I smell burning :|

Sweey · 18 Jul 2006 at 10:51

I was using my computer last night:

Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe
Athlon64 x2 4800
2GB RAM
XFX GF 7950
2 hard drives
2 optical drives
CoolerMaster Centurion 5
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
Akasa Amber 120mm Fan

And got a whiff of the lovely smell of burning. The CPU was reportedly at 49C and the motherboard at 53C (regular temperatures for me at load) and I'm not overclocking. I'll be looking in the case when I get home to see what's happened (the CPU was running fine when I switched it off and showed no ill-effects).

Aside from some lovely flying insect hopefully getting burnt to death can anyone think of what was producing the smell? I wasn't stressing the computer out at the time, only browsing the internet. Further to that, are there any easy steps for me to take to reduce the temperature? I don't have enough room to fit a second Akasa Amber 120mm fan although I did touch the top of the case and it was clearly warm (which concerns me).

I've got the option to switch to another case which has a good vent at the top for hot air to escape - does that sound like it will benefit me well?

Any help will be much appreciated. Hope I'm not asking stupid questions :eek:

EDIT: It might help for me to add that once the computer was off, the smell didn't hang around too long.

Mr Mister · 18 Jul 2006 at 10:52

what psu are you using?

Sweey · 18 Jul 2006 at 10:53

Mr Mister said:
what psu are you using?

Seasonic 600W

Mr Mister · 18 Jul 2006 at 10:54

hmmm. What were the temps like on the gfx cards? I bet they can get seriously hot.

Sweey · 18 Jul 2006 at 10:57

Mr Mister said:
hmmm. What were the temps like on the gfx cards? I bet they can get seriously hot.

That I don't know. How would I find out? (that sounds like a stupid quesstion now)

I've only been using this setup for about four weeks and though I've had these high temperatures, I am yet to experience any graphical issues or system hangs.

Mr Mister · 18 Jul 2006 at 11:09

in the nvidia control panel there is a temperature monitoring tab. Right click on the logo in your task bar then go to nvidia display, then select your monitor, then click the temperature monitoring tab.

Are you sure the smell was from your pc and not toast burning or something?

Sweey · 18 Jul 2006 at 11:11

Mr Mister said:
in the nvidia control panel there is a temperature monitoring tab. Right click on the logo in your task bar then go to nvidia display, then select your monitor, then click the temperature monitoring tab.

Of course!

Will have to check that tonight or tomorrow - I'm not entirely comfortable switching it on until I've looked inside the case and while I'm at it, I might as well try the other case as I know what my usual temperatures are and can compare.

Are you sure the smell was from your pc and not toast burning or something?

Definitely as at first I thought it was something downstairs in the kitchen and when I found it wasn't, went back to the computer and went sniffing around the vents of my case.

Mr Mister · 18 Jul 2006 at 11:15

Whats the other case? The coolermaster is quite a good case for cooling as it has 2 x 120mm fans doesnt it?

Sweey · 18 Jul 2006 at 11:24

Mr Mister said:
Whats the other case? The coolermaster is quite a good case for cooling as it has 2 x 120mm fans doesnt it?

It has smaller ones if I remember correctly, think they're both 80mm - took the rear one out and replaced it with the 120mm akasa fan. Couldn't see how to remove the front one (without a lot of work). The other case is more of a generic one but has as many grills/vents as the Coolermaster plus a long one on the top. The temperature toward the top of the Coolermaster case and the fact I could feel it was warm was something I wasn't expecting - might always be like that and I've just never checked.

ted34 · 18 Jul 2006 at 19:37

Did you leave the oven on in the kitchen?

Sweey · 18 Jul 2006 at 20:19

ted34 said:
Did you leave the oven on in the kitchen?

There was nothing on in the kitchen and I smelt the vents/grills on the case and the smell was coming from inside which I've already stated

It is fine today - still giving lovely high temperatures but no smells and nothing seemed damaged or disturbed inside the case.

oceaness · 18 Jul 2006 at 20:35

All fans seriously dislike high temperatures. GPU fans are small and tend to fail very quickly because the GPU gets so hot. Hence you should oil your fans every so often

I smelt burning and I found the fan on my Ti4600 had stopped.
Older graphics cards don't have temperature sensors so I had no idea what was hot.
Graphics card still works lovely with the WaterChill kit though

OV3RCLOCK3R · 19 Jul 2006 at 04:20

Same thing happened to me last night. Was playing CSS and smelt something burning. Yanked the powercord out the back and when opened the case, Saw the inverter was all melted and thats where the smell was coming from.

Thank god everything else is fine, Changed the inverter and the lights still work perfect

ted34 · 19 Jul 2006 at 10:19

OV3RCLOCK3R said:
Same thing happened to me last night. Was playing CSS and smelt something burning. Yanked the powercord out the back and when opened the case, Saw the inverter was all melted and thats where the smell was coming from.

Thank god everything else is fine, Changed the inverter and the lights still work perfect

Bloody heatwave - heard a motorcyclist was killed after he skidded on some melted tarmac 2 days ago

meaz · 20 Jul 2006 at 02:27

i had a strange burning smell when a moth flew into the fan on my graphics card (in a caseless pc) and the fan had almost stopped going around. The moth didnt look too happy with all its bits everywhere when I had scraped the fan out lol

Skiddley · 20 Jul 2006 at 12:33

Random question but do you have a CRT? It's quite common for dust buildup on the tube to make a burning smell.

Sweey · 20 Jul 2006 at 13:10

Skiddley said:
Random question but do you have a CRT? It's quite common for dust buildup on the tube to make a burning smell.

Me? Nope.

meansizzler · 21 Jul 2006 at 04:56

open it up, start smeeling all your fnas, eg, gpu/cpu/psu you should be able to get s trong burning smell form it, also check your southbridge and northbridge chipset as they may have burned out, my southbridge did...