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Recently I find small unpleasant smell (like burning smell) from my desktop computer, not always, but from time to time. I don't know where it is from, but as I turn off the computer and sniff closely to individual hardware, esp the PSU, I can't find any smell.

I also took out the optical DVD drive and found a strong smell coming from it, but the DVD drive should still work fine.

I’d like to know

  1. What can I do now?
  2. How do I check the temperatures in my computer?
  3. What is the normal range of temperatures?
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  • possible duplicate of How can I check the temperature of my CPU in Windows?
    – Leo Chapiro
    Feb 27, 2015 at 9:13
  • The issue isn't operating temperatures. Burning smells don't come from anything operating in a temperature within a monitored range. If it did, the computer wouldn't continue to operate. It's likely something like a bad/loose connector, a short, or a capacitor failing. Since you smelled it coming from the DVD drive, start there. Remove it from the bay and connect the cables where you have access to the drive and can observe and smell it in operation. Also, observe inside the case. You may see smoke or arcing. Verify that all connectors are tight.
    – fixer1234
    Feb 27, 2015 at 15:23
  • Something ain't right. If there is a burning smell, then expect that something is burning, even if you haven't found it yet. Whatever is burning might spread; this could turn into a fire. Or, the burning may break something, which may cause something else to break. You mustn't ignore this. Keep the DVD drive disconnected and out of the bay; see if burning smell continues to come from case. If not, ditch the drive; even if it seems to work, it's not worth the fire hazard. But chances are the drive just got smelly because it was near enough to the unrelated source of the actual problem.
    – TOOGAM
    Feb 27, 2015 at 18:04
  • Sounds like a fire hazard, be careful.
    – Moab
    Feb 28, 2015 at 18:19

4 Answers 4

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Use one of these
enter image description here

from a paper towel or toilet roll. If you stick your noise inside it while you sniff it makes your smell ability a lot more directional and makes it easer to narrow down what section of the computer the smell is coming from.

P.S. This also works very well when some part of your computer is making a noise and you can't tell where it is coming from, put the tube up to your ear and you can hear where the mystery squeal is coming from.

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  • 2
    OK, I got all of the paper towels off the tube. Now where do the batteries go? :-)
    – fixer1234
    Feb 27, 2015 at 17:00
  • 5
    Which end do i stick my nose in?
    – Moab
    Feb 28, 2015 at 18:18
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3 things could go very hot: CPU, video card and power source. CPU temperature can be checked in BIOS. Video card GPU temperature can be seen in the driver's control center/panel (will not work for very old cards). As for the power supply temperature, in most cases it has no temp monitoring, you will just have to check how hot is the air evacuated from it. Normal temperature for a CPUs and video cards vary a lot by manufacturing era. Generally, CPUs should stay under 60C at load, just as old video card; the new video cards under 80C at load are fine (can even work correctly at 100C).

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Some great tips and advise above, love the paper towel tube idea.

Just adding that a common fault on an aged system is the capacitors going, they have a defined lifetime after which they break down.

If they go you can usually tell because the capacitor swells in size. The capacitors look like tiny batteries and on the top of the aluminium can is an inscribed X and you may see this end has swollen or in some cases burst.

You will find capacitors on you MOBO and also inside your PSU.

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We had lightning 2 days ago (electricity going on/off a couple times per minute etc.). And after that my PC started smelling like burnt electrical wire. No smoke is coming off of it. It's working fine. Sensor temps are within the limits (under 50C). Just a light smell after 2 hours of working. I think PSU is damaged. Waiting for something to die to confirm. Stupid lightning.

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