Two loud pops - now my PC smells like fish!!

BlackWizard

I was in the room next to my two PCs which are standing side by side when I heard two loud pops. There was about 2min between the pops.

At first I thought it could of been christmas decorations but now there is a bad stench from the PC area. I can't get the smell from any one in particular.

Any ideas what the problem is?

vir7ual

are they still working? if not check the psu's

Stephen

Could be popped capacitors on the motherboard too. Separate them and open up the cases and sniff?

BlackWizard

Both of them are still working.

So I separated them and had a sniff. Got two other family members to take a sniff too. But none of us could get any strange smell from them.

So I took them both into separate rooms and booted them up for 20min. I got no smell at all.

They are both working fine now with no smell at all. I really don't know what to do.

DonkeyRhubarb

Same thing happened my office computer. Had F@H running 24/7 for a very long time. Got a new PC out of it:D

weeder

well the smell of fish is explained bbecause thats the smell melting electrical fittings give you

BlackWizard

Well I think it was coming from the old PC. I keep that running nearly 24/7. I was told that there was a bad smell coming from the PC when I was moving it from room to room to test it.

It's back up running again. So should I just pretend nothing happened and leave it be? I can't afford to scrap it. I presume it will just stop working one day right? It wont explode and light my house on fire? Really don't want that at this time of the year.

Thanks for the replies lads

FruitLover

weeder wrote: »

well the smell of fish is explained bbecause thats the smell melting electrical fittings give you

Eh... no. It's the electrolyte from blown capacitors, as Munch said above.

Dorsanty

Generally when a cap blows it balloons out the sides of the cap. So you actually need to look quite hard to find them.


Be careful. If you running with a blow cap but the electrical connection is still there then there is the potential to spark, and also damage other components in your comp.

You should definitely try to find and fix the bad component. Better safe then sorry and all that.

Capt'n Midnight

Dorsanty wrote: »

Generally when a cap blows it balloons

Bigger ones tend to have groves in the cap so they blow out the top. The top of the capacitors should be flat, not bulged and there shouldn't be any brown gunk on it.

It's a known issue with some PSU's and motherboards - what brand/model

BlackWizard

The old PC has a ASROCK K7S8X motherboard. No idea what PSU though.

The main PC has a Gigabyte 965p-ds3p motherboard and Tagan 700W U-25 power supply.

Snowbat

K7S8X R3? Check for bad Taicon capacitors:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=4525

While Taicon are not one of the infamous capacitor plague companies, a number of Asus and Asrock owners have found bad Taicons on their boards:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=122

Soundman

FruitLover wrote: »

Eh... no. It's the electrolyte from blown capacitors, as Munch said above.

Never got a smell of fish from blown caps before. I would have said it was more like Iron Sulphide or Rotten Eggs.

Anti

Soundman wrote: »

Never got a smell of fish from blown caps before. I would have said it was more like Iron Sulphide or Rotten Eggs.

Agreed.

Just have a look at the motherboard, and graphics/sound card for any marks. Its easiest to see them from the opposite side i find as the pcb is slightly discoloured.

But saying that ive lost many a board/graphics card to a failed cap but i have never heard them. The only ones i have heard is from the psu.

BlackWizard

I had a look in both PCs. Didn't notice anything out of the norm. They are both back up running. I think I'll just play it by year.

The sounds were about one every 20 seconds. Probably heard about 6 of them. But only really noticed the last two because I was near the PC when it happened.

neil_hosey

I had the same problem recently.

You didnt happen to have an open topped fish tank in the vicinity of the PC's did you?