psu burning smell Corsair RM750x burning smell chemical smell

October 28, 2018

Hello.

Last week I installed a second RX 580 into my rig. When I turned on the pc the PSU started making a very strong burning smell (guessing a short circuit smell), I immediately unplugged the power cable and made sure the smell was out of the room. Then did some inspection but couldn't find anything.

The following day I turned the pc on again, now no burning smell but a chemical smell coming from the PSU, a hot glue smell to be exact and this smell won't go away. (can dust produce this smell?)

I bought this PSU 4 months ago.

I'm thinking of returning it but I wanted to ask for a possible fix first.

Thank you in advance.

October 29, 2018

Probably just the solder flux. They don't use liquid flux on PSU PCBs because the components are so large and heavy and the tacky stuff can stay around well after the wave soldering process.

The second RX580 probably finally pushed the PSU to the point where it could actually burn that stuff off. Should go away after a while.