POP! BAD BURNING SMELL - :o(

turned on my pc last night there was a loud popping sound and a horrible acrid burning smell. took the cover off the side of it and the smell seems like it is coming from the part you put the kettle lead in. is this part likely to have blown and why did it do it, would it be likely to have affected any other bits, also is it easy to get a replacement and fit it. help and thanks

"the part you put the kettle lead in": is that the power supply?

If the psu is gone, it's no big deal: buy a new one (they're quite cheap).
It could blow up for several reasons: like power cuts, lumpy electricity, dust, et.c. ...

I can't imagine that it would screw up the mobo, but I know someone to whom it happended; so it is possible. I'd start by buying and installing the new psu.

yeah the kettle lead is the main power lead, i always leave the power switched on even if the pc is not actually powered up, could that be a problem at all? just dont want it happening again. cheers though

if u have connected the pc directy to the wall socket maybe there was a current surge or smthng. u may want to get a ups/surge protector to protect ur pc

yeah, it could be a probelm. I do the same thing, but one should really unplug it.

But it sounds like dust or fluid made the thing shortcut (it happened when you turned it on), is it an old comp? Do you have carpets, and is there any chance that something might have gotten into the machine? You could take off the cover and see if there is a lot of dust or anything like that.

yeah i have it on a carpet, it was a bit dusty inside but not really dusty. its about 3 years old. i'll try getting a new psu and a serge protector. any one reccommend a psu i got 2 internal hard drives a dvd burner, cd burner and video/graphics card, not sure if that means i need a certain type which accomodates all that. my budget is about £70 tops. thanks for all your help

anything thats rated above 350 watts should be fine

i saw a review of one and it said something about only having 4 molex connectors. not really sure what they are talking about but should i be looking to get more than that?

A while ago when I was just learning electronics, this guy told me that when you became good enough is when you could identify what blew-up just by the smell. It's kind of funny, but its true.

Best bet is to get a UPS with "Active PFC". Get a new PSU, and somewhere around the 350 - 400 range is perfect and make sure that has Active PFC as well. I usually only get Antec or Thermaltake PSU's, but I heard Enermax isn't bad (I wont use them, but thats what I heard).

I got an Antec 350 Active PFC PSU at Best Buy for like $50. And the BB is usually a rip-off. Except on Monster speaker cable, 100' roll was cheaper than even the internet places.

ive seen those....i wanted to buy some just because they were so cheap

im about to get an enermax noisetaker.. they have excellent reviews. they have fan controllers and everything. you may want to consider them also ... GT500Shlby. i will talk you into them -_-

I looked at them. Untill I see some Oscilliscope graphs I'll pass on them.

I use Antec stuff in all the customer PC's I build, I have built about 60 PC's over the last 3 years and only had 1 power supply failure.

The absolute standard top tier in power supplies are PC Power and Cooling but they are at least 50% more expensive than even the most expensive competing PSU's.

Antec build are the best