A little help in diagnosing pls. Burnt smell from my setup

[francisA]

Hi!

So I turned on my rig this morning to check emails. Booted up to XP and just sat idle for like 15mins while I talked to the wifey. Suddenly, the PC just shut down by itself then we smell something burning. I was like WTF!!! I dunno but my first instinct was to restart it to see what happens but nothing at all. Almost like the PS is dead. Though I'm not sure at this point exactly if it really is the PS. Haven't looked closely yet as I had to run to work.

What would be the best way to diagnose this problem. First time I have to go through a catastrophic PC failure such as this so not sure what to do first.

Help pls. Thanks in advance.

 

[CurseTheSky]

My guess would be the power supply followed by the motherboard. No other component should keep your computer from turning on at all.

If you have a spare power supply, try that first (along with one stick of memory, default BIOS settings for no overclock, remove any unnecessary expansion cards like sound cards, etc.). If it still doesn't boot, I'd guess the motherboard is the culprit.

 

[francisA]

Thanks. I'll follow that route. Got my finger/toes crossed that it's the PS and not the mobo.

 

[francisA]

Just an update. Pulled the HX620 off of the case and did the paper clip test numerous times with the PS loaded by a fan. Nothing. Did the same on an older Antec 430 and the fan started so I think I know what I was doing and that my HX620 is dead.

Need help on another thing. I do have a Raidmax 450w PSU that came with the case. It has the 20+4 ATX but does not have the 2x4 12v that I plug on the EP45. This is the part I'm not sure about. With a Q9550 on-board, is the 2x4 really necessary? The manual also talks about the possibility of using a 2x2 in lieu of the 2x4.

Will it be ok to do so? I'm not planning on using the Raidmax PSU longer than for me to find out if my rig will boot up and all else work fine. Just want to prove that it's just the PSU and it didn't take down anything else with it.

Thanks again

Edit: forgot to add, already sent RMA request for the HX620

 

[chusteczka]

An adapter from the molex connection will work.

LOGISYS AD202 12V Molex to 8pin P8 Adapter - Retail

1ST PC CORP. 12" 8-pin/P4+P4-pin EPS female converted from molex 4-pin male Cable Model CB-4M-8F - Retail