Burning smell on new rig

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 13:43

Ok, I'm starting to build a new rig (look in sig) and so far I have the case, motherboard, power supply and HD.

Today I placed the motherboard/PS in the case and hooked all the power cables up etc. Now I know it's working because I tried it - i.e pressing the power button on the case started the case fans up, north bridge fan etc.

My problem is that after approx 5 seconds I could smell a slight burning smell so I switched off.

I didn't think there was a problem powering up a motherboard minus CP etc? Is this smell because it's new? Is it because there's no CPU and fan installed? Have I well and truly busted everything up?

I'm an impatient guy and need to test kit as it arrives, but I hope I've not blown the board etc.

Oh and yeah I have tried it since the burning smell and it does still power on etc (fans working, lights on the MB etc) but after a few seconds the smell appears again.

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 13:55

Thanks for the quick reply. When it was on I smelt the PSU and that seemed fine, it seemed to be coming from the MB more than anything.

The MB was opened and placed straight on the MB mounting screws when I received it. I didn't fart about with it and all the cables seem right (as you probably know you cant really put them in the wrong place nowadays anyway)

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 14:28

Update:

I've tested the PSU on another PC and the smell isn't coming from that, so it must be the MB?

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 14:56

I screwed the riser screws onto the MB plate and then placed the MB on top of the risers, and screwed it down.

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 16:15

Two more points I'd like to add.

The EVGA 680i is a hot board, maybe that's why? a combination of a hot/new board. Also, my case blows a LOT of air about, so maybe that's why I can smell it more as it's not being trapped in the case?

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 16:34

Do you know if the MB can be damaged without a CPU/memory/GFX card connected? I'd have thought it would have just failed the POST. I'm gonna power it up one last time with nothing connected and see if it gets worse. I suppose if it's knackered already, it can't do anymore harm.

Thanks for the replies again.

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 16:49

I'm impatient

The reason I did it was because I did the same thing with an ASRock MB a few years ago and it was fine. Fingers crossed it's ok. The MB lights still come on and the North Bridge fan works, as does the power on via the case button so I'm still not gonna give up on it (by the way I decided not to switch it on again)

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 17:56

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have a look into the screws and see if there's a problem.

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 18:13

No beep. The MB has an LCD to display errors (not sure if this replaces the beeps). Also I have no speaker on the case. Should it still beep without one?

I'll take the board out of the case and try. Is is ok to power on with the MB on the anti-static bag on a wooden desk?

Saxon · 17 Jan 2007 at 19:20

Ok some good news I think. I took out the motherboard and placed it on a cardboard box and turned it on again. There was no smell at all this time. All three lights were on on the MB, the north bridge fan was running as well as the case fans again. The Error code LCD has "- -" written on it, but there were no beeps so I'm presuming all is ok and the beeps aren't there because of the LCD. There appears to be no speaker on the motherboard.

I placed it back in the case and tried it again and there was no smell then either so I'm hoping all is ok? I'll leave it alone for now till I get some more components to test it with.

Thanks to all who helped.