Hello everyone, so I have had a problem which has been bugging me for a few days now.
Two nights ago or so I was using my computer fine and casually, I sensed burning smell. I didn't think it was anything but my heater beside me. A few minutes later I came back and my computer was off. It was odd I thought since my power never went out. So I tried turning it on and there was this like failing of starting up and it sounded like a pop but not exactly but I saw sparks or fire or some sort of yellowish come out the back where the power supply was so I turned off my power supply switch and unplugged everything. (Mind you. the computer didn't start as I only got like 1 second or less of power).
So I waited a little and decided to try again and again nothing happened. I started to smell burning though and saw a little smoke. I unplugged everything again once more. I thought that my power supply was dead.
NOTE: I bought it 3 years ago it's a Thermaltake TR2-430W and it was running my PNY Nvidia GeForce 9400GT card I bought a while back too. Motherboard is an old ASRock G31M-S if it matters.
I had to buy that power supply to run the graphics card because I just had a regular HP computer with its default power supply and it wasn't enough. Recently as of probably a year or so I haven't been "using" the DVI cable part of it as I had my XBOX HDMI to DVI cable plugged into my monitor so my graphics card had just been sitting in there just being used with the VGA port. IF that matters to my current situation!
So my wife helped me look and recommended me to do the paperclip test on my power supply. I ended up doing it on my power supply and the fan worked. Despite the smoking and everything which happened previously. Right now I am using my Thermaltake TR2 as it is fine now but before that I ended up buying another Power supply.
I bought a CX500M Corsair. 500W
So I ended up trying that and it turned out that that didn't work either and it started to smoke and I smelt burning again. Again I unplugged everything. That was a problem because now I thought it was my motherboard. Turns out it wasn't.
My wife found out and we decided to try taking out my graphics card and 1 ram stick. It ended up working fine. This time I tried again by putting back 1 ram stick. It worked again. The problem was my graphics card. (While using Corsair power supply and old Thermal power supply it worked fine).
After taking out my graphics card it was covered in a load of dust and it smelled like it burned up. It looks perfectly fine though and my motherboard shows no damage at all.
I wanted to clean my graphics card and try again but not use my Thermaltake TR2 as I saw what it had done the first time. So I stupidly did it again with the Corsair CX500M and when I did it I saw some smoke and smelled burning once again. I took it out and tried again but this time the Corsair did not start. Pressing power did not even do anything nor was I getting any power whatsoever.
The Corsair ended up failing the paperclip test and since it was brand new I have no idea if I ruined it because I tried again with the GeForce 9400 Graphics card. Was it that? What should I do?
Now I'm running my Thermaltake without the graphics card however it reset my BIOS. Why? Everything is in 2009 of November around when I got this computer. Most websites I go to since I'm using mozilla won't allow me because it might be dangerous and since it says there's no certificate and I need to wait till 2014. I had to add some pages to an exception. But now videos on Youtube won't work and even any videos that I go find online. None of them load and loop in buffering forever. My taskbar is also weird looking and seems to lag programs a lot more now.
I have 4GB Ram.
PS I did an windows update like in the middle of using the Corsair Power supply yesterday or so at noon when it was still alive without the graphics card. It had to update Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family and some other security things!
What should I do now? Buy a new graphics card? Drop this power supply and get something better? Buy a new motherboard? How do I know if I buy a graphics card and plug it in that the motherboard or something won't mess it up and I'll end up wasting money? I don't have much money and I'm on a super tight budget. I don't want to buy things I don't need. What do I do with the new power supply that doesn't work anymore?
What is wrong and do you have any input for me about my situation? Thank you very much! I appreciate it!
Two nights ago or so I was using my computer fine and casually, I sensed burning smell. I didn't think it was anything but my heater beside me. A few minutes later I came back and my computer was off. It was odd I thought since my power never went out. So I tried turning it on and there was this like failing of starting up and it sounded like a pop but not exactly but I saw sparks or fire or some sort of yellowish come out the back where the power supply was so I turned off my power supply switch and unplugged everything. (Mind you. the computer didn't start as I only got like 1 second or less of power).
So I waited a little and decided to try again and again nothing happened. I started to smell burning though and saw a little smoke. I unplugged everything again once more. I thought that my power supply was dead.
NOTE: I bought it 3 years ago it's a Thermaltake TR2-430W and it was running my PNY Nvidia GeForce 9400GT card I bought a while back too. Motherboard is an old ASRock G31M-S if it matters.
I had to buy that power supply to run the graphics card because I just had a regular HP computer with its default power supply and it wasn't enough. Recently as of probably a year or so I haven't been "using" the DVI cable part of it as I had my XBOX HDMI to DVI cable plugged into my monitor so my graphics card had just been sitting in there just being used with the VGA port. IF that matters to my current situation!
So my wife helped me look and recommended me to do the paperclip test on my power supply. I ended up doing it on my power supply and the fan worked. Despite the smoking and everything which happened previously. Right now I am using my Thermaltake TR2 as it is fine now but before that I ended up buying another Power supply.
I bought a CX500M Corsair. 500W
So I ended up trying that and it turned out that that didn't work either and it started to smoke and I smelt burning again. Again I unplugged everything. That was a problem because now I thought it was my motherboard. Turns out it wasn't.
My wife found out and we decided to try taking out my graphics card and 1 ram stick. It ended up working fine. This time I tried again by putting back 1 ram stick. It worked again. The problem was my graphics card. (While using Corsair power supply and old Thermal power supply it worked fine).
After taking out my graphics card it was covered in a load of dust and it smelled like it burned up. It looks perfectly fine though and my motherboard shows no damage at all.
I wanted to clean my graphics card and try again but not use my Thermaltake TR2 as I saw what it had done the first time. So I stupidly did it again with the Corsair CX500M and when I did it I saw some smoke and smelled burning once again. I took it out and tried again but this time the Corsair did not start. Pressing power did not even do anything nor was I getting any power whatsoever.
The Corsair ended up failing the paperclip test and since it was brand new I have no idea if I ruined it because I tried again with the GeForce 9400 Graphics card. Was it that? What should I do?
Now I'm running my Thermaltake without the graphics card however it reset my BIOS. Why? Everything is in 2009 of November around when I got this computer. Most websites I go to since I'm using mozilla won't allow me because it might be dangerous and since it says there's no certificate and I need to wait till 2014. I had to add some pages to an exception. But now videos on Youtube won't work and even any videos that I go find online. None of them load and loop in buffering forever. My taskbar is also weird looking and seems to lag programs a lot more now.
I have 4GB Ram.
PS I did an windows update like in the middle of using the Corsair Power supply yesterday or so at noon when it was still alive without the graphics card. It had to update Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family and some other security things!
What should I do now? Buy a new graphics card? Drop this power supply and get something better? Buy a new motherboard? How do I know if I buy a graphics card and plug it in that the motherboard or something won't mess it up and I'll end up wasting money? I don't have much money and I'm on a super tight budget. I don't want to buy things I don't need. What do I do with the new power supply that doesn't work anymore?
What is wrong and do you have any input for me about my situation? Thank you very much! I appreciate it!
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