Something in my computer was burning and now it won't turn on.

[DPK]

I smelled something burning and immediately went down to the kitchen to make sure everything was ok there. When I returned my PC was off, so I knew that the smell must have been from there. I can not turn it on now, so I see one of the following as the problem:

1. The fan/heatsink failed and lead to my processor burning out.

2. Something happened to the power supply's wireing whice fried it and made a burning smell.

I can't figure out which one happened though. When I insert the plug into the power supply, the power light on the MB comes on, so it seems to actually be receiving power. When I press the power button on the computer, the headsink fan spins for a fraction of a second, so it appears that it is working properly as well... So what happened???

 

[AmerDoux]

Process of elimination, but it sounds like your power supply box fried. Try replacing that first.

Edit: I had the identical thing happen last year. Mobo's LED lit up, fractional spin but no juice. It ended up being the PS.

GL!

 

[jackschmittusa]

Often a strong burning smell will leave enough evidence to find with a visual inspection. I've seen modems, video cards, and motherboards have a component burn out and cause the no boot problem after the smoke. Pull the cards and inspect them closely, look at the mobo (a magnifying glass and flashlight may help). Until you find out what caused it, I would not leave power to it if you are not in attendence.

 

[deerslayer]

Start pulling cards one at a time. If you pull one and it boots up, you've found the problem. Try different RAM as well. If not, maybe you cooked your processor.

Does the heatsink fan spin for a second then die, or are you shutting it off right away?

 

[filmmaker]

Yeah... I'm had memory/RAM burn out on my before. Be sure to check that as well.

 

[huthut]

It's easier to use your nose. Take out all your components and sniff them across all their surfaces. You should be able to smell where the burn came from.

 

[Unicron80]

You might try your drives as well. I had three, count em, three sony cdrws burn out on me. Somehow, two of them went out at once (was checking to see if a friends old one still worked).

So...try pulling out your drives and booting up. It's probably the last component you check that is the faulty one.

 

[DPK]

Ok, while stateing to perform further inspection I inserted the back plug into the power supply and POP it went, even with sparks. I hope that was the problem.