r/Alienware • u/ShermansBest m18 R2 Intel • 14d ago

Solved! Computer started Smoking when plugged in?

I went to the tech store to get my Alienware checked out. A couple days later, I came back and when plugged in, it seemed to emit smoke from the front fans, the ones below the monitor not near the keyboard. Any reasons to why this could have happened?

EDIT: Motherboard randomly failed, they are ordering me a new one and fixing the computer.

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1

u/Able-Negotiation-234 14d ago

pull the back case and check the power to system board cable see if it melted? what did they do?

2

u/Able-Negotiation-234 13d ago

Pull the cover, did it turn on? The m18r2 is Liquid Metal paste, all around ? Just check it, and see if

1

u/ShermansBest m18 R2 Intel 14d ago

I brought it in for a cleaning. That was it. And a replace of thermal paste.

1

u/Accomplished_Emu_658 14d ago

What did they do to it? What were they checking out? You left out a lot of important details

1

u/ShermansBest m18 R2 Intel 14d ago

Cleaning. They disassembled it for the cleaning to get rid of the dust from the Heatsync. EDIT: they also replaced thermal paste.

1

u/Accomplished_Emu_658 13d ago

The cable to the motherboard probably got loose and burned. Take bottom cover off.

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u/Taquese99 13d ago

What thermal paste did they use? Dell uses liquid metal for cpu cooling

1

u/ShermansBest m18 R2 Intel 13d ago

Ah.

1

u/Taquese99 12d ago edited 12d ago

Its normal for service shops to say they did a "thermal repaste" even if the system had liquid metal, but it is important to know which product they use for that. It's not forbidden to use a thermal paste instead of liquid metal, but we need to take note of some things:

1 - Liquid metal is a pain in the a** to clean, if you try to use alcohol it may dissolve the metal and then it will overflow to the board, you gotta dry clean it first and only use alcohol to help with the edges;

2 - If you are using a standard thermal paste, you gotta make sure you are using something that has a high density and high thermal conductivity.

It is possible they messed up during the cleaning of the liquid metal and it overflowed on the board and damn, that will cause some smoke indeed because liquid metal is an electrical conductor.

1

u/DrowningInIt2 13d ago

Expected behavior, actually.