The Case Of The Smoking Monitor

[artecnical]

Hey,

A little background first. I have been a computer tech for 10 years. I have seen computers die from a small spike in power or a brownout. Also from someone not being properly grounded when working on the interior of the pc.

I have a computer that I built around March, I have had no trouble with it what so ever. I got tired of the big CRT taking up all my desk space.

So here's the goods. I bought a new KDS K717 LCD. I plugged it in. Turned it on and booted the pc. I smelled a faint amount of smoke emanating from the monitor. I assumed it was just burn off from the manufacturing process. Like oil used during manufacture or from the oil on peoples hands. I never got any video. I started checking around on my pc and found that the fan on the video card was no longer working. I turned it off, took out the card, blew off the dust, and then replaced it. I tried to power back up, but the machine wouldn't. I figured out that if I turn off the switch on the power supply, the psu after a few seconds causes the pc to power up. But only for a nano-second. Then I discovered that I could power off wait for the off position power up and then flip the switch to on and the pc would boot. Still without video. I have tested another agp card, still no video. I reluctantly tested the lcd on another machine, and it works with no smoke smell.

I called the KDS Kares customer service number. I spoke with a tech. I explained the situation. He tried to tell me that the monitor could not cause this problem. I tried to explain to him that I have had nothing go wrong with the pc. I also told him the things I mentioned in the first paragraph of this thread. He told me "You know nothing". I found this offensive and asked to speak with his manager. He started stuttering and then had several failed attempts to transfer me before he finally did.

My question to you good people is this. Am I wrong in assuming that the problems were caused by the smoking monitor?

 

[Lord Evermore]

Well, if the monitor works fine on another machine, it's unlikely that it caused a problem with your first one. You also never SAW any smoke so stop calling it a smoking monitor. It is very normal to have a slight electrical burning smell from electronics when they're first turned on. Does the burning smell appear every single time you try to run the monitor on this machine but not on the secondary, or is it gone entirely now? Is the fan on the video card completely dead or does it spin up if you give it a push?

Test another power supply in this machine. Reset the CMOS settings (sounds stupid but it doesn't hurt). I'd say try the video card in another machine, but since it might be where the problem occurred, it might be dangerous.

 

[artecnical]

I didn't intend for this to become a discussion of the properties of smoke. The title was meant to be humorous and possibly attention grabbing, but just like a$$ can be represented in different ways, smoke can have different forms.

Thanks for the help, though I didn't post it for I didn't want to further bore anyone. I have already tried the suggestions of Lord Evermore. Yes changing the psu did allow the pc to boot, but still no video. The fan on the video card does not work no matter which pc I test it in. The monitor no longer smells of smoke. Shorting the CMOS does not alleviate the issues.

My thought process was that it could be possible for there to be a short in the monitor that caused a small amount of electricity to feed back into the computer. The smoky smell could have been the material that was shorting being burned. After a few seconds the material could have burned completely and would have no longer been causing a short.

Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Anything is possible. But with no evidence of malfunction in the monitor, you're not likely to get KDS to do anything. You'd probably have to pay to ship the monitor to them if they were willing to look at it, and if they decided there was nothing wrong, pay them some outrageous service fee and return shipping.

Did the second PSU allow the system to boot (without video) normally, or did you have to go through playing with the power switches to make it work?

Don't suppose you have a PCI video card laying around that you could use to see whether it functions at all, or if the AGP slot is blown.

It's possible your video card just died and took the mainboard with it. Do you know if the fan was working before this problem? It could be coincidence that you plugged in a new monitor, got the normal burn smell and your card died. Or maybe there was some normal electrical thing from the new monitor that usually wouldn't cause a problem, but with a near-failing video card caused it to die. Do you normally shut down this PC a lot or does it run continuously?