Foul Smell

[TooTay]

Hello, my brothers PC recently started giving off strong burning sort of smell, as of yet i have not been able to determine where it is coming from. I do know it is not the power supply as i put a brand new one in today and i know it is not the heat sink and fan as i fitted a new one today also.

The CPU is not over heating according to the bios (but the smell seems to be very strong there, everything else seems fine.

I am guessing the mother board (so old i don't think it has a name) is kaput. Windows will load fine and all but the smell gradually gets stronger and stronger and to avoid being killed by the accumulating poisonous fumes i must switch the pc off ! Reading what i have written i am pretty sure its the mother board, please post any thoughts you may have.

Thanks for the assistance in advance.

[mike_w]

Did the smell start before you put in the new PSU and heatsink and fan?

[directhex]

check the capacitors on the motherboard for discoloration or volcano-shaped tops. there is a known issue with KT133-era motherboard capacitors failing after a few years

[TooTay]

Found the problem Thanks Hex.

[Applecrusher]

What was it?

[Lexeus]

Gonna keep us in suspense ?

[directhex]

if that's the problem, either get a new mobo, or go to maplins & start warming up the soldering iron

[SilentDeath]

hmm ive got a computer im setting up for my uncle and when it arrived (my other uncle cba to set it up) i noticed a few of its capacitors were leaky but it still works fine. Any chance these capacitors would explode (in which case ill change them to aviod damaging other stuff) or would they just smell and proably cause stability problems under load?

[TooTay]

Hehe it was the capacitors, and i bought a new motherboard to solve the problem

[LayZeh]

didn't really solve it did you, you just took the rich mans way out, imo you should of gone to maplins and got your soldering Iron out just for the fun of it, it would of been a learning experience and you'd of had a sense of achievement once done nevermind though maybe next time.