[Laurentj]

My mom asked me to clean her desktop, and install a gigabyte of ram..

I took out the ram to clean the slots, and Cleaned all of the other parts..When I put it back together, It would randomly shut off, and I would smell a faint burning smell.

I took it apart again, and noticed that I put of of the Ram chips in the wrong slot. So I fixed that, and the same thing would happen. I found out the source of the smell,It was either coming from the fan or the heatsink.

I thought there was still dust or something stuck around the heatsink. So I cleaned both of them, and put everything back together.

Then when I tested it, (the ram worked without me going to BIOS) it worked for a while, and when I was just about to leave It shut off.


I'm at my wits end, and My mom cant afford getting it fixed, let alone a new computer.
Any Ideas? Thanks in advance!

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Hi Laurentj and welcome.

Well, a heatsink is just a chunk of metal, so the smell would not be coming from it. And fans don't normally fail in that manner - and not suddenly. The bearings wear, and the fans typically slow down, start making rumbling noises then stop.

And putting RAM in the wrong slot would not cause the RAM to get hot and smell. My concern is the RAM was either forced in backwards, or it was not inserted all the way, and shorted a couple pins. The smell of something getting hot is never a good sign with electronics, and usually means something has been damaged, permanently.

I would remove the new RAM, put everything back to original configuration and see if it boots.

[Digerati]

Hi Laurentj and welcome.

Well, a heatsink is just a chunk of metal, so the smell would not be coming from it. And fans don't normally fail in that manner - and not suddenly. The bearings wear, and the fans typically slow down, start making rumbling noises then stop.

And putting RAM in the wrong slot would not cause the RAM to get hot and smell. My concern is the RAM was either forced in backwards, or it was not inserted all the way, and shorted a couple pins. The smell of something getting hot is never a good sign with electronics, and usually means something has been damaged, permanently.

I would remove the new RAM, put everything back to original configuration and see if it boots.

[Alzeimer]

Go into your BIOS and look at the hardware monitoring to see the temperature of your Processor.

When you cleaned her computer did you take out the heatsink over the processor, if you did take it out did you put thermal paste back on top of you processor (thin layer is enough too much is not good). Does the fan seem to be turning freely.

[Laurentj]

That was really fast!

Well, Im sure that the ram works at least, I checked the "My computer" and it says it has 1.5gb (which is correct)

I'm not able to go into the Bios, the keyboard is stuck in filterkeys or something ad I have to hold the shift key for 15 seconds (even though I disabled it)

The only thing that I actually removed was the RAM and the Chip where the screen plus into (I don't know what the parts called). So the only time I touched the heatsink was Just to brush off access dirt.

I suppose that could be the problem, I don't remember double-checking to see if it was in properly, although it works..

The weird thing about it is that it seems to randomly turn off. (it doesn't shut down, just turns off) Sometimes it's in 20 minutes, sometimes an hour.

Edited by Laurentj, 09 October 2010 - 10:20 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Download Speedfan (The download link is to the right), and install it. Once it's installed, run the program and post here the information it shows.
The information I want you to post is the stuff that is circled in the example picture I have attached.
To make sure we are getting all the correct information it would help us if you were to attach a screenshot like the one below of your Speedfan results.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard.

• It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
• Now go to Start and then to All Programs
• Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
• In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
• Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
• Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop
• Attach it to your next reply

[Laurentj]

Just to let you know, I checked the fan for the PSU and the heatsink and they both work.

I'm downloading speedfan right now.

It's weird though...It doesn't show nearly the same amount of things yours does..and Its saying all the fans are running at 0 RPM, even though I can See/feel the fan running. I don't smell the burning smell anymore, and the computer is staying on...Although it has stayed on for more then an hour before.

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Edited by Laurentj, 09 October 2010 - 12:31 PM.

[rshaffer61]

Most likely the fans are not covered by the sensors on the motherboard.
How about the fan in the PSU?
Is it turning like it should?
Speedfan is not showing the voltages
I suspect the smell you got was the PSU and not the memory itself.

[Laurentj]

That's what I though too, But The smell was coming from the fan next to the heatsink, NOT the PSU. Both of the fans seem to be working still..

It's been on for about an hour now, and I don't smell anything, so it's kinda confusing..

[rshaffer61]

Check the capacitors to make sure none of them are not bulging around the CPU.