Puff

[suklee]

So I got home last night and saw my backlit keyboard light on, thought that was odd since the tower had no LEDs on. Pressed the power button and a small cloud of smoke appeared w/ a burnt smell. D: Immediately unplugged everything from the wall outlet.

How do I go about determining which component failed? Specs in sig. PSU the most likely culprit?

 

[Ketchup]

... Pressed the power button and a small cloud of smoke appeared w/ a burnt smell.... PSU the most likely culprit?

It would be for me. Put your nose up to the fan opening and you may still detect the smell. If something on the board burned up, you should be able to see it.

 

[suklee]

Thanks ketchup. I think it is the PSU as I do detect a faint odor, I've already taken the PSU out and packed all the cables into the box. Will take it into the repair center on Monday.

 

[Charlie98]

Just be aware... the power surge generated by the failing PSU may have affected other components including the motherboard, RAM and storage. You may have to do some further troubleshooting after you get a serviceable PSU back in the box... and I probably would just buy a new PSU, not try to repair your current one. It failed for a reason.

 

[MongGrel]

Just be aware... the power surge generated by the failing PSU may have affected other components including the motherboard, RAM and storage. You may have to do some further troubleshooting after you get a serviceable PSU back in the box... and I probably would just buy a new PSU, not try to repair your current one. It failed for a reason.

What he said.

+1

 

[suklee]

Sorry should have clarified, if they determine the psu is broken they'll give me a new one. I hope it hasn't affected my other components

 

[suklee]

They gave me a RM1000 as exchange. Will install and hope machine boots back up...

 

[Charlie98]

Let us know!

Did they test out the old PSU as bad? ...or did they just exchange it?

 

[suklee]

I told them it was smoking and they could still smell it, so they just exchanged it

But it still doesn't boot up. Mobo light turns on for half a second then immediately off... I tried http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2011/may/testing-your-corsair-power-supply to verify the psu is working (just in case). This is with only the Mobo and CPU power connected.

Probably the Mobo is fried?Anything else I can/should eliminate?

Here's the new RM1000:

 

[Charlie98]

Do you have access to another computer you could test your components on? I'm thinking the CPU and RAM, specifically, and maybe even the SSD. Or, alternately, a known good stick of RAM you can swap out to test the mobo (only CPU and RAM installed.)

I'm not real knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, but can a power surge scramble the board BIOS? I'm wondering if you reflash the BIOS you might be able to get the board to restart. I'd hate to see you dump a bunch of money into an older platform, even given the viability of the 2500K chip.

 

[Ketchup]

Did you ever get a beep when the computer booted up before all this occurred?

If you did, and are getting no beeps now, it is probably the board.

If you didn't get beeps before, it is a little tougher, but the board would be the first thing to check, since it is the first thing the PSU comes into contact with. Generally if the board is OK, the fans will keep spinning and the light will stay on.

 

[suklee]

I have an older PC but it's a Q6600 CPU so I don't think the RAM would fit in that mobo. I hope the SSD isn't fried but for now it isn't causing the failure to bootup, the power isn't plugged in..

No beeps at all now ... time for a good bang for buck CPU/mobo combo? If I can re-use the RAM then so much the better.

 

[Charlie98]

I have an older PC but it's a Q6600 CPU so I don't think the RAM would fit in that mobo. I hope the SSD isn't fried but for now it isn't causing the failure to bootup, the power isn't plugged in..

No beeps at all now ... time for a good bang for buck CPU/mobo combo? If I can re-use the RAM then so much the better.

Any current gen mobo will be using DDR3, my concern is the RAM has been damaged, too.

It's worth it to try to find a way to test the 2500K... not only is it still a viable CPU, but it's worth a few dollars on the used market.

No one you know is running a 6- or 7-series Intel mobo system? At least be able to check the RAM and the SSD?

 

[Ketchup]

Up to you at this point .
Here is a decent Z75 board that is at a pretty good price $66.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157304
I am sure some digging could find you something better.

Or you could sell the CPU/Mobo/RAM altogether for "no guarantee" and put it towards something new altogether.

I hope at least your heatsink wasn't damaged. You know, all those delicate pipes!

 

[suklee]

Any current gen mobo will be using DDR3, my concern is the RAM has been damaged, too.

It's worth it to try to find a way to test the 2500K... not only is it still a viable CPU, but it's worth a few dollars on the used market.

No one you know is running a 6- or 7-series Intel mobo system? At least be able to check the RAM and the SSD?

Thought of a friend whose PC I might be able to try my RAM on. I know he has at least a i5-2500 setup plus a newer setup with an 290 video card. I'll also test out the SSD in an external enclosure and hope it's ok... my Bitcoins are all stored on there (I do have a backup but it wasn't recent, may have lost a week's worth of transactions :whiste: - not too bad)

If the RAM does work then something's definitely up with the mobo and/or CPU, I'll have to take out the CPU and mobo and test those individually.

 

[Charlie98]

That mobo Ketchup linked would be a decent board for cheap (actually, that's a steal...) and might be worth a shot. If it doesn't work out and the 2500K is DOA, you would have better luck finding a 3570K to go in that socket 1155 board, and still be able to use whatever is leftover, and not be in bad shape moneywise.

 

[suklee]

at least the SSD appears to be working, I can see the drive from my iMac. Next step, test the RAM / CPU on someone else's machine... will keep you guys updated, thanks for everyone's help so far.

 

[suklee]

I don't know if this is related or purely by chance, but my MacBook's SSD (or even the MacBook itself??) recently started to exhibit signs of failure. A week ago I got the prohibitory sign on bootup but after a few tries I got into OS X. Now it's failing to boot 80% of the time. Don't remember if it started after the desktop psu blew out, but definitely around the same time. Is it possible the power surge (or whatever it was) in one room could be related to this failure? The MacBook was plugged in at the living room, I assume it was powered on to receive any 'electrical' damage?