Bad smell - wont boot up

Hey, a friend wanted me to upgrade the memory on her PC, so i did, i fitted another 64mb of memory..... (only an old PC), i turned the PC back on again, and the monitor didn't turn back on from standby, there was no POST beeps, and there was a very strong smell that smelt similar to a bleach sorta smell.... i think its the Power Supply, can anybody confirm this, or tell me what is actually wrong?

im supposed to be fixing it on saturday

thanks in advance
-WildChild

 

Have you tried taking ALL the memory out to see if you get any POST beeps? If you do try just fitting the original memory stick(s) to see if it then works. If it does then try just the new memory stick and then at least that will rule out the RAM as the cause of the problem (unless you installed the sticks together and they are incompatible) But the smell would indicate something probably fried.

 

yah i tried with no memory, just the old memory, just the new memory, and both memory... and same every time

i don't think it would be a memory imcompatability, i don't think that could cause anything to fry, as far as i know the worst case of memory incompatability would just be the PC not turning on

 

Are you sure you didn't bump any plugs, fans, etc., loose!!

Was there smoke...did make sure you didn't drop anything into the tower that could have sorted something out!!??

Did you leave it on long enough for the smell to go away?? (I'm not suggesting that, I was just curious)!!

Was the inside of the case pretty dirty, with alot of dust bunnies in there?? If so...it is possible that when you stuck that new piece of ram in there...you might have crammed a glob of dust down into the slot...then when it kicked on...it burned the dust!!



Roger

 

i don't think i knocked any fans

there wasn't any visible smoke, but the smell seemed worse when stood up, so i think whatever stunk was rising

didn't really take note, but the computer wasn't booting up at all, no POST beeps, and the lights on the front of the case (Power & HDD) weren't lighting up

the dust idea is very possible, but why would that stop the computer from booting up?

 

If you were/are getting a really strong smell from the computer when you powered up; something burned out. Open the case up and sniff around, the smell will be the strongest around whatever burned up. If it was the top of the case, then most likely the PSU burned up.

 

Hi m8 just to recapp,comp was working,you turned off,unplugged,installed memory,plugged back in,pressed power switch computer worked fans spun up but monitor did not come on or nothing happened at all?

 

yeah the smells from the area of the PSU, im seeeeriously hoping it is the PSU though, because i have a couple of spare ones i could give her. would a fried PSU stop the PC booting up?

 

and yeah Ricky thats right, the fans turned on, and nothing happened and there was a strong smell, not sure how to describe it but it was a sorta bleachy smell

 

could be the psu but its uncommon for one to go and its fan still spin up and the timing of it going now is unlikely,have you smelled the ram sticks,specs of the rest of the computer would help too and could you post the exact specs of the ram you installed all the sticks and the latencies written on the side,very poorly matching sticks can blow the memory controller on the motherboard

P.S yeh that smell is universal smell of pcb board burning,some hate,I love it,I guess after this you will be a hater

 

yeah its kinda nice smelling, but under the current circumstances it feels like the worst smell on earth...

i don't have the specs with me, but i smelt the sticks of ram immediatly after i shut it off and there was no smell, i tried sniffing random parts and the only strong smelling area was round the PSU. im not sure if the PSU fan was still running, but the others we're.. however i noticed after a few seconds after the first bootup, the fans seemed to slow down, they were still running though... it never did this again

 

What you could try is to take the psu out of the box into another "clean smelling"room,on the main plug that fits into the mobo get a paperclip,bend it it into a U and stick one end into the hole with the green wire and one into any black wire,this will trick it into thinking its been turned on "totally safe",let it run for a few mins then smell it,you could also use a testmeter to test the voltages

 

yeah i woulda used a multimeter but the pc aint at my house

 

so you think its PSU?

 

So far all you have said is the fans spin up,theres a bad smell and the computer doesnt come on,the only thing I can do is guess,it can be any part in the computer,I have given ideas of what to do,now you have to start doing the testing to narrow it down.

 

thanks for all your help, it turned out that it was the PSU

 

No problem,Howd you find out?,also if its really old it may not be an atx spec psu.

 

it Is an ATX.

and i found out because i removed the old one and sniffed near the fan vent and it stunk of the bleachy smell, so i fitted a spare one i have and just fired it up with no memory or drives etc, and the lights lit up on the front and no bad smell, so i slowly attached everything else and its all working now