Computer producing plastic smelling smoke=not good

[Mr. Switch]

i had the exact same problem that you are having statejon. on my old 450 Celeron, i turned on my computer and i started to hear a sizzle noise, saw smoke fill the room, and the smell of plastic in the air. my PSU melted and the cable that plugs into the psu got melted to the psu (burned my hand pretty bad while i was franticly pulling out the melted cord that looked like stringy black cheese). just replace your PSU and you should be fine. you also want to check other components that plug directly into your PSU, there could of been a surge of power that could of broken those components. it sucks, i know how you feel.

 

[VIII]

9 pounds for a PSU, am i mistaken or is that kinda cheap....

 

[statejon]

So I buy a new PSU;

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=86751

It arrives today, I screw it in and plug everything in, then knock on the power at the mains. I hit the power on the front of the case and... nothing. Ive checked every connection. When I knock the actual PSU off, I hear a slight 'zzzap' sound, so I'm pretty sure power is getting to the PSU. ANOTHER faulty PSU? or has my motheboard bitten the dust...grrr


I'll probably take it to a shop soon, I can't deal with the frustration trying to do it myself!

 

[smileygladhands]

firewire gives power to any device plugged in. the extra power drawn from the PSU was obviously too much for it

lesson to learn: never go cheap on PSU's
you will need to get another PSU to replace your now dead PSU
I would suggest an Antec, Enermax or Thermaltake, with 420W

Hmm.. I don't know.. sounds like short somewhere. When something draws power - USB, Firewire, Fan - It can't draw what's not available.. so the lack of power would only cause loss of power, maybe localized or maybe systemwide.
May have been cheap wiring that was going to go soon but that small request for power put it over the edge.

 

[Alvin.C]

Re:

Hello,

By the way...terrible tragedy :amazed: ...

Perhaps a wise thing to do is first remove all uneccessary hardware, internal and external. That way you won't risk enforcing any possible damage, or any further damage to unknowingly broken equipment. Also, you can focus on the real, system dependant hardware.

So just leave your GFX Card in, RAM, Hard Drive and CPU. Remove everything else, including any optical drives.

Ok, the next thing to do is check to make sure that the voltage selector switch is set to the correct UK voltage (probably is, but if it wasn't on your first boot then doom).

Try booting the system again, with just the bare setup. Standby the power switch!!! But not too close...or you might not be able to respond to this thread! If the system is not booting still, then try the following...

Boot without your HDD plugged in. So no molex connector or IDE cable. If your system still doesn't budge, try resetting the BIOS CMOS chip. Try again...:grind: (few)...

Nothing!? Still!!?? Then it's either your Motherboard, Graphics Card, CPU or RAM. Check to see if your CPU is fried!!! Any black, brown marks, melted PLASTIC..? You might need to re-apply thermal paste after a positive inspection.

Still no success!!!??? Umm....ok try alternating between just one DIMM of RAM (i dunno...an idea maybe!?). Inspect those too!

If still nothing, blank, dead...Then I suspect your Motherboard. But then it could be your graphics card or CPU. Only way to tell is by testing with other hardware components.