Yeah, when I was testing out my PSU, I connected a couple of fans, and the top case fan was emitting that smell like always (PSU wasn't of course). As for the capacitors, they all look the same to me. Maybe I just have an untrained eye? But, the capacitor argument seems logical, as maybe one or a couple of those blew when I accidentally jumped the internal front header switches. There are two capacitors I saw which look slightly larger than the other ones, but I don't know if that's by design, as they look proportionately normal (by which I mean, they don't look as if they have been stretched, bulged, etc.). And, I've seen pictures online where another sign of bad capacitors is that they start leaning towards a side; frankly, though, they all look like that to me haha.

One question: if the problem is one or multiple capacitors (which makes the most sense to me at this point), and one of these eventually blows, eventually dies, or whatever they do, will they take any other of my components with them? Or is a blown capacitor more local in effect than, say, a short circuited PSU?

If the fan smells burned even when off, it's pretty likely you have a bad fan.

 

Try replacing it...they're cheap, and it's a good idea to keep a spare around anyway.

 

Regards

If the fan smells burned even when off, it's pretty likely you have a bad fan.

 

Try replacing it...they're cheap, and it's a good idea to keep a spare around anyway.

 

Regards

I was planning on doing that, but strangely enough, my computer has been working perfectly the past few days (not even the fans smell bad anymore). Strangely enough though, I just had an incident with my microwave where I heard a loud electrical "pop", followed by the exact smell that my PC emitted, although not as widespread. Maybe the two are connected? I've always had weird electrical phenomena in my house, such as circuit breakers going off, random power surges, etc. so I'm having an electrician check out the electricity of the house to see if anything is up.

Do you know...

 

yesterday, I switched my comp on at the wall, and what did I hear... a strange pop/crack noise. I'm not kidding.

 

All is well though. It was a new socket I fitted a few months ago.

 

And then this very morning... my toaster tripped my consumer unit RCD.

 

They say the sun is unusually quiet, we should be seeing maximum sun spot activity and max electrical disturbances, instead solar activity is diminishing faster than seen before. Some suggest another Maunder minimum is on the way.

 

Some kind of super weird, yet to be discovered solar phenomenon that's zapping our electrics?  :biggrin: Paradoxically low solar output but max EM interference, probably cause by aliens.

Do you know...

 

yesterday, I switched my comp on at the wall, and what did I hear... a strange pop/crack noise. I'm not kidding.

 

All is well though. It was a new socket I fitted a few months ago.

 

And then this very morning... my toaster tripped my consumer unit RCD.

 

They say the sun is unusually quiet, we should be seeing maximum sun spot activity and max electrical disturbances, instead solar activity is diminishing faster than seen before. Some suggest another Maunder minimum is on the way.

 

Some kind of super weird, yet to be discovered solar phenomenon that's zapping our electrics?  :biggrin: Paradoxically low solar output but max EM interference, probably cause by aliens.

:LMAO: Seems like a reasonable explanation.:LMAO: