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| Thread ID: 36942 | 2003-08-24 02:39:00 | Major problem | bk T (215) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 170058 | 2003-08-24 02:39:00 | My friend's newly built pc (has been running for about 2 weeks without any problem) was emitting burning smell from the box last night and when we opened up the case this morning, no visible signs of burning components. However, Windows booted up with unreadable garbage. According to him the burning smell was very strong last night. He suspected the power supply is giving problem but I do not share his view. I suspect the CPU is having problem. How can we trouble-shoot this problem? I am a bit lost. System details: Celeron 2.4 G CPU Asus P4PE Motherboard 512 MB RAM Ideas, please. Cheers |
bk T (215) | ||
| 170059 | 2003-08-24 02:52:00 | Personally Only two weeks old Take it back to the shop it should be still under warranty |
beama (111) | ||
| 170060 | 2003-08-24 03:05:00 | i doubt its the cpu as intels have a good shutdown system. check the motherboard and video card for any caps that have ballooned out of shape. if looks ok i would suspect psu. if psu check out ok pull the video card out and have a closer look. |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 170061 | 2003-08-24 03:11:00 | Burning smell = Switch machine off and check, no delay. Was this built by a shop or home built, what is your cpu and system temp at, are all the fans running (especially psu and cpu) and at the correct speed, is the heat sink correctly seated on the cpu and is the thermal paste/strip in full contact, any wire or cable resting where they shouldn't be and all connections firm? If the HSF is not properly seated you probably wouldn't have got this far without a fry up. Check the mother board for swollen or discharging capacitors (look like silo's, usually a cluster of them near the cpu). Cheers Murray P |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 170062 | 2003-08-24 03:24:00 | This is a home-built PC and all fans are working OK . Where can we check the CPU & psu temperatures? HSF housing properly seated & all connections seems OK No physical signs of burning mb components . How do we find out whether psu is faulty other than replacing it with a good one? If it is psu, we won't be able boot at all, right? How about HDD problem? Cheers |
bk T (215) | ||
| 170063 | 2003-08-24 03:39:00 | psu's get pretty hot inside and can melt down, what type of burning smell is it, dust, plastic, hot wax? Pop the lid off the psu and look for hot spots and visually check the connections, you will blow any warranty if you do this and watch out for electrical discharge, even when unpluged (if your not confident, don't go there), do you have another psu you can swapin and what is the psu rated at? Do you have the mothe boards driver/utility cd, there should be a monitor for temp, fan speed, etc, temp readings will only be indicative. Check all you power leads, wall outlets, peripherals and multi boxes. Are you sure the smell is coming directly from the comp and not elsewhere? Cheers Murray P |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 170064 | 2003-08-24 05:14:00 | > . . . do you have another psu you can > swapin and what is the psu rated at? Do you have the > mothe boards driver/utility cd, there should be a > monitor for temp, fan speed, etc, temp readings will > only be indicative . > > Check all you power leads, wall outlets, peripherals > and multi boxes . Are you sure the smell is coming > directly from the comp and not elsewhere? > Unfortunately, we do not have another psu to swap in . This psu is rated at 300 w output . This friend of mine is unable to distinguish the 'type' of smell from the box . However, he is quite sure that the smell was from the psu as he has opened the casing cover . Now, since there is no proper visual display on the monitor, as tweakie mentioned, it could be the video card; but visual inspection doesn't show any sign of burning . If I were to plug in another video card will it likely to damage this new card, if the psu is the culprit? Cheers |
bk T (215) | ||
| 170065 | 2003-08-24 05:25:00 | When the processor/HSF was installed did you remove the plastic film that would have been covering the thermal compound on HSF. This can cause problems (obviously) and is likely to emit a short term burning smell as the PC is placed under load. I would also go into the BIOS as that should have a temperature monitor in there to see what the CPU is running at. |
whiskeytangofoxtrot (438) | ||
| 170066 | 2003-08-24 05:36:00 | I'm inclined to agree with you WTF. Usually press the Del key on boot to get into the BIOS. Check the CPU temp. It could still be PSU problems though. |
Elephant (599) | ||
| 170067 | 2003-08-24 05:45:00 | > When the processor/HSF was installed did you remove > the plastic film that would have been covering the > thermal compound on HSF. > > This can cause problems (obviously) and is likely to > emit a short term burning smell as the PC is placed > under load. > We did try to look for the 'plastic film' but couldn't find any 'film' covering the thermal compound on HSF. And, we were told by one PC shop that we can just drop the HSF onto the CPU and secure it with the levels. If this is the problem will it damage (overheat the cpu)? Instruction from the cpu box also didn't mention anything about removing the 'film' cover. If the CPU overheats, will it shut down by itself? That friend of mine says that when he opened the case last night, he couldn't detect any burning smell from the CPU but very strong smell from the psu. How safe it is to replace another video card to try out? Cheers |
bk T (215) | ||
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