whoisKeel

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Jan 21, 2006
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Hi, new to the forums, but I've found the articles very insightful in the past. There doesn't seem to be too many troubleshooting threads here, so I hope I am not out of place. I also posted this on computing.net, but I often find that my threads get lost there.

Here's the whole story:

A few months ago I noticed one of my power supply fans seemed to be rattling. I figured it was a bearing going bad because it is an Axio (el cheapo), but the fans kept kicking so I ignored it and it went away.

I've gotten 2 BSOD "kernel stack inpage error" within the last 4 days. Also noticed a sort of electrical smell, very intermittent. CPU/System temp fine in BIOS.

I ran chkdsk /f which found errors and I hope fixed them. I'm thinking this was the cause of the BSOD. Also the event viewer lists my hardrive with warnings and errors (times matching those with BSOD):

"An error was detected on device DeviceHarddisk0D during a paging operation."

"The device, DeviceScsihpt3xx1, did not respond within the timeout period."

I've yet to run the Maxtor disk check (the one you have to boot the cd for). I will tonight.

I have to doubt the hardrive making a smell, so this evening I took everything apart for a good old cleaning. I took the power supply out first, and when I did a piece of hot glue fell out onto the motherboard. I shook the power supply until 2 more pieces of hot glue fell out. 3 total.

What the heck? I'm inclined to think it's the hot glue making the smell now. But hot glue in a power supply? Does that sound right? Also, could that be the cause of the rattling awhile back? Should I buy a new power supply?

Axio 480W Switching power supply
Maxtor 40GB 5200
Abit KX7-333R
1800+
512MB PC3200
yada yada

Thank you.
 

weilin

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Hot glue when cooled makes good insulators so they sometimes do use them in powersupplies around capisators/etc to prevent static. now if they are falling out.. thats also not a good sign. the smell isnt good either. Do yourself a favor and get another.
 

krazyIvan

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Jan 6, 2006
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It may have been used to hold the can style (Aluminum Electrolytic) capacitors in place before soldering. I wouldn’t normally except it to come off like that, look at the caps and see if they look like there bulging.
 
G

Guest

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The hot melt is used to hold floppy components in place. It is very plastic like electrically meaning it is high resistance and won't short things out electrically. It does get a bit stinky when it is hot. I wouldn't guess loose pieces will cause much problem unless they interfere with some airflow or something. Your crashing problems are most likely not related to the loose chunks of hot melt in my opinion.
 

link75

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Jan 14, 2006
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Totally agree with kewton.

Even though nothing should be losse from your PSU and you use a cheap PSU at your own risk(good idea to change it now). your problems are not from the PSU, maybe the smell was from it as the loose glue maybe shifted to rest on a hot componebt and melted to give a smell .

These symptoms are indicative of hard disk problems. turn on S.M.A.R.T monitoring and check the status.
 

rantonrave

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Aug 11, 2005
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Hot glue when cooled makes good insulators so they sometimes do use them in powersupplies around capisators/etc to prevent static.
. Glue is used for holding large or heavy components in place and has nothing to do with the prevention of static which, by the way, requires materials that conduct electricity slightly, not absolutely perfect insulators.

Measure voltages with a meter and under normal loads. I'm not familiar with Axio, but if it's a bad brand, replace it with one made by Fortron. I seriously doubt you need anything close to 480W (or that the Axio can put out anything close to 480W), and a high quality 300W supply should be more than adequate.