Burning Smell

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Original Message

Name: striker_77
Date: August 6, 2008 at 02:20:59 Pacific
Subject: Burning Smell
OS: Win2000
CPU/Ram: Pentium4
Model/Manufacturer: ibm

Comment:

My computer today made like a pop sound and then there was a burning smell. It doesn't switch on anymore. Any ideas what it could be and whether it is an easy fix?

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Response Number 1

Name: Richard59
Date: August 6, 2008 at 02:40:02 Pacific
Subject: Burning Smell

Reply: (edit)

Happened to me once. Whole system was fried.
Powersupply, Motherboard, CPU, Network card, Graphics card. Only bits salvaged were drives and RAM.
They don't react well once you let the factory pre-installed smoke out.
You may be lucky and only have a failed powersupply but if I were a betting man I'd lean towards failure of at least the motherboard in addition to PSU.
Do you have access to another similar working system that you can use to swap in/out parts for testing?
Goin' Fishin' (Some day)

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Response Number 2

Name: Tubesandwires
Date: August 6, 2008 at 08:01:26 Pacific
Subject: Burning Smell

Reply: (edit)

Assuming your computer is a desktop or tower...
Failing power supplies are common and can cause your symptoms.
Check your PS.
See response 4 in this:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
If you are fortunate, all you need to do is replace the power supply.
If you can temporaily connect a used or borrowed known good power supply, do that first.

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Response Number 3

Name: Tubesandwires
Date: August 6, 2008 at 08:04:36 Pacific
Subject: Burning Smell

Reply: (edit)

Assuming your computer is a desktop or tower...
Failing power supplies are common and can cause your symptoms.
Check your PS.
See response 4 in this:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
If you are fortunate, all you need to do is replace the power supply.
If you can temporarily connect a used or borrowed known good power supply, do that first.
The pop sound may have been a capacitor exploding.

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Response Number 4

Name: Mattwizz3 (by mattwizz3)
Date: August 6, 2008 at 08:32:02 Pacific
Subject: Burning Smell

Reply: (edit)

I've been given 2 computers that had blown PSU's. The first was absolutely totaled. The PSU took out everything except for - amazingly - the CPU. Upon plugging it in with a working PSU the hard drive actually started smoking again and a IC started to glow red!
The other, everything was fine except it damaged a capacitor on the motherboard. On replacing that everything worked as normal.
The moral of this story is: You could be completely screwed or completely fine. You just need a spare PSU to test with.
Mattwizz3

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Response Number 5

Name: DAVEINCAPS
Date: August 6, 2008 at 09:36:53 Pacific
Subject: Burning Smell

Reply: (edit)

The nose knows. Track it down with your sniffer.

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Burning SMELL! Burning smell, completely dead Burning smell coming from tower? Burning smell Laptop has electric burning smell	Burning Smell from Motherboard Burning smell Strange smell... Burnt smell from memory slot area? I may have burned something

Response Number 6

Name: striker_77
Date: August 7, 2008 at 03:32:21 Pacific
Subject: Burning Smell

Reply: (edit)

Thanks guys. Narrowed it down to the PSU. It appears from closer inspection that the only ventilation on the box was covered and the PSU overheated!

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Powercut Chaos

system not booting

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