Hello! I need some help to try a problem with my friends computer. I think it is like 4 - 5 months ago I did help him to put it together and the machine have worked flawless. But today it started with the screen went black and then it started to smell really bad from the pc. So we did turn everything off and opened the case to see and try to find where the smell come from and we think it is somewhere close to the cpu. So we waited and later we did try to see if it would start again and it did but only for 1 min and now it wont start anymore. If I remember right he have: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 Gainward 8800GT CORSAIR TX 750W What is the best way to find what can be the problem here?
Check the board for physical damage such as burn / char marks. Check around the mosfets and cap things, one of those could have overheated and ruined the motherboard. Any way you can check the components on another pc to make sure they are still stable and in working condition?
use your nose and find the strongest source of burnt electronics inside that case, dont go nuts tho those fumes arent go for you! generally things like this is down to a PSU failure, but have a good look around!
Thanks for the tips guys. Did take a quick look on the motherboard and didn't find any burn/char marks, will take a closer look later. But I maybe think I find the source to the problem. The Cooler Master Dominator CM-690 case have the power supply mounted in the bottom of the case. So I did flip the case to look at the air intake and it was covered with a tick layer of dust, no air going in here . I have Corsair HX 520W that I use in my "project art" (that I hope can start build on again soon) do you think I can use it on his pc to see if it is the psu that went dead, without risking to destroy my psu?
okay did switch out the psu and the pc wouldn't start. So did a try with the old one again and it did start but whit a big snap from somewhere around the cpu or the gpu. Then it starts to boot and ask to star in "normal mode" or safe mode. After you pick one of them it just give you a black screen. I cant understand why it woudnt start whit the other psu or way it wont start after you choose safe or normal mode. Anybody have some idea?
id say its the gpu myself, if you have another gfx card laying around try putting it in and testing it. If this doesnt help its probably going to be the mobo.
Haven t try the gfx yet, manged to get it to boot with the other psu but only to where you see windows loading and the it restarts. Did also try with another hdd and exactly same there. And now it have some strange noise coming from the cpu or gpu, close to the 4-pin connector on the motherboard.
hmmmm, check the cpu fan. If its failing such as bearings going out or the such the cpu could be overheating.
AMD's are really power hungry, IIRC the flagship models have a TDP of 140W which is a real lot. Some mobos might not support that much.