Electrical overload question?

[grumbledoak]

The nasty smell is often melting plastic- i.e. the insulator(s). The PC's power supply is a decent candidate, but you've plenty to choose from by the sound of it. Plug things in one at a time until you smell it.

Get it checked and fixed. In the meantime, don't leave it on overnight.

Edited by grumbledoak on Sunday 20th December 23:08

[GC8]

+1 for the power supply.

[Mandat]

When is the last time you cleaned out the dust inside the PC case? Accumulated dust can cause components to overheat, hence the burning smell.

[Gareth79]

As mentioned have a sniff at the air coming out the back of the PC, it will smell quite strongly if it is. It could be the terminals in the socket overheating due ot a bad connection, but it's more likely to be a capacitor in the PC power supply. It's quite a simple job to replace them and fairly cheap, although if you go to PC World or similar you will pay £££.

[GC8]

PC World dont make component level repairs: nor do they employ 'computer engineers' (or at least they didnt when I was a PCSC engineer).

In most cases a PSU is a generic item so, having established thats so, youll be better off buying a replacement from Scan or eBuyer or somesuch.

[spikeyhead]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Just go to Maplin an dbuy a new PSU.

They're not expensive and fitting it could be your xmas challenge,