Where is that burnt smell coming from?

[awolkoff]

To set the scene:

I'm sitting in front of the 'pute, looking at email. All of a sudden, the machine locks up. Nothing short of pushing reset will work to unlock so that's what I do.

Suddenly, a foul chemical smell is noticed. I wonder, "Is this machine on fire?" Power down, unplug, open the case. No smoke, everything looks OK. Being the adventurous sort, I power it up again with the cover open. Boots up just fine, runs fine, all the fans (intake, exhaust, fan on vid card, fan on heatsinks for proc and northbridge) spinning, temp sensors show everything in the green. The smell remains, though less strong. I decide to sniff the exhaust from the power supply--hmm, that's the smell.

So did the ps go south? if so, how can the machine still function? If not that, what?

The relevant stats:
Intel P4/C 2400MHz @ 3100MHz
Motherboard: ABIT IC7-G
Memory: 1024 MB of Corsair TwinX PC3200
Video Card: Prolink FX5900 128MB NVidia GeForce 5900
Hard Drive: WD Raptor 35.0 GB @ 10000 RPMS
Additional Hard Drives: 2 @ Seagate 160gb SATA
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 191T
Optical: Samsung CDRW/DVD SM-352B and Pioneer DVD/RW DVR-106D
Sound Card: m-audio revolution

 

[FishTankX]

My diagnosis

Capacitor blew up and is causing wide swinging voltages on one of the rails, causing havok in your system.

Sollution: Replace or repair powersupply immediatley.

 

[Yanagi]

Agreed. You cannot trusdt a PSU that has some odour coming from it..

 

[RockGuitarDude]

That happened to my celeron 466. Needless to say, it didn't make it.

 

[awolkoff]

Originally posted by: Yanagi
Agreed. You cannot trusdt a PSU that has some odour coming from it..

Heh. My wife forced an evacuation of the lab to avoid chemical exposure.

The PS in question is an Antec true control 550--it does have a 3 yr warranty but I've been hearing lots of stories about Antec stuff not being as good as it once was.

Thanks to all who responded! Now, off to Newegg...

ASW