I think i burnt my CPU, would there be visual evidence?

jamespage17

Distinguished
May 8, 2009
156
0
18,680
I was stressing my CPU when i smelt a burning smell and my PC then shutdown. I have looked at the CPU and it does not look fried in any way.However my PC WILL not boot at all, i simply get a flash of light from my fans and then nothing. Any help would be appreciated. This is Q6600 on a 780i Mobo.
 

SpadeM

Distinguished
Apr 13, 2009
284
0
18,790
Try another good power supply first, chances are that's what's wrong. If not, look for bad capacitors on the motherboard (bloated, leakage or blown)
 

inginerul

Distinguished
Mar 6, 2010
7
0
18,510
Had the same problem... After some intensive CPU/GPU testing, the computer just shut down and it smelled like something got fried.
When I've put in an older PSU, everything worked OK.
If it would be the CPU, video card or RAM, shouldn't you hear beeps when turning on the PC? If there's no beep and still no vent starting to turn or no image on the monitor, I guess it has to be the power supply.
 

No. You need the CPU to run the code that makes the beeps.


Yes. Bad or missing video card or RAM would still generate beeps.


Pretty much, with one exception here. The BIOS can check the interface between the video card and the motherboard. It cannot check the rendering portion inside the video card. So you can hear the single short beep of a successful POST and still not see anything on the monitor.

Keep in mind that you do not need keyboard, mouse, drives or monitor to successfully POST.

Worst case scenario is just PSU, motherboard, CPU, and silence. Without known good parts to substitute, you really have no idea which components are bad.
 

jamespage17

Distinguished
May 8, 2009
156
0
18,680

I have swapped in a different CPU but no luck, i am hopefully going to get my hands on my mates PSU and try that out tommorow. Thanks for the help.
 

TRENDING THREADS