[SOLVED] Desktop PC switched off and produced faint burning cables/plastic smell

[BCT]

Hey team, my good old hardy PC is having trouble and I am hoping that you can help.

I left the PC idle after taking a pause from playing Civilisation VI, and when I came back I found it shut down and noticed a faint smell of burnt plastic/cables.
I gave it a clean from dust and tried switching it on again with all the components in, and then just with the barebones PSU, MOBO, CPU + cooler, 1 RAM stick. Unfortunately it didn't switch on. I then started inspecting individual components and noticed discolouration on the cooler for the CPU. I am linking a picture of it, as well as other pictures from inside the case.

Here is more background info:

• It was built 6.5 years ago, MOBO had to be replaced about 3 years ago
• Specs: i5 4670K CPU, Asus Radeon R9 290 GPU, Corsair Hydro Series H100i cooler (suspect culprit), Gigabyte Z97 MOBO, Corsair 2x8 GB 1600 MHz RAM, Corsair RM 750 PSU, 2x SSD drives and 1x HDD
• There was a huge amount of dust on the filters, not too much inside the case itself
• I couldn't pin point the burning smell, but I think it was from the CPU area at the top rather than the PSU at the bottom
• Gdrive link with pics of the components

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is my issue here? Could it be the cooler?

I don't have spare parts to experiment with a different PSU, etc., so any help with the diagnosis and finding a fix will be much appreciated!

Thank you.

Artur

 

[jarodatkinson]

A problem with the cooler shouldn't prevent the system from posting. You could try a different fan header for the cooler, but I doubt you'll see any change doing that. You have done the correct test by testing bare bones if you moved the ram around and swapped it to make sure. The fact your not even getting post codes makes me suspect the psu personally though, and you need a spare to test that theory....

 

[Starcruiser]

If you can, inspect the various capacitors and VRM around the CPU and other areas on the board. You would also be able to see visually if a capacitor was bulging or otherwise damaged.

You can test if the power supply will turn on by jumping pins. Disconnect everything from the PSU first.
https://www.silverstonetek.com/downloads/QA/PSU/PSU-Paper Clip-EN.pdf
If it doesn't turn on you have your culprit.

 

[BCT]

Thank you both! I did the pin test and the PSU does indeed seem to be the culprit. It clearly switches on and starts making noise, but the fan isn't spinning. I am thinking of going ahead and ordering a new PSU, what do you think?

 

[Karadjgne]

Contact Corsair. I think the warranty on that psu might have been 7 years. Won't hurt to try before spending $100 on something new, and I don't believe that psu had a semi passive mode back then that would prevent the fan from coming on at low loads/temps.

 

[Insane Potatoz]

Thank you both! I did the pin test and the PSU does indeed seem to be the culprit. It clearly switches on and starts making noise, but the fan isn't spinning. I am thinking of going ahead and ordering a new PSU, what do you think?

go for it! it never hurts to get a new PSU... as long as its a good one. But also as Karadjgne said, check your warranty and see if you can get it fixed/replaced for free.

 

[BCT]

Great shout about warranty! I contacted Corsair.

 

[BCT]

Hi All

So, I have some news. On the one hand, I managed to get a replacement PSU from Corsair, even though my warranty was only for five years, as it turns out - many thanks to their customer service team for sorting it out anyway.

PSU is connected, e.g. lights on the graphics card are on as expected.

However, my PC still wouldn't turn on. When I press the power button to switch on the PC I hear the expected power-up signal sound. Yet nothing happens thereafter. What's more, I only get this reaction once - afterwards, there is no reaction from pressing the power button.

If I switch the PSU on and off, I can get a reaction from the power button once again (but only once).

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks.

Artur

 

[Insane Potatoz]

Hi All

So, I have some news. On the one hand, I managed to get a replacement PSU from Corsair, even though my warranty was only for five years, as it turns out - many thanks to their customer service team for sorting it out anyway.

PSU is connected, e.g. lights on the graphics card are on as expected.

However, my PC still wouldn't turn on. When I press the power button to switch on the PC I hear the expected power-up signal sound. Yet nothing happens thereafter. What's more, I only get this reaction once - afterwards, there is no reaction from pressing the power button.

If I switch the PSU on and off, I can get a reaction from the power button once again (but only once).

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks.

Artur

Could be a fried motherboard. Like a fried VRM or something. Do you have any coolers on your VRM? Try removing the VRM on your board and see if anything looks burnt there.

 

[lynx1021]

Did you make sure you plugged in the CPU power 8 pin on the motherboard? You might try resetting the CMOS, Take all power off and jumper the Cmos terminals or remove the button battery for about 20 min. There are several Z97's is yours the HD3?

 

[BCT]

Thanks for the replies. I have another update - some new answers, some new questions. My Z97 is HD3 indeed. I gave it a good visual inspection and cannot see any visible faults. And I don't think it to be the culprit anymore - see why below.

So the PC works now. I decided to once again remove the GPU, memory sticks, gave the memory sticks a good blow (think Sega cartridges). I then installed once of the memory sticks back in place and switched on the PC, and it worked. Surprisingly, installing the second memory stick also went down fine.
However, as soon as I plug in my GPU and hook it up with power, my PC refuses to switch it on. I checked all the connections and everything is slotted in properly. In fact, the onboard lights on the GPU go green as soon as I connect the power and switch it back on.

Any thoughts?

Artur

 

[Insane Potatoz]

Thanks for the replies. I have another update - some new answers, some new questions. My Z97 is HD3 indeed. I gave it a good visual inspection and cannot see any visible faults. And I don't think it to be the culprit anymore - see why below.

So the PC works now. I decided to once again remove the GPU, memory sticks, gave the memory sticks a good blow (think Sega cartridges). I then installed once of the memory sticks back in place and switched on the PC, and it worked. Surprisingly, installing the second memory stick also went down fine.
However, as soon as I plug in my GPU and hook it up with power, my PC refuses to switch it on. I checked all the connections and everything is slotted in properly. In fact, the onboard lights on the GPU go green as soon as I connect the power and switch it back on.

Any thoughts?

Artur

Could be a bad gpu. The part that connects to the motherboard could be scratched or something. Do you have access to any spare graphics cards?

 

[BCT]

Could be a bad gpu. The part that connects to the motherboard could be scratched or something. Do you have access to any spare graphics cards?

I don't, so it would be a pretty big leap of faith to order a new one. I'd like to explore all possible options for identifying the issue first. I don't think that the issue is with the motherboard connector being scratched unless it happened when I was fiddling with it recently.
It worked just fine for many years and stopped working all of a sudden 6 weeks ago, without me opening the case for several years prior to that. And there was this burning smell that I noticed when it happened.

 

[Insane Potatoz]

I don't, so it would be a pretty big leap of faith to order a new one. I'd like to explore all possible options for identifying the issue first. I don't think that the issue is with the motherboard connector being scratched unless it happened when I was fiddling with it recently.
It worked just fine for many years and stopped working all of a sudden 6 weeks ago, without me opening the case for several years prior to that. And there was this burning smell that I noticed when it happened.

Yeah, I don’t want you to go out and buy anything either. This is a problem I haven’t seen before.
Because you can’t boot with your card installed, it’s gotta be the cards fault. Can you inspect the card for me? Does anything look charred? Look around the power connectors too.