The Smell of Burnt Electronics

[Illiad86]

Already overclocked :P Been stable at this speed for a year almost now (4.0GHz, Phenom II BE quad core)

 

He told me all he did was turn the CPU frequency down and increased the RAM speed a little. He wasn't using that many volts, so the motherboard shouldn't have burnt out at all. Turned out to be the PSU because it still doesn't work on the Biostar mobo. PSU must of shot too many volts through the transistors and killed them. Pretty lame...two parts fried. At least we have a spare motherboard.

 

And this morning my fan decides to die on my GPU cooler :facepalm: Had to rig up an 80mm CPU fan to it. Actually runs cooler with it compared to the fan that was on it before lol. Guess I know what I want for Christmas :P

 

Just a bad weekend for computers :confused:

Edited October 23, 2011 by Illiad86

[TheReverendTholomewPlague]

I suggest the OCZ ModXStream. Mine was £50 (don't know what that is in play money ;))

 

Modular.

Quiet.

Looks pretty...

Runs cool.

[Vindekarr]

Generaly pounds are about 100% more valuable than real money XD

 

Myself, I like the smell of burnt electronics, 'tis the smell of progress, of victory.

[Illiad86]

I suggest the OCZ ModXStream. Mine was £50 (don't know what that is in play money ;))

 

Modular.

Quiet.

Looks pretty...

Runs cool.

 

That's pretty nice. He does want another modular PSU. $75 in play money, just checked on newegg :P Not bad. He's waiting until Friday's paycheck to get it though.

[bben46]

Now that you have smelled it you will never forget what it is. :confused: It's the smell of money draining out of your pockets.

 

Likely a bad PSU caused the MB to fry. My guess - a Voltage regulator transistor or chip in the PSU failed and allowed an overvoltage. Depending on which voltage it was the damage could go much higher. :sad: Both the 5V and 12v feed the hard drives as well as the MB. Your video card probably has an extra 12V supply directly from the PSU.

 

Many stock PSUs in off the shelf computers are underpowered and can barely supply enough power for the stock components that came with the computer. Adding more - especially a more powerful video card can put a lot of strain on them. And because they are cheap, they don't have the built in protection that a better PSU will have. So get a good PSU, it may cost extra, but can save you money in the long run.

[Illiad86]

The one that fried was actually a higher end modular PSU :( But it lasted 5 years...so I suppose he got his money worth. He was using it last week to help diagnose our friend's computer that was having problems. It was turned off and on A LOT...so I'm thinking that might have gave it the push to die. Just wish it didn't nuke his motherboard :(

 

He'll be hunting all weekend most likely, he always does a lot of research on parts before he gets them. Still sucks...50-80 bucks down the drain and still crossing our fingers that the PSU didn't fry his graphics card too.

[Illiad86]

A little update here:

 

On Saturday, he decided to try again. He had the Biostar mobo in his computer and used my PSU. I guess his PSU fried that stinker too :( Shouldn't of turned it on in the first place lol. He though maybe it was his graphics card too, so he tried mine, still nothing.

 

So, he bit the bullet and decided to buy an AM3+ mobo, 8GB DDR3 1600, Phenom II x4 955, and a new PSU. He's keeping his case, HDD, and the 3870.

 

Left us slightly broke until next paycheck (he gets payed every 2 weeks), but he deserves it. His hours have been insane and he's getting mighty sick of the craptop, so yeah :) I'm happy for him, he will pretty much have the same computer as me, except his board will support the newer chips (lucky) and he will have more RAM. He needs something nice after all the hard work he does to take care of us :) Just gotta be a little careful until Skyrim Day (next paycheck).

Edited November 1, 2011 by Illiad86