New Computer Build. Smoke! Not Booting?

[snbe82]

Hey guys, first time posting here. I got all the parts to build my gaming computer yesterday, here's what I got:

ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/sAMD
Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Rosewill BRONZE Series RBR1000-M 1000W
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s
Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
LG Black 10X Blu-ray Burner - Bulk SATA

So I get it all together, plug it in and hit the power button and the PSU LED and fan turns and stays on, but the fans, case LEDs, and every other component hooked to the PSU only got power for a split second and then turned off. A few seconds later, the PSU turns off too. After a few hours of unplugging everything one at a time, I'm pretty sure I found the culprit. There was a 4 pin plug that I plugged into the PSU (that did not come with the PSU), that went to a 4 pin molex cable on the other end. Anyways, whenever I unplugged that cable, with everything else unplugged, the PSU started working. I'm not sure why that cable was stopping the PSU from working, but it did. I plugged in a fan, and it kept it going which it would not do before.

So, I plugged everything back up to the PSU, powered it up, and everything finally seems to be working. Every fan turned on and remained on, THEN when I think all is good, I see smoke! It was a small trickle of smoke and I couldn't pinpoint exactly where it came from but I know it was from the bottom area of the case, somewhere near the PSU and video card. I quickly unplugged it, and tried to sniff around to see where the smoke came from. After a lot of component sniffing, I'm pretty sure the smoke came from the video card.

I know this was a horrible idea, but after making sure the PSU didn't smell burnt, I hooked it all back up and turned it on again to make sure it wasn't just my imagination. Everything seems to be getting power, even the fan on the GPU spins. The mobo has LEDs for errors, and the VGA led remains red and no other device LED is lit. I am getting no video signal to the monitor. I have tried resetting the GPU in the other PCI slots, and have made sure both PCIe power cables are connected properly.

I know it seems pretty obvious that the GPU is the problem here, but what I don't understand is what could of caused it to smoke. I have another card on the way in the hopes that it was simply DOA, but do DOA cards smoke?! I'm worried that the GPU is not the issue, and that I'm going to ruin another card by plugging it in. What should I do?? I don't know anyone with a desktop that would be compatible with my GPU or I would see if it works in another system.

 

[squallBK]

Probably you've already thought of this but do you happen to have an older video card lying around somewhere that you could use? Or maybe your mobo has onboard video? I'm just asking because maybe you could use 1 of these 2 methods to see if the video card is indeed the problem.

 

[snbe82]

Probably you've already thought of this but do you happen to have an older video card lying around somewhere that you could use? Or maybe your mobo has onboard video? I'm just asking because maybe you could use 1 of these 2 methods to see if the video card is indeed the problem.

No I don't. I would borrow a friends, but I'd hate to fry it too. I've decided to order a new PSU and a new video card and just RMA both of these. I still don't know what could of caused it to smoke. And no, the mobo does not have onboard video.

I forgot to add that there is no beeping from the mobo either, just the red VGA LED.

 

[Slaymate]

The most likely component to smoke would be your power supply.

 

[snbe82]

The most likely component to smoke would be your power supply.

That's what I thought too, but I'm pretty sure the video card smells like something burned inside of it. Plus, the PSU continued to power everything else (to my knowledge) and the fan on the video card kept spinning. I'm stumped. The new GPU and PSU come in tomorrow, hopefully there will be no more smoke!

 

[MindoverMaster]

The PSU can burn and put out power, just not enough to fully power the system

Did you take off the casing of the GFX card, and look for bust capacitors?

 

[snbe82]

Did you take off the casing of the GFX card, and look for bust capacitors?

No, just because I'm worried that that will void my warranty.

Do you think I should try the new PSU with the old GPU or just wait and replace both? My thoughts are that the only other component that could be failing is the mobo, but it has a ton of LEDs all over it, and they all seem to be working.

Would it help if I took pics of my setup?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Taking of the casing will not void your warranty AFAIK. You would need to take it off to blow the dust out, re-apply grease if needed, etc.

 

[snbe82]

So, I took the case off the video card and couldn't find any blown capacitors. My new PSU came in too, so I put it in along with the old video card, hooked it all up, and turned it on. The good news is there was no smoke, but the bad news is the monitor still did not receive video signal and the mobo still has an error LED for VGA.

Here's some pics:

^ the whole setup, did I do something wrong?!

^ the VGA LED that remains lit, after the others turn on for about a second each and then turn off

^ the bottom of the mobo, which seems to be working fine (which is why I'm hoping the mobo is okay)

The new video card comes in tomorrow, I'm really hoping that it is the problem and not the mobo so I don't have to deal with a third RMA!

 

[Slaymate]

Try moving the video card to the top PCI-e slot.