobo?

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Dunlop0078]

What power supply do you have? Can you see any burn marks on the motherboard? If something caught on fire and propelled itself across the inside of your case there should be some noticeable burn marks somewhere.

 

[smudgecat123]

I have a Corsair CX 600 power supply. The only thing I found so far was a very crumbly grey chalk like substance on the motherboard which I assume is some kind of ash.