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That Burning Videocard Smell
HarshLanguage
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I've finally had a PC part actually fry. The smell of burning solder and plastic from this videocard meltdown is still pretty heavy in my room. 
I could use advice on what damage may have been done to the PC it was in, before I attempt to salvage and test the rest of the system.
I'd been trying to troubleshoot an older PC that has been experiencing hard freezes after a few minutes. Through a simple process of elimination, I'd been removing all the hardware components to see if one of them might be causing the problem. So tonight I took out the older Geforce videocard that was in there and installed my spare, also-old 6800GT. The system was booting fine before the 6800GT went in; WinXP would just mysteriously freeze after a while.
As soon as I turned on the power, I heard sizzling and smelled burning, and then saw sparks and a small fire at one spot on the videocard. Unplugged everything immediately. And turned on a room fan. The 6800GT I assume is simply toast, and I don't want to risk damaging any other PCs by testing it out in another system. But is it likely that the vidcard frying has also done damage to the motherboard, RAM, PSU, or HD?
I could use advice on what damage may have been done to the PC it was in, before I attempt to salvage and test the rest of the system.I'd been trying to troubleshoot an older PC that has been experiencing hard freezes after a few minutes. Through a simple process of elimination, I'd been removing all the hardware components to see if one of them might be causing the problem. So tonight I took out the older Geforce videocard that was in there and installed my spare, also-old 6800GT. The system was booting fine before the 6800GT went in; WinXP would just mysteriously freeze after a while.
As soon as I turned on the power, I heard sizzling and smelled burning, and then saw sparks and a small fire at one spot on the videocard. Unplugged everything immediately. And turned on a room fan. The 6800GT I assume is simply toast, and I don't want to risk damaging any other PCs by testing it out in another system. But is it likely that the vidcard frying has also done damage to the motherboard, RAM, PSU, or HD?
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
HarshLanguage on
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I have no idea why. It was my previous gaming video card. It hasn't been used in about 2 years, stored in an antistatic bag.
I hate risking another video card to see if the AGP slot on the motherboard still works, but otherwise I have to just junk the mobo, and then I'd have a useless old processor, etc etc. :x
Good news, though, the 6800GT might still be covered by the manufacturer (EVGA), which would be fantastic.
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
Tall-Paul MIPsDroid
FWIW, the chances of something bad happening are very very low.
Of course, Windows still hard locks after a while, so I'm back to where I was before the 6800GT meltdown.
> turn on light
Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
I would wipe it and reinstall windows, that might fix your driver issues.