Hi, my computer recently stopped working and there was a terrible smell in the room. When I turned it on nothing would work. I replaced the power unit with exactly the same wattage unit and the computer would appear to supply power to the CPU fan, hard drive etc but would not boot up. Keyboard lights would also light up and the front LED would flash. However, after turning the box on, I could then not turn it off or reset it with the box buttons, so would have to turn it off at the wall. I have also removed all components except the hard drive and one bed of RAM in an attempt to troubleshoot, but still no joy. Have I fried the CPU or motherboard????????
Ragat40, If sandrews suggestions don?t turn anything up you may want to try this as well: If you still have the old power supply see if you can still smell the smell you mentioned. If not your failure may have been a capacitor, short or other failure on your motherboard. Check each capacitor carefully around the tops sides, bottoms and around the base on the motherboard. If that fails to find anything widen your search to the other devices, removing the processor and the underside of the board. The damage may be catastrophic and obvious or it may just be a black or brown scorched area. Let us know what happens and please don?t forget to rate the postings.
Posted on Jan 20, 2007
The burning smell (if it was a fishy type smell) may have come from the mobo psu 21 pin connector where you plug in the psu. The connection may not work properly because of melted plastic deposits which may be why you are unable to turn it off at the switch. Just check the old psu connector for signs of rusting pins and mis-shaped connector. If you have a fairly recent mobo and processor ensure that the power supply doesnt need the power supply from the psu, unlike some processors where the power is taken from the ZIF mobo socket.
Posted on Jan 18, 2007
121 views
Usually answered in minutes!
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately I do not have the old PSU, but the smell, whilst not strong, is still noticeable when the CPU fan starts running, hence why I thought it may be the CPU. I have removed the CPU but could not find anything obvious, but will have another look. I have also removed the HDD and all ram, hoping the motherboard would give a POST error beep on start - but nothing! I will remove the motherboard and have a look on the underside for scorch marks. Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Whilst I am learning, comparitively speaking I am still new to this. Cheers
×