Burning Smell....

**salty99** · 02-13-14, 11:04 PM

So I flipped out tonight when I smelled something like burning coming from my case. I put it on my workbench and fired it up with the side open so I could watch and smell for anything suspicious.

All of the connections looked good, no dust buildup anywhere, all fans running smoothly with no visible stutter or shaking. No performance or overheating issues recently, or ever really. My system doesn't show any signs of burning up, as it remains incredibly cool nearly 100% of the time. The smell is definitely coming from right over the top of the case where my CPU cooler's intake fans are.

Components:

i7-2600k @ stock 3.4 GHz at the moment (at the time the smell started)
Corsair Hydro H100i Liquid CPU cooler with Arctic Silver thermal grease on the contact
Corsair 1000W PSU - No burning smell near the PSU or near any of it's bridge connections to the best of my knowledge
16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM - No OC, sitting at stock voltages
2 x GTX760 GPUS - both are running very cool, between 25-35C when under regular use (50s-60s when gaming)
HT OMEGA eClaro audio card

and all of this in an NZXT Phantom 530 Full tower which has plenty of room and great airflow. I have the 2 intake 120mm fans up top (Corsair fans that came with the H100i), a 120mm BitFenix fan as exhaust in the rear (seen in the pic), 2 120mm NZXT fans up front over my SSDs (intake), and a 200mm NZXT fan that is on the side panel, it sits right over the GPUs as an exhaust.

Burning Smell....-img_20140213_210701-jpg

Burning Smell....-img_20140213_210701-jpg

The depth of field on this picture isn't very good so you can't really tell from the picture, but there is plenty of clearance for all of those cables up top. None of them were touching the heat sinks and none of them were hitting any of the fans. I sniffed around inside the case and couldn't really smell the burning but when I smell the top of the case where the air intake is, I can definitely smell it.

Burning Smell....-cpu_temps-jpg

There was no OC when I started smelling the burning and I've had the H100i in since around November-December-ish without any odor until tonight. I am still fairly new to Liquid cooling so I'm not sure if this burning smell is normal from time to time coming off the radiator or if this is something to be concerned about. The odor isn't too strong, but it's noticeable.

Any of you have any ideas or know if this is normal from time to time? Could it just be some kind of burn-in odor of the thermal grease settling or maybe some paint or something heating up on the radiator?

**DJ Ms. White** · 02-14-14, 12:38 AM

What does the burning smell actually smell like (cigarette smoke, plastic, oil, etc.)?

**salty99** · 02-14-14, 12:46 AM

I've tried to think of a way to describe it; maybe like a rubber/plastic burn? I work with a lot of small scale electronics at work and it smells like when I'm cooking shrink tubing down on some cables. It doesn't smell like burning silicon. I'm not exactly sure what the liquid coolant smells like in the loop but I'd imagine it would have its own unique smell like antifreeze or something maybe? Doesn't smell funny, just like burning rubber or plastic I think

**DJ Ms. White** · 02-14-14, 01:28 AM

Could possibly be something caught in the fans or the radiator for the CPU cooler. Although, you are using a plastic case and are smelling plastic from a heat exhaust port.

**dex71** · 02-14-14, 04:50 AM

Copper has a pretty distinct odor when it burns. If it doesn't smell like burning copper, that's good news.

I'd pull the other panel off of your case, and make sure you don't have a wire pinched, or something hitting a fan that you can't see from the other side.

**salty99** · 02-14-14, 04:59 AM

Yeah definitely doesn't smell like burning copper. Pulling that other panel will be the next thing on my to do list. While I'm at it I might try to reroute a as many of those cables away from the CPU area as I can and take that PCI sticker off of the North Bridge PSU cable in the picture. I initially thought it was the sticker that was burning, but when I looked at it, there wasn't any indication of that. I think I'll remove it anyhow

**dex71** · 02-14-14, 05:06 AM

Originally Posted by salty99

Yeah definitely doesn't smell like burning copper. Pulling that other panel will be the next thing on my to do list. While I'm at it I might try to reroute a as many of those cables away from the CPU area as I can and take that PCI sticker off of the North Bridge PSU cable in the picture. I initially thought it was the sticker that was burning, but when I looked at it, there wasn't any indication of that. I think I'll remove it anyhow

I'd also pull the fron panel off, and make sure you don't have something pinched in the front fan. If the smell was originating there, it would likely be immediately pushed into your case and out of the top (assuming you have a normal airflow design).

**HeavyG** · 02-14-14, 06:48 AM

Check all of your case fans. I have had fans go before and the just stink like burning electronics. Then they eventually stop working.

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**Rumble** · 02-14-14, 10:18 AM

Also check your ups or power strip. They can give off that smell when failing and it can get pulled in the case and make you think it's coming from there.