Hey all Well first of all I decided to post here about an issue. Tried to Google search it but couldn't find anything related. Well I just installed Windows 7 and went back to WoW after months and months. I started Saturday and everything worked fine until yesterday morning. While I was playing my computer started smelling like burning rubber, then crashed. So I emailed a Blizzard Tech Support guy, and then loaded up WoW again and it worked fine all day. Now today it's doing the same thing, but isn't working fine. Now the tech support said I probably need to replace fans, and if the fans don't work I'd need a new video card. So can someone tell me what this is? And if it will be fixed by buying new fans? I asked here because Blizzard Tech Support will tell you to go buy like a new $200 item for your computer, and all you needed was to change a setting. So again can someone help me understand this or tell me a fix? Thanks.
For sure...dust can make a baffle that will block air from flowing over the heatsink...and if there's no air to cool the heatsink, things get hot! Go buy some canned air, open your PC and go to town...make sure to get all the dust out of the heatsink fins...if you live in a dusty area then odds are that's probably the source of your heat issue, epically if your pc sits on the floor... Start there...its the cheapest place to start
I had a job for a sketchy company, and I had to take out the actual drive out of portable hard drives. I put the fans aside because the boss told me they were trash. When I inquired about keeping them, I got fired because they thought I was the type of person who would steal stuff, just because I'm not a computer nerd like them.
Pop it open and give it a thorough cleaning like the guy above suggested, blow out all of the vents and fans. Run the machine with the side door off and see if you can recreate the overheating, if you can you'll be able to determine the source.
There is a stress test you can run, I forget the link I'll try to find it. It will take a few hours, but it will attempt to overheat your motherboard/cpu/etc, and will show you if you have made improvments. Run it before, then after each clean/mod, and eventually you'll find the problem
Does the computer still smell? I'd check the power supply. Also check the motherboard visually; it has some capacitors that might've leaked, causing the smell. If you think the issue might be overheating temperatures, Google a free program called SpeedFan and use it to monitor the temperatures of various components in your computer. If you specifically think that bad fans might be the problem, take the side of your case off and turn on the computer with the case open. Look at the fans for signs of wobbling or slow turning. Ground yourself and use your finger to briefly stop each fan and watch it restart to see how it does (this includes the fan on the processor and video card if applicable).
Have you recently upgraded or reseated the CPU or heat-sink? What about the video card? WOW really doesn't need much to run so I find it hard to imagine it pushing ur system to the point that it starting to produce a burning smell. I play it on my 4 year old laptop with no issues. It was getting uncomfortably warm but I fixed that by taking out the heat-sink and blowing out all the dust that had clotted the small air vents inside the heatsink. Are your overclocking anything or has anyone gone into your Bios and messed with any settings in there? That's all I got. Like the others say I'd run a stress test with the casing removed. It could be so many things. What are your specs anyways?
Well it definately is the fan. I blew out the computer with my air compressor, and the fan is still fucked up. For example when I turn it on I have to stick my pinkey in there and get it to start spinning. I do infact need to buy a new fan, thanks for the help guys.
Good thing you found out what it was before some serious damage was caused, a new fan isn't bad compared to a new motherboard.
clean all heat sinks and remove them and apply a fresh layer of artic silver. CAN of air is your friend, you should blow out your machine at least monthly.