theboy

Hey just joined the site...Looks like a ton of good material.

WEll I will get straight to the point.

Tonight I built my first PC ( Or at least tried to) And thought I have everything connected. Powerd the unit on and smell something funny. No longer then10 seconds later my cd-rom/dvd-rom combo drive is smoking. white smoke everywhere. Im frantic and cannot figure where the power button is because ( Im really tired and shouldnt have done this tonight in the first place....ahh) So everything is unplugged right now & my room is a terrible smell of burnt plastic.

Now I really hope someone can tell me what I did wrong....YES YES laugh all you want, Hey im a new to all this and am a bit cocky.

Thanks to anyone that can help.

34erd

We're going to need your spes before we can help you. Questions 101

Did you use a molex conector that split off from another fan? That can cause problems.

Also unplug components not needed to boot (CD drive, floppy, hard drive) and see if it boots properly.

Oh and did you remember to place standoffs?

__________________
DFI Lanparty UT nF4 SLI DR
Athlon 64 3500+ Venice
1 Gig OCZ VX DDR500 DDR
BFG GeForce 7800GT
160 Gig SATA HDD
CD-RW DVD-ROM
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Thermaltake Tsunami

theboy

Hey thanks for the fast reply 34erd.

AMD athlon 64bit
gigabyte technology
512mb ddr400 ram
76gig IBM hard drive (set on master)
cd-rw/dvd-rom combo drive (set on master)


Now I am a newbie here as posted eariler.
I am currently using the 300watt power supply that came with my case...there is some sort of splitter that is connected (power) to my cd drive and is also connected to my system fan....I think that may be the case.

what is a standoff??? please help.

Right now i am going to unplug the drives...good idea.

Thanks!

b182tm

A standoff is a brass screw you screw into the inside of your case between the motherboard and the case, to keep the mobo off of the metal of the case. And are you sure the smoke came from the cd/dvd drive?

D

__________________
mobo ASUS A8N5X cpu AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
memory 1GB GeIL RAM video card 6600 GT 128MB
hard drive Samsung 120GB SATA HDD


R.I.P. Darrent Williams

theboy

Jesus I should have really Read up on this whole bit before I installed. NOw I know what those brass screws are...LOL

And I am almost positive the smoke came from the cd-rom drive....scared the shit outta me. Got it for a good deal and If I need to replace that no biggie, But still, What am I missing.


Thanks for all your help guys/gals!

ceewi1

If you forgot the standoffs, there's a reasonable chance your mobo is fried, and will need to be replaced. Install the standoffs, and try the computer again in a minimul setup (just mobo, CPU, Video Card, 1 stick of RAM, NO hard drives or CD drives). If it still won't boot, you'll probably need to replace the board.

__________________

Cheap PSUs - 2% of system costs, responsible for 28% of system deaths

theboy

god ****n dammit....i will put the mobos in shortly....wish me luck!

theboy

motherboard shot...i think or could be the supply?? I turn it on and the fans barely go & nothin happens??? what did i do now?

Altanore

Did you play with a red little switch on the power supply that can change the current from 110v to 220v or 220v to 110v?

__________________
Processor: AMD Athlon64 3200+ S939
Ram: 2x 1GB PC3200 Corsair DDR @dual Channel
Video Card: PCI express ATI Radeon X800XL 256mb DDR3 *Overclocked*
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
Drive: LG 16x16 DL DVD±RW w/Light Scribe
Hard Drive: Western Digital Sata 120GB 7200rpm, 2x Seagate 320GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA II, WD 150GB Raptor 10k RPM, SATA, 250GB Lacie External HD
Sound: Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS
Power Supply: Enermax 535W FMA2
Cooling: Many fans, Thermaltake Bigwater SE.

ceewi1

If that doesn't help, you're best off to either try the power supply in another computer, or to try another power supply with your computer.

If this isn't an option, you can force the power supply to start by shorting a couple of pins on the ATX connection (with the PSU plugged only into the wall, not mobo etc...):


Here's the entire article. It's not about testing the power supply, but the principle is the same: http://www.directron.com/2powersupplies.html

If the power supply works, and all the cables have been connected to the mobo correctly your mobo is likely fried.

Oh, and one other VERY IMPORTANT thing to check first. Have you plugged ALL the cables into the mobo, particularly the ATX12? Neglecting this will also cause the symptoms you've described.

If you're not sure, the ATX12 is the middle cable in this image:

__________________

Cheap PSUs - 2% of system costs, responsible for 28% of system deaths