Yesterday, I was using windows 7 and got a blue screen which stated, "page fault in non-paged area." After this, I rebooted, and put the computer to sleep. When I tried to wake it up, it wouldn't wake up (nothing would turn on), so I removed the power cord, cleared the CMOS and tried turning it on again. However, nothing turned on, so I decided to short the PWR switch internal headers on the MOBO, but upon doing this, there was an audible "pop" and an immediate strange, almost burning smell (the smell isn't exactly a burning smell, but I don't know how else to describe it); the computer turned even with the "pop" and smell, but I was scared so I pulled the power cord from the back. I then reconnected the PWR switch header again, and my power button was once again working (the smell had gone away and everything). I woke up this morning, played some FSX, and everything was going perfectly smooth. I left my computer sleeping, and the at around 9 PM, I woke it from sleep, and suddenly, the same smell as when the "pop" had occurred came back. The smell became concentrated in the 20 seconds or so it took me to disconnect the power cord from the PSU in order to turn the PC off. I have inspected the insides, and can't find any noticeable signs of damage. The smell seems to be coming prominently from my hyper 212 CPU cooler, so I removed that, but the CPU looks fine. Although the smell is on all parts of the inside of the case, the CPU seems to not suffer from the smell too much, but the cooler itself and the fans have a large concentration of the smell.

 

Does anyone have any clue as to what is happening? I am afraid to connect it again for fear that the MOBO or PSU are going bad, and something might get fried (the power supply, like the CPU, doesn't exhibit too much smell).

 

Edit:

Could I have broken a capacitor by accidentally shorting not only the PWR switch internal header, but one of the headers also? And maybe this broken capacitor is exuding the smell?

Interesting.

 

For starters, my bet is that is that there is a relay on the MOBO popping.  How old is your MOBO, or components in the PC, for that matter? Are there any charred or black marks anywhere on the MOBO?  Can you keep the PC open and on your desk when it is running, or a place where you can instantly look at it when it happens again, to see what it is doing?

 

I had a MOBO that was a few years old and died in the same fashion - I just turned it on one day and heard a pop and I shut the PC down.  I opened the PC up to troubleshoot it for when I turned it on again and when it powered on there was a bright orange glow coming from a relay and, of course, it started smoking the hotter it got.  The MOBO was fried.

 

There is nothing on the CPU cooler fan to "pop".  It is just an electric fan with a wire that is being powered by the PSU.   Another thing to note is that relay's, when "popped", will most likely burn out and not function any longer.  If you have heard multiple "pops" than you've likely blown more than one.  It isn't like a circuit breaker or fuse that can be reset.  Other than a MOBO or PSU, I can't think of any component that could electrically pop, burn and still continue to function.  Most components on a PC either work or they don't.

If you can boot at all, I would use HWMonitor to check the temps of various components and see which are running hot and potentially producing the smell. Remember not to boot with no CPU cooler.

I think you may have let the magic smoke out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke

Interesting.

 

For starters, my bet is that is that there is a relay on the MOBO popping. How old is your MOBO, or components in the PC, for that matter? Are there any charred or black marks anywhere on the MOBO? Can you keep the PC open and on your desk when it is running, or a place where you can instantly look at it when it happens again, to see what it is doing?

 

I had a MOBO that was a few years old and died in the same fashion - I just turned it on one day and heard a pop and I shut the PC down. I opened the PC up to troubleshoot it for when I turned it on again and when it powered on there was a bright orange glow coming from a relay and, of course, it started smoking the hotter it got. The MOBO was fried.

 

There is nothing on the CPU cooler fan to "pop". It is just an electric fan with a wire that is being powered by the PSU. Another thing to note is that relay's, when "popped", will most likely burn out and not function any longer. If you have heard multiple "pops" than you've likely blown more than one. It isn't like a circuit breaker or fuse that can be reset. Other than a MOBO or PSU, I can't think of any component that could electrically pop, burn and still continue to function. Most components on a PC either work or they don't.

What's weird is that the pop only occurred when I tried jumping the internal PWR switch headers, followed by an immediate smell (no visible sign of smoke though). Besides this time, I've heard no more pops, and everything was working fine ever since the pop yesterday. Even today in the morning I played flight sim, and everything ran as usual. Then today at night, (around 8 hours after I played flight sim), I woke the pc from sleep, and the smell came back more pungent then ever.

 

As for age, my motherboard is around 3 years old. I plan to run the pc open as you state, but is there anything I should take into consideration? For example, is whatever causing the smell, harmful? And can I potentially fry my CPU (or any other expensive component for that matter)? Also, what is a relay? Do you mean those black little VRM things by the CPU socket?

I think you may have let the magic smoke out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_smoke

 

If you can boot at all, I would use HWMonitor to check the temps of various components and see which are running hot and potentially producing the smell. Remember not to boot with no CPU cooler.

I will try that tomorrow when home. Again, I'm just afraid something expensive will die. I know if the PSU shorts out, parts can start dying. As for the smoke, should I be able to actually see anything coming out when the smell is being produced? I haven't seen anything these past two times.

In my experience, most likely explanation is a bad PSU. They make an awful stink when they fail.

 

Test the PSU with a meter, or something like the Antec PSU tester.

 

Test the PSU in isolation from the rest of your system.

 

Any capacitors leaking on the motherboard, or anything like that?

In my experience, most likely explanation is a bad PSU. They make an awful stink when they fail.

 

Test the PSU with a meter, or something like the Antec PSU tester.

 

Test the PSU in isolation from the rest of your system.

 

Any capacitors leaking on the motherboard, or anything like that?

There weren't any capacitors leaking that I could see. And I will test the PSU separately and see what happens, although the PSU wasn't really emitting any smell.

I've never come across a pong from a motherboard, but who knows.

I've never come across a pong from a motherboard, but who knows.

What is a pong? Do you mean pop? If so, is it possible that if accidentally shorted not only the internal PWR switches, but also one of the other errors, that I shorted something on the MOBO out?

Take a look at the power switch header. The switch is usually on a small PC Card that has some anti bounce circuitry on it. You make have fried one of the small diodes that make up the circuit.

 

I'm not familiar with the Gigabyte MoBos but I agree that most PC electronics aren't protected by thermal trip breakers except for the PSU which is. Best bet is to open the case and zero in on the origin of the smell and pop. If it's coming from your PSU don' t take any chances and replace it ASAP. Bad PSUs are the number one cause of MOBO fries.

 

Good luck.

What is a pong? Do you mean pop? If so, is it possible that if accidentally shorted not only the internal PWR switches, but also one of the other errors, that I shorted something on the MOBO out?

 

:biggrin: A word we use in the UK for a smell. As in Poo, that pongs!

Take a look at the power switch header. The switch is usually on a small PC Card that has some anti bounce circuitry on it. You make have fried one of the small diodes that make up the circuit.

 

I'm not familiar with the Gigabyte MoBos but I agree that most PC electronics aren't protected by thermal trip breakers except for the PSU which is. Best bet is to open the case and zero in on the origin of the smell and pop. If it's coming from your PSU don' t take any chances and replace it ASAP. Bad PSUs are the number one cause of MOBO fries.

 

Good luck.

I was going to do this, but I took my PSU, started it with a metal pin, and ran a fan off of it. Absolutely no smell came out of it (as was the case when I smelled it yesterday). I then decided to put my PC back together, and connected it up. The top fan and CPU fan still smell strongly of this smell I speak off, but no other part of the PC smelled anymore. The only smell coming out of the PC now is from the top fan, which smells pungently even when off now. Besides that, the PC has been running well, even through a cinebench run and furmark run, so I truly am at a loss. I think I'm just going to continue running it and see if anything fishy occurs. Could it be that something non-important made of plastic melted, thus emitting the smell, and by some act of drastic temperature change, the smell came out again the next day at night (the temperature was normal the morning I played flight sim, but by night, a cold front had rolled in, causing my whole house to be significantly colder than the morning). Maybe that sounds a little crazy, but I don't know what else to think at this point.

:biggrin: A word we use in the UK for a smell. As in Poo, that pongs!

Got you, :biggrin:

From the fan you say.

 

I've not heard of fan bearings emitting a smell, they usually just get noisy. But perhaps you could try swapping the fan. Or running it outside of the case and giving it a sniff... watch you don't chop off your nose though.

Look very closely at the capacitors on the MB.  These are the little round cans.  If the tops are extended or rounded over, even a little, then they've failed or very close to failing.

 

I had a problem very similar to the symptoms you're describing last year, and 10 out of 12 of my capacitors had failed or were swollen and about to fail.

 

The solution to this is a new MB.

 

Good luck.

Yes I suggested capacitors, he said he couldn't see any issues though.