Popping noise followed by burning smell when reviving my laptop

Valus
Valus Member Posts: 6 New User
edited August 2023 in 2018 Archives
My laptop randomly died, probably due to overheating, and during the process of reviving it, (pressing fn + power button) I heard one to three popping noises and then a smell of burning coming from the vents of the fans. The laptop did turn back on and everything seems fine, but I shut it down before more problems can occur, and I'm not sure whether to open it or not. What might seems to be the problem inside the laptop?

Best Answer

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,186 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    Try vacuuming the air intake and blowing air thru the air exhaust to chase out any dust bunnies that may be heating things up and giving you that peculiar overheated-dustbunny aroma.  :) Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

Answers

  • brummyfan2
    brummyfan2 ACE Posts: 28,701 Trailblazer
    Hi,
    If you are within the warranty period, get it fixed by Acer Service centre, if not, you can open it up and clean the fans or let a technician at a local repair shop to have a look.
    http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/

    Acer Predator PT516-51s Performance Results - UserBenchmark

  • Valus
    Valus Member Posts: 6 New User
    Thanks for the reply,

    Unfortunately, my warranty recently ended, and I just turned on my computer again and everything seems fine. Fans are working, no signs of overheating when not using it, so I am still unsure what's the problem. At the moment, I am in school, but after finals, I will open up my laptop and see what's the problem. Is it ok if I can open the laptop to see what happened?

  • brummyfan2
    brummyfan2 ACE Posts: 28,701 Trailblazer
    No problem, yes open it up and check for any burn marks on any capacitors or on the motherboard.

    Acer Predator PT516-51s Performance Results - UserBenchmark

  • Valus
    Valus Member Posts: 6 New User
    brummyfan2 said:
    No problem, yes open it up and check for any burn marks on any capacitors or on the motherboard.
    Ok, thanks for the help. I will do that. But for now, everything is looking fine, so I ran Overwatch on it to see if any other problems occur. When my laptop was at 74 Celsius (not a good sign, but that happens normally whenever I ran a game), I smelled the burning odor again coming from the vents of my laptop. I shut it off again, and when it cooled down and when the fans stop, I don't smell it again. I'm assuming that the problem is either the burnt marks on the capacitors, or there are dusts in my laptop.
  • Valus
    Valus Member Posts: 6 New User
    brummyfan2 said:
    No problem, yes open it up and check for any burn marks on any capacitors or on the motherboard.
    They seem fine to me. Everything seems to be okay and normal. I don't see any burnt marks.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 45,186 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    Try vacuuming the air intake and blowing air thru the air exhaust to chase out any dust bunnies that may be heating things up and giving you that peculiar overheated-dustbunny aroma.  :) Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Valus
    Valus Member Posts: 6 New User
    JackE said:
    Try vacuuming the air intake and blowing air thru the air exhaust to chase out any dust bunnies that may be heating things up and giving you that peculiar overheated-dustbunny aroma.  :) Jack E/NJ
    Yep, I did that. Overall, I think my laptop is just fine. Nothing seemed to be broken. I think I'm just overreacting with the smell. It smells like hot plastic, but it doesn't fit into the category of "burning plastic." I don't know, but I think there's nothing wrong with my laptop.

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