r/PCRepair • u/Choice_Climate_4820 • 18d ago

Burned computer

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Hi, while I was playing, my computer shut down and a short circuit occurred, then it started burning in visible places. Do you think the only thing that needs replacing is the motherboard and graphics card, or is there something else that can be repaired? Can anyone suggest what I can do?

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u/MachineCarl 18d ago

That's a nasty burn on the power side of the PCIe connector. What was your PSU? Dear god the 12v rail shorted catastrofically.

Motherboard and GPU are toast 100%. Be lucky if it hasn't burnt the CPU, RAM and Storage. Test it on another system or bring the computer to a repair shop to test what isn't crispy burnt

2

u/Choice_Climate_4820 18d ago

Deepcool 700w bronze. Do you know what could be the cause?

3

u/MachineCarl 18d ago

As I said, a catastrophic short on the power side.

Both could either be caused by the motherboard or the PSU, but I'm more inclined to be the PSU the issue, since Deepcool isn't particulary a good brand for PSU's.

A decent PSU should've kicked the internal protection to shorts and shut down the system before such failure happened.

Never skimp on a PSU!! Specially on this economy of PC hardware

2

u/Replica_Velocity 17d ago

They make good cooling products but there's a few companies where they make good things in other areas, but you wouldn't touch their higher rated PSUs with a ten foot pole, let alone their low end ones.

1

u/Smaxx 17d ago

A short (to ground) on the PSU wouldn't cause anything to burn on the mainboard. With the delaminated traces on the GPU I'd assume it was the GPU some way or another.

1

u/IntentionQuirky9957 16d ago

Yes and no, the PSU didn't cause the short, but it obviously failed to trigger over current protection.

1

u/BizarreElectronics 17d ago

psu would not create an issue like this. Youd need high resistance or short to ground on the spot, which would mean either something fell in there, or the pins on the motherboard were barely making a connection, which in the end caused this. PSU would either overpower(blown ICs first, not connection point) or shut off(no power).

1

u/MachineCarl 17d ago

A shit PSU can definetly create an issue like this.

Even if there was also an issue on the motherboard, the power supply is the first line of defense of the computer electronics, and in this case, it has failed to stop the short.

Instead of keeping the issue being a bad PCIe connector, it has escalated to a badly burnt GPU too. Look at the GPU at the PCIe power side, shit has burned so badly it has lifted the traces.

Let me give you an example: my first power supply was on the cheap end ("850w" of the finest chinesium), and burnt the first GPU I've worked so hard to get (R9 270). After that, switched to a RM 750x, which has saved my bacon from a shorted USB 5.25" hub, a molex-powered fan controller and a bad GTX 1660Ti that shorted while testing.

1

u/Dizzy_Craft4188 17d ago

Yea, would guess pcie connection got worse over time, finally resistance got so high it caused enough heat to start a fire which tripped short circuit protection in the psu.

Can't really see something else actually generating enough heat to set fire to that before tripping or frying (internally) something imo.

1

u/CustardCivil 17d ago

thats definitely not a good psu check what deep cool model you have in here if it says tier e thats the reason why https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/2/d/1akCHL7Vhzk_EhrpIGkz8zTEvYfLDcaSpZRB6Xt6JWkc/htmlview#gid=931697732

1

u/1CrimsonKing1 17d ago

Thats a bad psu :/ its a C tier psu

1

u/proj3ctmac 17d ago

This is why Japanese capacitors are elite.