Something smells like burning plastic...?

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by NiceDuck, Sep 9, 2009.

  1. NiceDuck

    NiceDuck Geek Trainee

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    It's a mystery! So, a few weeks ago, I started noticing the smell of burning plastic in the room that my desktop PC is in. It was sitting on the carpet, so, I snagged two extra travertine tiles left over from my "kitchen project" and placed them underneath... thinking that maybe it was getting too hot from sitting on the carpet. A few days later, it shut itself off while I was in the middle of writing an email.

    It did seem like the power supply was overly hot at the time off shut-off. As a few days passed, I focused a large fan on the tower, it kept happening. Shut- off, every time I went to use it. So, finally, I opened it up (I'm no "expert," but I can certainly find my way around the innards of a computer!), it was dusty, dusty, dusty! I removed the power supply, opened it up, and removed the sheet of dust, and hair from inside of it. I figured that it might be that dust and hair that I had smelled burning. Nothing else from inside the tower looked melted, or damaged at all. So, I cleaned it out, and put it all back together.

    Turned it on, and the black screen appeared, and in white, it said, "Restart and select bootable device."

    What did I do? Now, it won't boot at all, just goes to that black screen everytime. I'm positive that I put everything back together exactly as it was.... If it was a power supply issue, it wouldn't ask for a "bootable device," would it?

    My guess is that maybe it's the hard drive? Like I said, none of the boards looked damaged, all wires were in good shape, etc. Did I fry the HD?

    Please help!!
     
  2. BoBBYI986

    BoBBYI986 Geek

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    go into the bios and goto boot priority and select your harddrive hit f10 and save changes. your system should boot.
     
  3. NiceDuck

    NiceDuck Geek Trainee

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    Thank you bobby, but I tried that, too. And it still won't boot.

    I am totally okay with buying a new hard drive, I just don't want to waste money if that's not what the problem is.

    Should I just do that instead of "tinkering" further?
     
  4. BoBBYI986

    BoBBYI986 Geek

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    Try resetting the cmos. Is the hard drive detected in the bios? how many hard drives have you got in your machine?
     
  5. NiceDuck

    NiceDuck Geek Trainee

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    Yes, when I go to change the boot sequence, I see the hard drive, it's there on the list. But when I select it, and press F10, it gives me that message, about the "bootable device."

    What about a "cmos?" I'm unfamiliar with that. The name at least....

    (Believe it or not, there are still a few things inside my computer that I refer to as, "those pointy thingies over there!")

    Thanks a bunch for your help, though!
     
  6. BoBBYI986

    BoBBYI986 Geek

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    there will be three pins on your motherboard with a jumper connecting two of them together, switch the jumper onto the opposite pins to reset your bios settings. most of the time it will have reset cmos printed on the board next to the three pins. once reset just enter the bios and load bios defaults.

    Looks like that http://www.dansdata.com/images/133aboards/cmos360.jpg

    If you cant find it just use a small flat head screw driver and lift the motherboard battery out and then put it back in that's another way of resetting the cmos (bios settings)
     
  7. 0mega9401

    0mega9401 Geek Trainee

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    wow i would just change the drive out just because most times it is and check out ur psu u should never smell burning plastic
     

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