Why does my computer smell like burning plastic while playing a graphicly powerf

[FinneousPJ]

I would have made sure to include much more careful warnings. I would not want the person's safety dependent on what he might find on YouTube. As FinneousPJ said:

No, the code I follow is "think for myself." I don't make assumptions about the information I'll find. There's a lot of [dangerous] junk out there, but there are also a lot of solid "how-to" type videos.
If I were guiding someone on general stuff (like building a PC), I might say "check for videos on YouTube." If I were giving advice on something dangerous, I would cite specific links, say why, and note what cautionary details other videos might be missing.

Cool.

 

[voodooking]

How can you assume people are college grads? I'm confused.

The guy who over reacted to me telling the OP what I would do. His name is OhioU grad.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

The guy who over reacted to me telling the OP what I would do. His name is OhioU grad.

I probably should not have overreacted, but basically, point was you should not open PSU's or CRT's, at least not without training. Maybe I'm old school also. My first computer was a commodore 64 when I was 5, which has been a while. I'm 31 now, been working with PC's doing general use, upgrades, builds, and later tech work since 17 or 18, and that was something you never did. I've worked on Servers, laptops, desktops, etc, went to school for 4 years for IT, and I personally would not feel 100% comfortable opening a PSU, so I can't recommend novice users doing that. I used to have to work on eMacs and we'd have to discharge CRT's, not my favorite thing, but it was part of my job. But suggesting a possibly novice user to dissamble a PSU just seems unwise in my opinion. Personally, I would just replace the power supply if needed, even on my own system, if the op feels comfortable, that's his/her business, but I wouldn't, and can't suggest the op to either. I apologize for overreacting.

 

[cmcghee358]

Oh Em Gee. Its a visual inspection, anyone can open a PSU for a VISUAL INSPECTION, as that only requires removing 4 screws(generally) and then LOOKING.

TL;DR, Inspect the inside of your computer until you find something melted. Then fix it, or get a new one, or re-route it or w/e. Pics will help us help you, when you find it.

/holding pattern for OP response.

 

[spat55]

Apparently by dad once smashed a TV, one of those old CRT ones, dont know why, was working or something, anyhow he told me that it blow up.

 

[N0BOX]

I upgraded my PC recently and found that I had left several protective plastic strips on my GPU when I installed it. Apparently, EVGA believes that they need to protect every smooth surface on their GTX 470 SuperClocked GPUs. I didn't even know there were protective strips on the card until I pulled the card in preparation for MB/CPU upgrade. After a year or two of life inside my box, the little protective plastic strips started to peel up along the edges.

Now I have an upgraded PC with a new CPU/Motherboard/RAM/Blu-ray burner, and an old GPU that looks good as new!

Moral of the story? Might want to check and see if there are any plastic strips that you didn't remove while installing your GPU. These GPUs get super-hot (my GTX 470 idles at 70C because Nvidia never figured out how to limit power to the GPU in a dual-monitor setup), so it makes sense that a stray bit of plastic could be coming in contact with a hot heatsink.

 

[dency45]

Ok, first of all my reading comprehension skills are fine. English was actually always one of my easiest subjects, so do not insult me. Second, I have a 4 year college degree for IT. Third, I've worked in this field professionally for nearly 5 years since college, but been doing it as a hobby for much longer. I'm 31, my first pc was when I was 17, first computer was a commodore 64, and before I went to college, I was upgrading and building pc's.

Fourthly. No offense, but taking apart a power supply is not a very smart idea at all. If you know anything about electricity and capacitors, you know that those capacitors carry enough voltage to potentially kill a person, or injure. If you want to take your life in your hands, that's your business. More power to you. Myself, I would not take my life in my hands, especially not over a 50 dollar computer part. In fact I was just working on a pc the other day, the user complained it would not turn on. I plugged it in and turned it on to test it, soon as I did, I saw sparks and heard a sound like a .22 going off, one of the capacitors on the board had blown.

Regardless, the whole crack about many of us have taken apart power supplies. I would say maybe some, but most probably leave them alone. The manufacturers can't put on the label "do not open, no serviceable components inside" for no reason.

Voodoo, you may be a very good tech, and I can respect that, you may very well be a better technician than me, I've worked on laptops, desktops, servers, etc, but one thing I always learned was two things you never took apart were CRT's and power supplies. There are just things better left, and those are the two things I was taught you don't mess with.

Uhm, the voltage is not the one who can kill a person. It is the amount of ampere that will travel in the human body across your heart.