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Question New build, crackling sound, burning smell

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Ruwakh

Ruwakh

Distinguished
Nov 17, 2016
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18,515
Hi all.

I've also posted this over on the Reddit forums as I'm desperate for advice.

I'm in a bit of a panic and I come seeking help / advice / sympathy.
I have built a new PC for about € 2000, which is a lot of money for me.
I built it myself, which I have done several times before. It was built two days ago. All components are brand new, except for one SSD drive and one HDD drive.

The new PC has been running normally for the past two days. It has been slow to boot, starting with showing red and orange debug led for a few minutes before starting up the OS. I've read that this is not uncommon for AM5 systems like mine. Other than that the PC, once booted into the OS, was running fine. I kept an eye on temperatures. CPU temp would sit idle at around 35 C (95 F), to jump to around 55 C (130 F) during cpu tasks.

Today I was using the computer. It had been running for two hours or so. While I was installing an application I heard a click from the PSU and the PC had shut down completely. I tried to restart it, but other than a click from the PSU, nothing happened.

I turned off the PSU power button and unplugged the power cord from the wall socket for a few seconds. I then plugged the power cable back in, switched the PSU on and tried again. The computer started like it did before, with red and orange debug lights. But almost immediately I also heard an electrical crackling sound coming from the motherboard. I wanted to power down immediately but was dumb enough to try that with the power button at first. Didn't work fast enough so I hit the switch on the PSU. Altogether had about 3 seconds of crackling. After shutdown, there was a burning smell coming from the case. The smell was clear, but not strong enough to fill the room and had dissipated after around 15 minutes. There was no smoke.

I inspected the insides of the case visually with a flash light. I do not see anything out of the ordinary. The crackling sound appeared to come from close to the debug leds, close to the outer edge of the RAM. No visual clues.

My brother asked whether I had installed the motherboard properly, with the necessary standoffs. Now I did install the mobo directly into the case, assuming the standoffs molded into the case would be sufficient. It was for my previous pc and that one was built in a similar case. The back of the motherboard is not touching the case anywhere, except through the screws. Also, if this was the problem I reckon it would have appeared sooner, not after 2 days of use?

I'm devastated and scared for major damage. This is the Christmas present I gave myself after having saved up for it for years.
Since I purchased the components individually I can't RMA anything without localizing the component that is the source of the problem. But it's not as if I have professional testing equipment to test each component in isolation.

🙁

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Also I apologize in advance if I put this in the incorrect forum section.

Components:
CPU: Ryzen 7800X3D
CPU cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin
Motherboard: MSI B650 Gaming Plus Wifi
Ram: G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO 2x 32 GB 6000 Mhz CL30
SSD/HDD: M2 Western Digital Black SN 850X 2 TB | Samsung EVO 960 SSD 250 GB | Western Digital Blue HDD 1 TB | WD Blue HDD 2 TB
GPU: None (Bought a 7800XT to go with the build but I haven't installed it yet, was using the iGPU)
PSU: Corsair RM1000e
Chassis: NZXT H7 Flow
OS: W11
 
Last edited:
I would advice you not to even touch the computer at the moment and any burning smell and computer going off could be link to faulty PSU or HHD Drive or possable motherboard if you heard crackling noices.

After christmas when stores open would be best to contact them see if you can exchange/Replace the Corsair RM1000e and possable the motherboard and then bulid it again and see what happens or you could find friend or spare PSU to test it or there is an paper clip test to test your psu out

 
Last edited:
XxDarkMario20xX said:
I would advice you not to even touch the computer at the moment and any burning smell and computer going off could be link to faulty PSU or HHD Drive or possable motherboard if you heard crackling noices.

After christmas when stores open would be best to contact them see if you can exchange/Replace the Corsair RM1000e and possable the motherboard and then bulid it again and see what happens or you could find friend or spare PSU to test it or there is an paper clip test to test your psu out

Click to expand...
Thank you for your thoughts. I can try the PSU test but don't know if it will be useful. The PSU did turn on the last time I tried, but I had to turn it off manually to prevent my system from (further) shorting.
 
Ruwakh said:
Thank you for your thoughts. I can try the PSU test but don't know if it will be useful. The PSU did turn on the last time I tried, but I had to turn it off manually to prevent my system from (further) shorting.
Click to expand...

Yeah if you dont want to do the testing then when stores are back open then think you should return and replace motherboard and PSU. Or maybe try and find the burning smell if its hardrive and such. If it was cpu then you will have higher temps and warning wont be ram so 3 suspects motherboard/PSU/hardrive HDD
 
Ruwakh said:
Hi all.

I've also posted this over on the Reddit forums as I'm desperate for advice.

I'm in a bit of a panic and I come seeking help / advice / sympathy.
I have built a new PC for about € 2000, which is a lot of money for me.
I built it myself, which I have done several times before. It was built two days ago. All components are brand new, except for one SSD drive and one HDD drive.

The new PC has been running normally for the past two days. It has been slow to boot, starting with showing red and orange debug led for a few minutes before starting up the OS. I've read that this is not uncommon for AM5 systems like mine. Other than that the PC, once booted into the OS, was running fine. I kept an eye on temperatures. CPU temp would sit idle at around 35 C (95 F), to jump to around 55 C (130 F) during cpu tasks.

Today I was using the computer. It had been running for two hours or so. While I was installing an application I heard a click from the PSU and the PC had shut down completely. I tried to restart it, but other than a click from the PSU, nothing happened.

I turned off the PSU power button and unplugged the power cord from the wall socket for a few seconds. I then plugged the power cable back in, switched the PSU on and tried again. The computer started like it did before, with red and orange debug lights. But almost immediately I also heard an electrical crackling sound coming from the motherboard. I wanted to power down immediately but was dumb enough to try that with the power button at first. Didn't work fast enough so I hit the switch on the PSU. Altogether had about 3 seconds of crackling. After shutdown, there was a burning smell coming from the case. The smell was clear, but not strong enough to fill the room and had dissipated after around 15 minutes. There was no smoke.

I inspected the insides of the case visually with a flash light. I do not see anything out of the ordinary. The crackling sound appeared to come from close to the debug leds, close to the outer edge of the RAM. No visual clues.

My brother asked whether I had installed the motherboard properly, with the necessary standoffs. Now I did install the mobo directly into the case, assuming the standoffs molded into the case would be sufficient. It was for my previous pc and that one was built in a similar case. The back of the motherboard is not touching the case anywhere, except through the screws. Also, if this was the problem I reckon it would have appeared sooner, not after 2 days of use?

I'm devastated and scared for major damage. This is the Christmas present I gave myself after having saved up for it for years.
Since I purchased the components individually I can't RMA anything without localizing the component that is the source of the problem. But it's not as if I have professional testing equipment to test each component in isolation.

🙁

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Also I apologize in advance if I put this in the incorrect forum section.

Components:
CPU: Ryzen 7800X3D
CPU cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin
Motherboard: MSI B650 Gaming Plus Wifi
Ram: G.Skill Trident Z5 NEO 2x 32 GB 6000 Mhz CL30
SSD/HDD: M2 Western Digital Black SN 850X 2 TB | Samsung EVO 960 SSD 250 GB | Western Digital Blue HDD 1 TB | WD Blue HDD 2 TB
GPU: None (Bought a 7800XT to go with the build but I haven't installed it yet, was using the iGPU)
PSU: Corsair RM1000e
Chassis: NZXT H7 Flow
OS: W11
Click to expand...
Did you experience an electrical power surge?
 
Christophe516 said:
Did you experience an electrical power surge?
Click to expand...
As in from the wall socket? Very unlikely. Since there was some time between the computer first shutting down and me rebooting it and frying something. Also nothing else in the house is affected.

Thanks for helping though! I really appreciate all input.
 
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Reactions: Christophe516
Ruwakh said:
As in from the wall socket? Very unlikely. Since there was some time between the computer first shutting down and me rebooting it and frying something. Also nothing else in the house is affected.

Thanks for helping though! I really appreciate all input.
Click to expand...

Just Keep forums updated on whats happening it is expensive bulid because if was in your shoes will be panicing and getting stressed out so normal store times tommrrow so ask them to replace psu and motherboard you bought just incase because would be scared using PSU and motherboard again just incase there faulty
 
Last edited:
XxDarkMario20xX said:
Just Keep forums updated on whats happening it is expensive bulid because if was in your shoes will be panicing and getting stressed out so normal store times tommrrow so ask them to replace psu and motherboard you bought just incase because would be scared using PSU and motherboard again just incase there faulty
Click to expand...

Yesterday I took the pc apart completely.
There is no visual damage on any of the parts. I also didn't find any incorrect or loose connections.
The burned smell noticeably comes from one distinct part on the motherboard, which is a fixed part without any connections. No capacitors are blown or bulged. I've contacted the seller of the motherboard with a request to have it replaced. I will also be replacing my PSU just to be sure.

When the new motherboard and psu come in and I put everything back together again, I will update here again. I truly hope it will then turn out to be fine, without damage to any of the other parts.

Thank you for all replies so far.
 
Well, how did it turn out? Just came across this and was morbidly curious. Hopefully no expensive components were fried!
 
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