My pc exploded, should I buy a new one?

orangpelupa

orangpelupa

Elite Bug Hunter
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Not really exploded but it died with a whiff of burnt smell.

Confirmed dead is the motherboard. Even with the only PSU connected an with only CPU plugged, it just turn on for 0.5 sec and off.

The CPU, GPU, HDD,everything is unknown except the PSU that confirmed alive.

Should I toss it and but new PC? Or should I only replace the broken stuff? (Probably the motherboard)

I'm afraid it damages other stuff and will burnt again if I only replace the motherboard.

The PC was

Amd phenomenon ii x2 550Be
Radeon HD 7770
As rock 990fx xteeme 3
5 HDD
 
Are you sure there isn't some kind of weird grouning/short circuit issue with you case or psu? Pretty strange to have the same part die twice.

My guess would be that the other hardware is fine. Ram and gpu you should be easy to check in a friends pc or local pc shop.

CPU will be harder but what does an amd board go for these days? Last time I checked they went for as little as 35 euros.

Anyway it all depends on what you use that pc for and what kind of money you are willing to spend.

Obviously buying a new mb would be by far the cheapest option. Even of the cpu is dead I'm sure you can buy something with similar performance for a 100 euros.
 
Are you sure it wasn't the PSU? My experience would suggest that if there was a burnt smell, usually it was the PSU. I once had a bad PSU that seems can power the PC but immediately shutdown.

Did the first one also died with a burnt smell? If it wasn't the PSU maybe something else cause a short circuit. Did the board is the same as the previous one? Basically my mainboard never died. Unstable perhaps, but never died. Once there was a burnt smell, but changing the PSU cure that. At the office, one of the PC also exhibit burnt smell, which also came from the PSU.
I have a standing fan which also had burnt smell. The fan can work occasionally, but when I took it to a repair shop, the core was basically burnt. My point is a burnt PSU might work, so even if you change your MB and the PC works, it doesn't mean the PSU isn't damaged or it wasn't the one that causing the damage to other components.
Edit: also remember that running a bad MB with a good PSU shouldn't do any harm to the PSU. The reverse might not do so well. Basically verify first the MB with a good PSU. If it isn't working, might as well build a new PC. A MB with a CPU with a much better performance should be relatively cheap especially if you can carry over your RAM. But I never do a CPU change from Intel to AMD or vice versa while keeping the same OS installation. I have done AMD to AMD and Intel to Intel multiple times which went relatively painless.
 
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the scene was like this

- Watching anime, PC suddenly turn off (Using PSU A)
- Burnt smell in the air
- i go to PC Shop to get my PSU replacement that was ordered months ago to replace PSU B that has dead fan.
- i put the PSU B replacement to the burnt PC.
- Looks working fine. able to turn on without burnt smell.
- Plugged the HDMI and 1 more HDD
- Burnt smell in the air, PC off by itself.
- Unplugged everything except PSU, Motherboard, CPU
- It was on for 0.5 sec, then off, and have burnt smell.
- tried without CPU, same result (minus the burnt smell).

PSU B was tested to my other broken PC that cannot boot and it working fine (it stays on, no burnt smell).

About short circuit... hmm.
maybe its my PC Casing that broken. It is a very old cheap-ass casing that often being used as chair. Probably it bend somewhere.

will try to extract the mainboard out of it and turn it on.


---

about replacement cost. Just checked, and the total is around 200 dollars for CPU and mainboard. but with my country currency goes to the toilet, its feels like spending 300 dollar :(

---

btw visually, the mainboard have no burnt marks at all. Its weird...
 
@Rurouni the board is diferen. The 1st one was biostar, this one was ASrock.

the biostar did not burnt (im not sure, been years) but the simtomp is the same. cant turn on.
 
Does sound like a PSU problem.

Such a shame that the board got toast. It was your best component by far.. But you should probably be able to RMA it?

What's your budget for a new PC and what's your budget?
In case you can still salvage it, you could still use your motherboard at least.
 
You keep saying PSU A & B or old one and new one, but what brand are they? Cheap PSUs are horribly, horribly, HORRIBLY awful and should be outlawed! I used to try and save a few bucks on my PSU, until I fried a system using one. Since then I've went strictly Corsair, but there are other very good brands out there. Just do your homework and do NOT get a cheap one!

(SIDENOTE: I'm biased as hell against bad PSUs, they are TEH DEBIL!!!!)
 
A good PSU is important, but you don't have to spend a whole lot of money for that. I like these two. The SeaSonic is probly better but the EVGA has moar powa and I dunno what you can get where you are.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151143&ignorebbr=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438012&ignorebbr=1

I have a spare Corsair CX500 but TBH it would be more expensive to ship it (and pay the commie fee if you live in one of those countries) than to simply purchase a new one. But if you're ever in South Carolina it's yours :D
 
i just checked cpu prices in http://enterkomputer.com/processor.php

holy mother of ....
4 cores Intel CPU (i5) is like 100% to 200% more expensive than AMD 4 cores to 8 cores

ill try resurrecting my older dead PC. I think its only have broken GPU and RAM (still have those DDR2 at roof warehouse :D )

too bad it have super slow CPU. Intel Pentium 1.6 GHz.
 
ToTTenTranz said:
Does sound like a PSU problem.

Such a shame that the board got toast. It was your best component by far.. But you should probably be able to RMA it?

What's your budget for a new PC and what's your budget?
In case you can still salvage it, you could still use your motherboard at least.
Click to expand...

The warranty was expired. I'll resurrect my old PC with the new PSU. If its motherboard blown again, I'll return the PSU again.

About budget, I was thinking of 100 dollar. So I guess I can get new Amd am3+ motherboard. But if the CPU also toast.....

I'm also saving for a xiaomi phone to replace my 3 years old xperia.

Will try to resurrect my old PC today. Hopefully it can works.
 
orangpelupa said:
The old PSU is seasonic 520 something something. The new one is seasonic 650 something something.
Click to expand...
Those are certainly good units. I have a Seasonic S12II 520W in my main rig and it's solid and quiet. Maybe you have mains power issues? Can you get a decent UPS? I have a much older model of this and it can tell me what's coming out of the old knob and tube crap in my room. I had to lower the voltage sensitivity by +/-9V (from the default which is already fairly tolerant) to keep it from tripping every half hour :(
 
orangpelupa said:
too bad it have super slow CPU. Intel Pentium 1.6 GHz.
Click to expand...
It would be interesting to know how a slow PC feels to use for web browsing and other casual tasks using a modern SSD as system drive. Gaming performance would probably not be very impressive however, I would think... I should do an experiment some day, if I can remember to... :)
 
Grall said:
It would be interesting to know how a slow PC feels to use for web browsing and other casual tasks using a modern SSD as system drive. Gaming performance would probably not be very impressive however, I would think... I should do an experiment some day, if I can remember to... :)
Click to expand...

As long as you did nor use chrome, it should be pretty fasy
 
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