PC dying...

wyrd

wyrd

wyrd

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21 May 2010
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171
Hi guys, apologies for my first post being a plea for help but i'm at a loss to explain what is wrong with my mum's computer.

It was a budget build that I put together for her 2 years ago so she could browse the web, email etc.

CPU: Intel E2180 (not oc'd)
Mobo: DFI Infinity P965-S Dark
Ram: 2x1GB Corsair xms2
Gfx: nvidia 8400GS
PSU: 470W Coolermaster that came bundled with case.

Last week it started shutting down at random; the first time was after about an hour of use but it has become more and more frequent since - a lot of the time it barely gets past the post screen before rebooting. I noticed a slight burning smell so opened the case up and nothing appears to be overheating, fans are all spinning fine etc.

I assumed the psu was the culprit so I have just bought a corsair cx430 but this has not remedied the problem. I just made it to the desktop but within a minute the pc shut down and the odd smell returned.

Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks for your time, Jon
 
Firstly Welcome to the Forums.

And secondly if there's a burning smell then somethings not going right which could be causing it to keep shutting itself down. Have you installed any recently new hardware? You really need to find the location of where it's burning. It's possible it could be the CPU. Is the CPU cooler working okay? fairly free from dust?
 
I would remove and reseat components (CPU, GPU and Memory) clean any dust from fans etc just incase the dust is stopping cooling to the CPU/GPU.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, fellas.

I haven't added any new hardware until today when I swapped out the psu. When it didn't work I pretty much stripped out the whole system and reseated everything.

The CPU cooler is fine to my knowledge. I haven't monitored temps for ages but I remember it always ran very cool - I never saw it hit 40 during the first few months of it's life. Obviously, due to the almost instant shut down I can't see what they are like over an hour or so now.

Dust isn't an issue as the case is surprisingly clean. I expected it to be full of rubbish but it's spotless.

The gfx card is passively cooled and there is no onboard option to try unfortunately. Would it be worth trying out my card (a gtx 260) instead? I only ask because it'll involve me having to take out my psu aswell (for the second 6pin connector) and ruining my cable management :]
 
Did the old PSU fail? They have a nasty habit of bringing other components down with them.

Do any of the capacitors on the boards look like they are bloated/leaking?
 
That was my initial thought but the problem is persisting with this new corsair psu installed.

I just turned on the pc again and went into the bios to have a look at the cpu temperature - it was fluctuating between 18 and 22. The weird buring smell was present, but seemed to be intermittant (?!) and as soon as I exited the bios the pc shut down as it started to load windows.

Whilst I was in the bios I had the side of the case off and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary with regards to the capacitors. Also none of the heatsinks were hot to touch; cpu, ram and nb were all cool and the gfx and southbridge were a few degrees warmer. Oddly, the burning smell isn't present in the actual case, it is only apparent from the rear case fan...

I'm perplexed.
 
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I believe I had a somewhat similar probelm a few years ago on an XFX 780i board that had a strange burning smell coming from a little yellow loop with copper coils going round it. RMA'd the board, got a new one, and it worked again. I cant remember the cause, but the fact you said you could smell burning reminded me of it. Could be a motherboard problem? Strange how you can only smell it from the rear fan though.
 
I would still try and rule out the Graphics card. It does sound like something is overheating so I would rule out the GPU as you have already checked the processor temps and they are fine.
 
Right, I put my mum's gfx card in my pc and there were no problems, and, no smell!

Do you think it's sensible to assume that the motherboard is to blame?
 
Yeah it would seem Motherboard related indeed. Should be able to pickup a Socket 775 board cheap enough these days.
 
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Have you tried 1 stick of memory at a time too ? try each stick on it's own and see if you have any luck.. but is sounding more like the mobo is dead or in the process of dying. Also try taking the motherboard out of the case and bench test it that way, say on a cardboard box, just to rule out the motherboard shorting on the case somewhere too and to have a look at the back of the mobo to make sure nothing looks burnt at back. Clear the BIOS too while your at it just incase the BIOS has written some bad info to the settings and maybe over volting something or messed up the timings.
 
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Cheers purgatory, i'll give that a bash.

Flying, I did consider it was the fan itself causing the burning smell, but surely the whole system wouldn't reboot as a result?
 
wyrd said:
Cheers purgatory, i'll give that a bash.

Flying, I did consider it was the fan itself causing the burning smell, but surely the whole system wouldn't reboot as a result?
Click to expand...

Only if the fan was somehow drawing so much power that it was tripping the PSU and causing it to shut down so it doesnt take damage, but that would happen at BIOS just as much as loading windows, so i doubt its that, still worth testing, when you build it all outside the case as purgatory said you will find out :D
 
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