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How To Diagnosis PC Failure (PSU Made Noise + Fan Stopped, Powered Back On & Saw Smoke Near MOBO)

Hello Everyone.  Would anyone please be willing to give me some diagnosis advice on my son's PC please?
 
I’m on the road but my son said a few days ago his PC made a noise but stopped after restarting it. He later determined today when it happened again that the noise happened when his Power Supply fan stopped spinning (and of course didn't call to tell me this). He then turned it off and back on after hearing the noise this evening once again and immediately upon powering it on noticed smoke.  He said it came from the area of the RAM but wasn't 100% positive.  These are the pics he sent me of what it looks like right now.  This definitely sounds like a PSU unit based off the PSU fans stopping right?  
 
My question (and ask of the community) is how to diagnosis this without causing further damage in the process. I assume I start by buying a new PSU but do I just swap it out and run the PC as is to see what happens OR do I remove certain components and add them back in one by one?  If the latter what order should I be doing that?  My biggest concern is since he saw smoke whatever failsafes built into the PSU to prevent it from frying other components didn't work because it was already potentially bad when he turned the PC on and that caused damage to additional components.  I could be wrong though as I'm not versed in this at all.
 
Any advice or steps would be greatly appreciated.
 
AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
MSI GAMING Plus Max B550
AMD Radeon RX6700 10GB
Corsair CX650M PSU 80+ Bronze (Purchased Nov 2022)
16GB Crucial Ballistix 3600mhz
1TB SSD

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It depends on the type of the "noise". The misbehaving PSU is the first one to be replaced. Look for any discoloration or burned pins on the MB. If it's the component that died it won't do it twice so the danger in a simple reassemble is minimal.

"The GB8/12 Liberation Front"

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Yeah you can just plug everything back into a new power supply. You can't really test the other components individually like that. As the computer wouldn't work anyway if you didn't connect everything. If there was smoke then the power supply is probably to blame. Hopefully it hasn't fried any other components. You may be best to just take it into a computer repair shop. As they will have all the necessary tools to test each component individually.

 

If you want to test the power supply. Remove it from the case. & plug it in. Check if the fan is spinning. If it starts smoking it is obviously faulty. You could also try plugging a case fan into it via a molex adapter, to see if it will power it. Hardly stress testing it with a high load. But if it fails this, then it is broken.

 

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On 1/23/2025 at 12:08 AM, Timme said:

It depends on the type of the "noise". The misbehaving PSU is the first one to be replaced. Look for any discoloration or burned pins on the MB. If it's the component that died it won't do it twice so the danger in a simple reassemble is minimal.

So just drop a new PSU in and assuming I don’t see any burn marks on other components power it on and see what happens?

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Just got home to inspect things and he’s saying the smoke was potentially near the CPU/RAM area but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from and I just realized his PSU cage is at the top right near that area.  You can see the fan right near the CPU in this picture.  I’ve looked all over the motherboard and don’t see any obvious signs of burning.

 

I assume I should start with a new PSU?  Any brands to buy or avoid and do i only do 80 Plus Gold and above or is bronze ok?

IMG_4198.jpeg

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On 1/25/2025 at 6:55 AM, WarmEngine said:

Just got home to inspect things and he’s saying the smoke was potentially near the CPU/RAM area but he couldn’t tell where it was coming from and I just realized his PSU cage is at the top right near that area.  You can see the fan right near the CPU in this picture.  I’ve looked all over the motherboard and don’t see any obvious signs of burning.

 

I assume I should start with a new PSU?  Any brands to buy or avoid and do i only do 80 Plus Gold and above or is bronze ok?

IMG_4198.jpeg

Yes, and, as mentioned previously, start adding components 1 by 1 - CPU with 1 ram stick, second, the GPU, and see the PC starts ok.

"The GB8/12 Liberation Front"

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