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Computer issue, strange smell and comp won't turn on

H

Hoyt5String

Junior Member
So I left for X-Mas break about a week ago, and my roommate calls me the next day and says my computer won't turn on. He pressed the button and nothing happens. So I thought simple enough, a power supply problem, I'll just get a new one when I get back in to town.

So I got back last night and I plugged the comp in for shits and giggles, and it turns on and works fine for about 10 minutes. Then I start to smell this wierd smell...it wasn't really a burning smell, kind of like an aeresol smell or something...I looked down at the fans and there was this white stuff around the grating on the outside. Then the computer just cut off and wouldn't come back on.

I called the company I ordered it from and they said that they could send out a new motherboard and psu and I could replace both of them and see if that worked. The thing is, I don't want to go through the hassle of replacing my motherboard unless I absolutely have to. So I'm wondering if anyone here has had a similar problem or something.

My system is:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
1 gig of ram,
Asus K8V SE motherboard
Radeon X800 pro
200 gig harddrive
dvd rom
dvd rewriter
Raidmax 268 ATX Mid-Tower Case w/350W Power Supply Black

Thanks for any help. =)
 
i've heard of sleeve bearing fans blowing out and spraying white dust on the inside of the case, but not actually causing serious damage. have you opened the case at all to check it out?

maybe try unplugging the extra fans.. maybe one shorted out. do you have another PSU to try?
 
I looked inside and there is a little bit of the white residue on the processor fan...don't know if that tells you anything. I have another psu in an old Dell (what I'm using right now), it's about 3 and half years old...not sure if that would work or not.
 
well if you CPU fan failed then your CPU may have cut itself off from overheating. Hard to tell. i take that back it wouldn't have run for 10mins without the fan. Does it post at all when you hit the power switch? what happens? A 3 year old PSU will not power an AMD64 unless it was a monster when you got it.
 
I just turned it back on and it did the same thing...right after it cuts off nothing happens with the power when I try to turn it on. All the fans seem to be working fine, even the CPU fan. CPU temp was about 27 degrees C when it cut off I think...though it's hard to tell because I was looking at this screen when it did it. Could the cpu be fried?
 
you saidn it did the same thing? it powers on and runs for 10mins? if it's running for 10mins like before then i assume it's posting and your OS is loading, which means it's not the CPU. Random shutoff like that could be the PSU tripping voltage limiters, or the mobo or you're CPU could be burning up and trying to save itself by shutting off. The white dust on you CPU fan is really odd tho you say alittle bit of dust... is this from another source or is it concentrated on the Heat sink fan only. you do mean "white" dust and not "normal" dirt dust, right? you're 100% sure the CPU fan is running?
try going into the BIOS if it boots and checking the voltages from there
 
Yeah, the cpu fan is running, as well as the psu fan and the two fans at the bottom on the side panel. Yeah, it was running for the whole time I think.

I'm having the company I ordered it from send me a new psu, mobo and cpu. Hopefully that'll work when I switch them out.
 
Right I was just trying to avoid the pain of putting in a new mobo...but yeah all the parts are free since it's under warranty. Hopefully just replacing the psu will solve it...but even if I have to change out the mobo I won't have to send the whole damn thing back and have it take god knows how long.

Thanks for the help though. 😉
 
just had a powersupply burn out on a relative, it left a nasty smell and surprisingly it took out the harddrive also. Just run the process on it!
 
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