Strange Smell and Pop from Machine :s

[Shane]

Yesterday about 5 minutes after turning on my computer and logging on to the internet, i heard a strange pop from the pc, some dust appeared to come out of the back and a bad smell came off it too, i shut it down soon after but it was still working. I dont really want to turn it back on incase something happens, but i dont know if anything has broke down because it was still operating when this happened.

My Specs:

MSI Motherboard (dont know model)
AMD Athlon 2700+ XP
60gb 7200rpm HDD
256mb pc 2100 ram
gf4 ti 4200 128mb gfx card

Thanks for any help

 

[d94]

you probably blew something out..
So i would start checking your components to see what is not working..My gues would be the powersupply or the mobo

 

[CrashAbbott]

Ohhh Yaaa!!!

Burn Baby Burn!!

I wouldnt even turn it on again,, I would remove my most costly components first,,,

Like above, I would say PWS or Capacitor

Look to spend some $$$

cheers,

 

[Shane]

Strange things happen... my dad opened up the case, there was some dust which was cleared, booted it up and its working fine, no signs of burns, i forgot to note the smell wasnt burning, but it was strange and strong.

Whatever happened its working (for now anyway )

 

[RyanOldw83]

Computer burning smells different from regular burning.. It's stinkier

 

[ADZ]

be lucky it wasnt a subway sandwich. I was doing some volunteer work for local highschool and i opened a machine up and a sandwich was in it. along with bag and plastic knife and fork.

There was a funky smell....

 

[RyanOldw83]

I used to know a dumbass that shoved food and wrappers in his computer...

 

[mrdinkel]

Maybe that was your compensation for volunteering.. a subway sandwich could bring up to three dollars in Afghanistan.:amazed:

 

[Shane]

Im sorry MicroBell but could you explain what i need to check because Im not sure what your talking about (im clearly not as clever as everyone else round here )

 

[zerozero]

You might have been lucky and just had some dust which created a short inside your PS and once cleared everything went back to normal.
Do as microbell say and carry out a very good visual for any signs of burnt marks or leaking capacitors on the mobo but also inside your PS.
If one of your voltage regulator in your PS has been damaged, you might cause more damage to other components on the long run.
How dusty was your computer? They should be cleaned from time to time (specially around fans) as dust will prevent some system cooling.