Pop goes my CPU?

[imcavebear]

I turned my computer on this morning. Heard a weird pop and then smelled smoke. I promptly turned it off and unplugged all the power cords, etc.

Most of what I found online points to a power supply problem. I went to the corsair website and the troubleshooting recommended testing the PSU, so I did and it does still run.

Should the PSU still be replaced? Or is there something else that could be the problem?

Thanks!

System info:
Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Zalmann fan/heatsink

ATI Radeon 5750

ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V

ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Model DRW-2014L1T

 

[tougas]

check out all of your circuit boards, MB and gpu and look for any scorching. you may have blown up a capacitor or resister, how old is your equipment?

 

[imcavebear]

I do not see any evidence of scorching. The capacitors look fine to me... one seemed like it might be not sitting quite straight, but I'm not sure.

 

[imcavebear]

And I forgot - except for the CPU and fan/heatsink, the computer is almost 4 years old.

 

[smorizio]

use your nose...you should be able to smell where the smoke came from. most time pops are from the power supply caps when they fail. i would use a flash light and look inside the ps to see if there any goo that leaking.

 

[imcavebear]

use your nose...you should be able to smell where the smoke came from. most time pops are from the power supply caps when they fail. i would use a flash light and look inside the ps to see if there any goo that leaking.

The smell is most definitely worst from the PSU.

 

[smorizio]

then i would start an rma with the ps comp if you think the unit is still under warranty. if not i would replace it with a know good brand.

 

[imcavebear]

What are good brands?

Edit - found the list in the forums.

Should my data on my HD be ok?

 

[hunter315]

Its hard to tell if a PSU took anything with it until you get a functional PSU in it, and if the PSU smells funky it is definitely the culprit. It can blow a filter cap and still run fine but it would put out really noisy power to the system.

I don't think the 650 TX has been out long enough to be out of warranty so you should just be able to get a warranty replacement for your unit. Random bad capacitors happen, they are very rare but they happen even from the best suppliers.

 

[imcavebear]

it's 4 years old, so yes, it's technically under warranty, but I don't want to wait a week or two to have my computer running again...

 

[tougas]

well unless you have a walkin pc shop or like to pay for over night shipping youll be waiting either way. but an rma is cheap if not free a new psu however, is the opposite

 

[smorizio]

some comp will do advance replacement with a credit card as a deposit if you dont return a dead power supply. or you can use the replacment ps as a back up. just leave it in the box and use it as a test ps.

 

[imcavebear]

My husband brought home a new PSU last night, I plugged everything in, started up the computer and got a BIOS error code. Looked it up - computer is not recognizing a video card. So I took the card out in order to clean and reseat it per the instructions - on close inspection I found a black mark on the back of the card near one of the little flat boxes on the card. Probably why it doesn't work. :/

 

[smorizio]

looks like the ps took out the video card or the video card failing took out the power supply.hopefully for you that the only part that took a hit.