Hot computer issues

[David H]

The last couple of days my handmade PC (Microsoft original parts) started smelling of melting, and slowed down to a snail's pace being 100% active a lot of the time. I did the usual cleanups etc with no effect, and when it went on today didn't smell and is now working perfectly. It did smell for a day once with no other effects, anyone got an idea what was going on?

[Buenchico]

Are you sure that the fan hasn't got an intermittent fault?

BTW, since when did Microsoft sell hardware???

[David H]

Dodgy fan? Good idea. At least that won't cost much to fix assuming the rest of the kit hasn't been damaged.

The RAM, processor and motherboard I was told were Microsoft but as it was built for me by a friend and didn't see the boxes or inside the case am only going on that. Good point though now you mention it, I don't think they do actually make any parts do they?

[beso]

It sounds like overheating. Dust accumulation on the processor heatsink is very common and this can make odours.

The other common failure is the capacitors and these can emit odours. Check the motherboard for bulging ends on the little cylinder shaped bits. Some can go bad without the machine completely failing.

There a bigger ones in the power supply but these usually go with a bang and the computer stops working.

[VHG]

If it is a desktop PC it may be that the fans and heat sinks are full of dust and fluff and it is getting too hot.

Take it outside, take off the cover and blow out all the dust and fluff with a hair drier (on cool setting).

Use a small piece of wood (not metal) to prise the fluff and dust off if it wont blow away.

[ChuckFickens]

What if the OP hasn't got a hoover, could they use a dyson (for example) instead?

On a serious note, vacuum cleaners are not the best thing to clean out a computer due to the risk of static build up on the hoses. better off to use canned air (or a compressor if you have access to one). Make sure you stop any fans from spinning from the blast of the air though as this can damage the motherboard.

[MarkRae]

^^ And if the machine hasn't been cleaned for a long time (or even ever), make sure you do this outside... :-)

[David H]

Thanks everyone, definitely the fan, some days it went on and others it didn't, and I did have a little compressed air left over from a previous project. Presumably if the fan had simply blown it wouldn't still come on sometimes, so I've now had a good old clean out, it worked as soon as I switched it back on, and hopefully was just the dust (there was only dust, but loads of it) stopping it going on at times. I will keep my fingers crossed.

[David H]

Very odd, after a few hours the problem's come back, so I checked the fan and it's fine, but the area around it is hot and of course once it gets hot everything grinds almost to a halt. The fan's on the back at the top, any ideas what else could be happening to cause this as the fan's fine now (I don't know if it ever wasn't as I didn't look to see if it was running before, I cleaned it without checking first), there isn't a chance it has two fans is there?

[ChuckFickens]

"The fan's on the back at the top"


That's the power supply fan, the one you want to be worried about is the processor fan which is inside the case.

[David H]

Ah, more than one as I suspected. I can complete the story now, the PC blew soon after, the heat and smell was coming from the power supply external fan (typical they have to tuck others inside as well, and can't see the grille for them) and have just been told a new power supply is to be fitted and hopefully that was all it was and everything should be OK afterwards. I have a spare laptop as I can't manage without computer access for long.