Electrical burn smell from desktop pc, then breaker blew

[bikerider]

I had the tower on for about an hour. It was plugged into the yellow splitter (Pictured). I smelled a slight electrical burn smell and thought it was coming from the heater in the bedroom so I shut the heater off (in wall heater with individual thermostat). I went to the other room to get something and the breaker blew. I came back in the bedroom to smell the electrical burn smell still and realized it was coming from my desktop tower. I unplugged it and noticed a gap in the casing (Pictured) at the wall plug end, and the end plugged into the back of the tower was partially melted (Pictured) and hot to the touch. I still unplugged the power cord from the back of the tower and noticed that the socket where the power cord was plugged in had this mark (Pictured). I used this tower in exactly the same way a few days prior for about 8 hours constantly with no problems at all, and many other times as well. Does anybody know what could have happened? I have not attempted to use it since this happened and have not looked inside the tower either. If it makes a difference, the tower is a Cobratype RATTLER II Gaming Desktop Pc. Intel Core i5 with Windows 10. Also, after resetting the breaker, the outlet has worked fine since with no problems or electrical burn smell.

 

[johnb35]

It's called pulling too much power from that circuit with the heater. You will need to at least replace that power supply on the pc. Can you plug the pc into a different circuit that the heater isn't on?

 

[beers]

A heater on a splitter? Nah fam. A lot of those pull like 1200w or more by themselves. Also components can let go at any time for reasons that may not be directly obvious.

I'd be curious what PSU they put into those, a lot of people seem to indicate the company cheaps out a little bit. I wouldn't really trust that at all without replacing the power supply first, it's an unknown variable if it damaged any other components in the system.

Probably computer shop time if you aren't comfortable replacing that yourself.

 

[bikerider]

It's called pulling too much power from that circuit with the heater. You will need to at least replace that power supply on the pc. Can you plug the pc into a different circuit that the heater isn't on?

I cannot, but I can leave the heater off while using the desktop. Is there a way to know if it needs more than just the power supply replaced? Is there potential for damaging more/something else if I replaced the power supply and power cord and tried turning it on?

 

[bikerider]

A heater on a splitter? Nah fam. A lot of those pull like 1200w or more by themselves. Also components can let go at any time for reasons that may not be directly obvious.

I'd be curious what PSU they put into those, a lot of people seem to indicate the company cheaps out a little bit. I wouldn't really trust that at all without replacing the power supply first, it's an unknown variable if it damaged any other components in the system.

Probably computer shop time if you aren't comfortable replacing that yourself.

It's a heater built into the wall. On the same breaker as the bedroom outlets, not the outlet itself. I'm not sure about the PSU. I think this model may have been discontinued. I bought it in 2020. The specs from the receipt are: Cobratype RATTLER II Gaming Desktop PC - Intel i5, AMD RX 570 Graphics, 8GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, Windows 10 (If any of that matters). Do you think there's a risk in replacing the power supply and power cable and attempting to turn it on?

 

[johnb35]

As I said, at a minimum you will need to replace the power supply and the cord and see if the pc works. If not, the motherboard could be damaged beyond repair.

 

[beers]

Unsure why you were intent on showing us the splitter in that case.

Do you think there's a risk in replacing the power supply and power cable and attempting to turn it on?

What risk are you concerned about specifically? I'd probably take it to a shop if you are fearful of replacing a PSU yourself.

 

[bikerider]

As I said, at a minimum you will need to replace the power supply and the cord and see if the pc works. If not, the motherboard could be damaged beyong repair.

It looks pretty straight forward to replace. I'll get one, try it, and update the post.

 

[bikerider]

Unsure why you were intent on showing us the splitter in that case.


What risk are you concerned about specifically? I'd probably take it to a shop if you are fearful of replacing a PSU yourself.

I showed a pic of the splitter because I thought the problem might have been the tower would draw too much power to use one of those. I don't know computer hardware all that well and thought it would be wise to ask about potential risk for more damage. I'm going to get a new power supply and cord and try turning it on. I'll update this post after I do.

 

[bikerider]

I replaced the power supply and turned the desktop on. I had it connected to a tv via an hdmi cable. The desktop looked the same as it did before the burning smell incident (the normal lights came on, fans etc.). However, there was no signal at all on the tv. I checked over the motherboard's capacitors for burn marks but could not see any. When I went to turn off the desktop, I pushed the power button on the front and it instantly turned off. Before the burning smell incident, I would turn it off that same way, but it would have a delay while it signed off of my profile and shut down. Does this sound like a bad motherboard?

 

[beers]

It likely took other components with it during failure, there's not a great way to isolate it without swapping known-good components.

 

[bikerider]

 

[bikerider]

I did not have the hmdi cable plugged all the way in. I do get a screen now, but cannot get to windows. I can get to each BIOS blue screen posted above. The black screen with white text shows up briefly just after start up. It seems like I might be able to fix this with some advice. If not, I will take it to someone to get it fixed.

 

[johnb35]

It doesn't seem to recognize any drives plugged in hence why it's showing pxe boot, meaning it wants to boot to a network.

 

[bikerider]

It doesn't seem to recognize any drives plugged in hence why it's showing pxe boot, meaning it wants to boot to a network.

Does that mean that I might not have all the cables connected to the hard drive? Or I will have to buy another copy of windows 10?

 

[johnb35]

I suggest you take it in and have someone diagnose what is actually bad. The whole system may be fried or just a few parts but you'll need known good parts to determine what is good and bad. All you can do is check your bios to see what is set for first boot device.

 

[Cromewell]

Does that mean that I might not have all the cables connected to the hard drive? Or I will have to buy another copy of windows 10?

It could be the storage drives went as well, or it could be the controller, or both. In the BIOS menu, if you go to the boot menu, what, if anything, is listed in the boot order?

I suggest you take it in and have someone diagnose what is actually bad. The whole system may be fried or just a few parts but you'll need known good parts to determine what is good and bad. All you can do is check your bios to see what is set for first boot device.

This is likely the best course at this point. Without a stock of parts to draw from and replace one at a time you may end up buying a lot of unnecessary stuff. Usually, power supplies take a lot with them. That it seems to post suggests that the video card, motherboard, RAM and CPU are good, but that does not necessarily mean all the integrated components on the motherboard are good.

 

[bikerider]

From the BIOS Advanced Screen, I went down to Boot Option #1 and the two choices are either: Real tek Agent or Disabled. I uploaded a picture as well. Is this what guys are talking about johnb35 and Cromewell?

 

[johnb35]

Yes, the system doesn't detect any hard drives. You need to try connecting a known good hard drive to the system and see if the bios detects it. If not, either the sata port or contoller is shot.

 

[bikerider]

I just wanted to update this thread. The problem after replacing the power supply was two cables not connected to the hard drive. I should have marked all cables before removing the old power supply.