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Burning smell/odor coming from PC

Z

zakman

Junior Member
My PC:

- ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard
- EVGA GTX 285 videocard
- 6GB Corsair Dominator 1600 RAM
- 1TB and 500GB hard drives
- PC Power & Cooling Silencer 910 PSU
- Cooler Master ATCS 840 case
- Dell 24" widescreen monitor

I built this computer back in 2009, and it worked flawlessly until about March of this year, when I started noticing an odd, acrid, burning-type smell in the room whenever I had the computer on for more than a few minutes. So, I started troubleshooting. Since, then, I've done the following:

- RMA'd motherboard
- RMA'd power supply
- Tried a different video card
- Tried a different monitor
- Unplugged all the case fans I could get away with

And the damn thing is still giving off this odor. I can't detect any smoke from it, but after about 10 minutes I can feel it in my eyes and nose.

It's driving me up the wall - I've tested about everything I can think to test and no luck. And to add insult to injury, put the motherboard back in last night and it's not recognizing one of the hard drives or a stick of RAM.

Anyone have any ideas on what could be making the machine smell, even after all the testing I've done? Figure it might be time to say hell with it and get a new computer, but want to get this one back up and running if at all possible.
 
I think we have different definitions of testing. 🙂

Do a minimal install out side the box with one stick of ram and GPU. Make sure the one stick of ram is in the correct slot for that configuration. Build up from there. Only after all additional components have been installed should you remount the MB in the case.
 
Try moving the computer to another room.
Or another house.
Maybe your house electrics is on the fritz and you're smelling the power cable /outlet?
Try a different computer in the same outlet.
 
CuriousMike said:
Try moving the computer to another room.
Or another house.
Maybe your house electrics is on the fritz and you're smelling the power cable /outlet?
Try a different computer in the same outlet.
Click to expand...

Tried moving the computer to a different house - same deal. After about 10-15 minutes, same smell. The socket was a little loose at one point, but I had that fixed already. Tried an older computer in the same socket, and no smell. I even swapped out the power cords on the computer in question, and didn't help.
 
If it's not recognizing one of the RAM sticks, and and you've RMA'd the mobo and PSU and tried a different video card, it sounds like RAM might be the culprit here
 
There is no "easy" button. You can either, 'eliminate and consolidate' using the method I described above or, you can randomly rma/replace components until you get lucky. It's up to you.
 
lehtv said:
If it's not recognizing one of the RAM sticks, and and you've RMA'd the mobo and PSU and tried a different video card, it sounds like RAM might be the culprit here
Click to expand...

I had wondered about that but put it off as unlikely. I mean, does RAM actually fail that often? And as far as I can remember, it recognized all the RAM, no problem, before I RMA'd the motherboard...
 
RAM is one of the most common things to fail. I maintain about 900 servers at work, and I replace RAM more often than anything else, even hard drives.
 
Have you checked the temps the components are running?

At any point, have you cleared out the dust that's surely built up inside that case?
 
Ken g6 said:
Have you checked the temps the components are running?

At any point, have you cleared out the dust that's surely built up inside that case?
Click to expand...

CPU and GPU temps seem to be normal. Have also cleared out the dust more than once - it was one of the first things I thought to check.
 
I have seen a lot of cases of fans that quit runnning after a few minutes of being turned on. Maybe some insulated wire is burning after the components heat up or wire is rubbing next to a fan blade or something. I opend a cas one time to clean it and somehow left the CPU cooler unplugged. I kept wondering, why is this computer running so slowly? It only takes a little but of dust to start slowing down fans and making coolers quit working effectively. Next thing you know your CPU is headed to the Dust grave yard.
 
Quick update for those of you watching...swapped RAM in and out of different slots and was able to confirm that the RAM is good, it's just that a certain slot is not recognizing it for some reason. Researched the issue and apparently it's a long-standing problem with that motherboard and chipset. Have a ticket open with ASUS and a few more suggestions to try from the forums. Saving the fan testing for tomorrow night...
 
I have smelled , I think, every form of component failure, maybe I should make a post describing what smells are what component 🙂

Anyway if it smells sort of like a combination of bleach and vinegar it is a capacitor. The electrolyte is a liquid impregnated paper type material and when heated beyond the limit vaporizes. It can be the capacitor itself, or it can be the voltage regulation letting the volts go too high and shorting out inside the cap.

The way to find it is disassemble everything. That includes removing the cover from the PSU. Sniff around all the cap areas and you will find it.
 
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