that burning smell!

powelly

powelly

powelly

Soldato
Joined
3 Aug 2010
Posts
3,894
hi i just got very worried because of a burning smell

i decided to unlock my cpu to a quad core again, because i reset the bios, next thing i know is there is this horrible burning smell, like when your at a bb'q, i turned my computer off instantly.

the smell has gone now but if i touch ANY heatsinks that are on my motherboard they feel burning but in asus pc prob it says my mobo is at 24C
where it was at 19-20 before.

also the only recent changes i have made is going from a gtx 460 to a 5830....

this is quite worrying and help would be very thankfull :confused:
 
Have a look around the vrms or whatever they're called on the mobo/gfx card, just have a look around to see if there is any scorching, especially around the CPU socket, RAM and on the gfx card.
 
as far as i can see it looks fine to me however it does look like some of the soldering had started to melt around one of the little chip things on the motherboard
 
photo0302.jpg



not a very good pic sorry
 
Can't really tell from that picture, could have been a dust bunny that burned up.. Is the system showing any signs of not being stable ? Try prime and furmark for a while and before you do that just make sure all heatsinks are in place and fans are working. Also make sure no dust or anything that can cause shorting is on the motherboard and other components.
 
system is completely stable... do you think it could have just been the core unlocking that tripped out the chipset's or something?
 
Which motherboard is it you have ? I would like to have a look at a better picture of it and the area you are trying to show, they look like memory vrms to me but not 100% sure from that pic. Also you sure the motherboard didn't short on the case and maybe cause the burning smell, I personally would take the motherboard out and look under it too and make sure all the motherboard support posts are doing their job by keeping the board away from the case.
 
my motherboard is the asus m4a785td-v evo a quick google will find it.
im gonna have a look round back of it another time, cant be bothered right now.

seems to be fine just running abit hot
 
Are you overclocked at all? Or using a board that isn't supposed to support quads?

All of those chips with heatsinks surrounding the CPU are PWM's, and they regulate all the different voltages.

They're supposed to run pretty hot, but they're one of the things that can go pop if you get too excited about overclocking. I'm not sure if it still applies but the "old-school" test was to put your finger on them, and as long as they don't burn your skin, they're fine. I mean literally burn... if they just feel extremely hot, they should be okay.

Cheaper mobo's don't have as many/as good heatsinks on these chips, so their overclocking potential is reduced. I'm just thinking if your board isn't supposed to take quads, putting one in may produces the same stresses on the mobo as overclocking.
 
my mobo's fine to take quads, and i think i won't touch them just incase :p my motherboard has quite a few overclocking features so i think it's fine there as well, but i don't actuly have it overclocked.... don't feel the need.
 
Wow, it looks like you have come close to blowing some MOSFETs.

EDIT: They look like they are dealing with the RAM or NB, it's quite hard to see from this picture.
 
Last edited:
I figured out where it is. At the end of the ram slots. I thought the blue thing was a heatsink.

That's not the PWM's, I've no idea what they do, but it looks like the soldering was a mess to start off with.

I'm changing my official guess to burning dust. ;)


board.jpg
 
hmm burning dust.. i have a feeling that the smell was a bit strong for burning dust though.

my mobo is still 6C higher than it usually is...
 
Did it smell like burning resin or plastic ? also may have been a power cable, check the power cables for scorching .. Also 6c higher ..humm have you got central heating on kinda higher recently because of the cold weather ?

check this

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-p55-motherboard,2436-15.html



also look at the square components labeled R50 on the pics there and check all yours have not cracked or look burned they normally go 1st when any strange power problem happens or overclocking too high and overheating them. They are right above your cpu socket and scattered around the motherboard.
 
Purgatory said:
Did it smell like burning resin or plastic ? also may have been a power cable, check the power cables for scorching .. Also 6c higher ..humm have you got central heating on kinda higher recently because of the cold weather ?

check this

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-p55-motherboard,2436-15.html



also look at the square components labeled R50 on the pics there and check all yours have not cracked or look burned they normally go 1st when any strange power problem happens or overclocking too high and overheating them. They are right above your cpu socket and scattered around the motherboard.
Click to expand...

the r50 things seem to be fine.
i gave my computer a little rest and things seemed to of settled back down now, temps aswell.

i think it was just a bit of a hickup. thanks for everyones help anyway :p
 
The R50 component is a ferrite choke.
(see: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/arti...e-Motherboard-Voltage-Regulator-Circuit/616/1)

MOSFETs have the tendency to heat up when quite a lot of volts are being passed through them without cooling (eg. passive heatsink). Was the vcore left on auto when you unlocked to quad? That could explain the problem as too much vcore is required for the unlock. (probably why it was binned in the first place)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom