Burning Smell

[blunc]

it looks like you are at a point where you need to electrically check the power supply and the vid card, possibly in a known good system.

a $20 investment in a power supply checker is cheaper than taking it to a shop but adds to the total cost of repairs.

there is now way to check a vid card other than putting it in another computer.

your statement that the monitor light was cycling between green and yellow indicates that it's trying to sync on on something coming out of the vid card but is not locking in.

 

[Rconsole]

Ok i went to MDG and picked up their 545W PSU and put it in...now insteadof staying black the screen stays dark blue as if it weren't plugged in to anything....

EDIT: oops i didn't see your last post as it was on the second page...
that thing with the striped only showed up when it first happened then i immediatly shut down and havn't seen it since

 

[dokk]

Ok i went to MDG and picked up their 545W PSU and put it in...now insteadof staying black the screen stays dark blue as if it weren't plugged in to anything....

EDIT: oops i didn't see your last post as it was on the second page...
that thing with the striped only showed up when it first happened then i immediatly shut down and havn't seen it since

You could take your video card to your local comp store and they would /could be talked into testing it for you at no or little cost as they usually have one or two mobo's set up for just that sort of thing,thay are always testing user snafu's..

 

[Paperdoc]

Funny, as I read your post I thought you were saying that the burning, etc came from the MONITOR, not the computer case. But the whole thread concentrates on the computer and its components. Is that right - the symptoms are all from the computer case?

Assuming they are, the PSU seems most likely, with video card next. Certainly the PSU can be part working and part not, so having some things work does not prove the whole thing. If a component in the PSU burned out you are unlikley to see it until you remove the PSU from the case and open its cover so you can see inside clearly. Look not only for discolored items, but also for capacitors (the big can things) with bulged ends or sides. Be VERY CAREFUL about what you touch - those capacitors can have a substantial charge stored in them at dangerous voltages.

You say during boot-up the monitor indicator starts orange, goes green for a while, then back to orange. That shows it is getting some signal from the video card, but obviosly not everything it needs. So the video card is not completely dead, which does not help a lot.

You say your machine does not beep or anything as it boots. But did it ever do that before? Most machines will give a single beep at least once during the boot process as a confirmation that everything is OK. But if yours never did, there may be no sound output device, in which case silence now proves nothing.

 

[Rconsole]

Funny, as I read your post I thought you were saying that the burning, etc came from the MONITOR, not the computer case. But the whole thread concentrates on the computer and its components. Is that right - the symptoms are all from the computer case?

Assuming they are, the PSU seems most likely, with video card next. Certainly the PSU can be part working and part not, so having some things work does not prove the whole thing. If a component in the PSU burned out you are unlikley to see it until you remove the PSU from the case and open its cover so you can see inside clearly. Look not only for discolored items, but also for capacitors (the big can things) with bulged ends or sides. Be VERY CAREFUL about what you touch - those capacitors can have a substantial charge stored in them at dangerous voltages.

You say during boot-up the monitor indicator starts orange, goes green for a while, then back to orange. That shows it is getting some signal from the video card, but obviosly not everything it needs. So the video card is not completely dead, which does not help a lot.

You say your machine does not beep or anything as it boots. But did it ever do that before? Most machines will give a single beep at least once during the boot process as a confirmation that everything is OK. But if yours never did, there may be no sound output device, in which case silence now proves nothing.

No the monitor now only shows up black, capacitors all look good, can't remember if it used to beep...i plugged the speakers in - still no beeps, yeah i don't see how it could be the monitor, i'll see if i can borrow an old video card from a friend and try it...

 

[blunc]

my theory is that the stripes you saw was the vid card in the process of dying, the problem with that is that sometimes when a piece of hardware dies it takes other parts along with it. that is what I was trying to warn you about. after the vid card dies there is usually nothing "displayable" out of it.

since you only got "burning smell" out of it and not enough smoke to see, it still seems to me to be a component on either the vid card, the old power supply or the mobo.

if you put in an old PCI vid card and you get readable text on the monitor (no need to boot all the way to windows at this point), it would seem to indicate that the vid card had failed.

 

[Djibrille]

I advice you to try the folowing steps:
I understand you changed the power supply, keep the new one conected
Connect the case speaker to the MB
Take the video card out of its slot.
Power on.
If there is no beep after power on most likely the MB has died probably along with the PSU. If that is the case look around the power connector of the MB (the one with 20 or 24pins) there should be some components burned. Look closely for there could only be a slight melting on one of them.
If it beeps the video card is kaput.(most likely taking into acount that you saw those artefacts before the burned smell)
I used to work in a computer store and that is what we did in these cases. or you could take out the memory instead and there should be beeps too.
I doubt the horoor stories someone posted before about many components frying together (cpu mem hdd etc). In all my work in the store I never saw a dead CPU with a heatspreader on. The only ones that died were Athlon XP-s or Durons without heatspreaders when you broke the chip by incorectly mounting the heatspreder.

 

[blunc]

you should make allowance for the fact that just because you haven't experienced something doesn't mean it can't/won't happen.

the "failed" athlon XP2400 in question had been in regular use for over a year, had no signs of damage when removed and had not been OC'd or over heated....but it did not work after being moved from an apartment to a house.

I even tried putting the failed cpu back in the mobo after booting with a new cpu to see if the problem was just dirty cpu socket pins, again...no joy.

I trust the person that told me they didn't slam it around during the move.

there was no horror story about frying cpu's memory or hdd, alothough there are some great stories in one of DaSickNinja's threads....lots of smoke and fire there.

 

[Djibrille]

You're right, I didn't want to say it could never happen. I just have never seen such a case and I did see a lot of CPU-s (probably thousands). In your case maybe you didn't notice the crack in the die because sometimes it's very small and lined to the border of it so you don't notice it at a first look. And seeing that you moved it before it died is to me a clear sign that something physical happened.
Anyway I did say I saw "failed" XP-s and Durons, they seemed quite fragile. That is not to say I did not liked them (I had a XP 2400+ mobile myself and it was quite an overclocker - it did 2200mhz with only 1.6v).
But on topic I beleive he has a newer processor and these ones are much less fragile (or so they seem to me). There isn't much you can do to them besides bending or braking pins(and maybe throwing them out the Concorde window).

 

[Rconsole]

Ok i did the no vid card start and got no beeps, the 20pin connector is clean, so i'll get an old vid card tomorrow and try it out, thanks for all your help guys i'll keep you updated

 

[Howard_Stern]

Does your motherboard have onboard video? You can try hooking your monitor up to that and see if anything appears.

Just a thought,
regards,
Howard

 

[Djibrille]

If you got no beeps without a vid card it's most likely the MB that died, provided you connected the speaker and it does work. I once saw a d*i mb that did about the same thing and I discovered a melted transistor on it so that explained the smoke and smell. Surprisingly nothing else was broken not even the power source. Anyway a good power source is a very good investment. I don't beleive such a power source would let pass through a current dangerous to the rest of your component. For example I had an Antec PSU that blew on me (it wasn't quite an explosion but a loud noise) but it didn't brake anything else inside the computer.

 

[bunibesar]

first try to check the monitor. connect the monitor to other pc. see if the monitor is still ok.

sometimes case like this is happen.

if the monitor is ok. try to run the pc with minimum configuration. mobo+ processor + 1 piece of ram + video adapter and nothing else. if you got another piece of ram try to replace the old ram. it might be the problem. different ram from working computer is recommended.
before turning on, clear CMOS first.

before you done all that, make sure the mainboard or everything else is not short circuited.

always unplug power cord before doing anything.

contact me via email if you still got problem. i might be not able to reply to this forum for about 1 week or 2 weeks.

 

[eRazor]

No... I don't hear any beeps.

If it were the pwoer supply wouldn't the entire computer not turn on though?
And on the PSU all i can see is "CasEdge" I guess it came with my case, a Minotaur

Blunc, that is what seems to be happening with mine, I will get a friend to have a look, but that wouldn't explain the initial burning smell...

There are several different power rails in your PSU. If a capacitor blew on one of the rails that supply your motherboard, you sure as heck would smell it (blown caps STINK) and you would not be able to boot, yet your fans could still run.

 

[zzzpoohzzz]

i dunno if anyone else suggested this... i only read the first few posts... have a buddy pop open his case and use their power supply in your machine... simple test hehe :lol:

 

[Zaina]

Hey guys,

A few days ago my screen turned black with white stripes and I could smell burning coming out of the back of the case...Since then whenever I turn it on, the front LED's turn on but the monitor remains black. I was wondering if this is most likely a PSU issue, a blown capacitor, and if it is worth the $25 to have somebody troubleshoot it.

I had almost the same experience with my pc about the burnt smell. Problem started when I tried to install steam. I got error message that steam will install in root directory and without giving much consideration I clicked ok. My only hard disk then was set in slave instead of master. So when steam is installing, the lcd monitor flickered for a while then went black on me. I restarted the pc it was ok and then went black again and this time there was burnt smell. I restarted pc it displayed for a while then went black again. I thought it was the pc but no it was the monitor. This monitor do not work on another pc but another monitor work on this pc. So the problem is the monitor. Don't know what the problem with the monitor is, maybe the backlight burnt but if so why is there display with the dell logo before goes black. Check out if your problem is with the monitor? In the meantime anyone of your guys out there can resolve my monitor issue? Thanks in advance

 

[flabbergasted]

There is no longer the burnt smell anywhere even when the computer is on. i'm pretty sure the entire motherboard and all of the things attached are clear of burnt stuff.
The power supply fan turns freely.
It was a homemade computer, I have a 2GHz AMD processor, nVidia 256mbg video card, 80gb hard drive, 120gb hard drive, ummm 2x256mb RAM, an ASUS motherboard.

It was assembled about 3-4 years ago.

A year ago my 850MHz Athlon bit the dust. It overheated and fried because I never cleaned the heatsink. I had been leaving it on 24/7 for a few weeks. So what I'm saying is I think it's your CPU that fried.

 

[Dave_McMahon]

Check the new PSU with a multimeter on the molex or get a Multimeter tester (you need to short the green and black pins on the ATX connecter to start it) (I know its new but sometimes they are DOA like anything)

if thats clear then disconnect everything form M/B except Ram ( only one stick) CPU and Vid

Make sure Monitor is okay by using a known good

If you get no beeps normally means no CPU or RAM (or broke CPU/RAM

So swap out the CPU/RAM with known goods or just get a new PC its not good to chase them after a certain point (would never have said that a year ago Before my new job)

p.s does the CPU fan work? Old athlons cook rarther than shut down)

p.p.s When you disturb components you let dust in (especially GPU cards with fans so hoover (Vacum) out all the dust (maybe you fixed prob with new PSU but then ruined it by getting dust in RAM/AGP/PCI/CPU slots

 

[little_scrapper]

Most people dont know this but smoke is a VERY vital component of ALL electronics components. Like the oil in your car, the smoke keeps everything lubricated and keeps the electrons flowing smoothly. If you let the smoke out a component it will quit working. Sometime a little smoke may escape and it will still work. But generally the rest of the smoke will eventually escape out and it dies. DONT EVER LET THE SMOKE OUT OF YOUR COMPUTER COMPONENTS!!!

 

[Lionhardt]

...

 

[Rconsole]

It was the Video Card =)