PC Gets hot and smells weird.

[Sirlacker]

Just as an added thing, whatever you do, do not open the case of a prebuilt PC without explicit consent to do so from the seller.

Laws around warranty vary and that's an expensive bit of equipment and even if its a hardware error or an error on their part and all you do is open it to clean it or whatever, you could loose out any warranty you have.

Unless that PC lives in a workshop or you have a pet that sits on it or brushes up against it, or you've literally been pouring dust onto it, there is no way after 6 months that it's that dusty inside that it's begining to clog up.

Once you do get consent to open it up, even to clean it, video yourself doing so. Doing no more or no less than you required permission to do without voiding warranty and then save that video. It may seem unessacary but it'll be your saving grace should you ever need to go down the route of requesting a refund or warranty repair.

 

[TheWetDolphin]

Didn't get it on amazon, I bought it at a walmart. I just used the Amazon link to show the pc I have, incase its a shoddy build or something.

In that case, it makes things even easier for you. Take it back to the store where they can get you a replacement or offer a repair. There are some good suggestions in this thread, but like I said, if you don't know what you're doing its best you just take it back to the store you bought it from.

 

[Voids Light]

With that PC you shouldn't have any issues running Planet Zoo.

From the pictures I can see 2, potentially 3 spots for fans yet can only actually see 1. Can you confirm how many actual fans this case has?

Ideally you'll want two fans minimum, one intake and one exhaust fan.

I'd check that all fans are working correctly and if there's more than one, that they both spin in opposite directions from one another.

I'd also download HWMonitor and check temperatures, especially on the GPU and CPU. You can Google their respective safe operating temp ranges.

If anything doesn't seem normal contact the seller. If there's only one fan, contact the seller and ask if adding another will void warranty.

On the side I can see, I noticed 2 fans. One big one near a vent, and then one above what looks like a motherboard.

 

[Voids Light]

Just as an added thing, whatever you do, do not open the case of a prebuilt PC without explicit consent to do so from the seller.

Laws around warranty vary and that's an expensive bit of equipment and even if its a hardware error or an error on their part and all you do is open it to clean it or whatever, you could loose out any warranty you have.

Unless that PC lives in a workshop or you have a pet that sits on it or brushes up against it, or you've literally been pouring dust onto it, there is no way after 6 months that it's that dusty inside that it's begining to clog up.

Once you do get consent to open it up, even to clean it, video yourself doing so. Doing no more or no less than you required permission to do without voiding warranty and then save that video. It may seem unessacary but it'll be your saving grace should you ever need to go down the route of requesting a refund or warranty repair.

The thing is, I think earlier we removed the glass panel to open the PC up, since I heard rattling, which was an airbag caught in a fan. We also I think cleaned the dust off the inside of the pc, months ago, so I think the warranty is probably voided, if that is against it, which I'm not sure if it is..

 

[Voids Light]

I'm sort of confused now, since it can be a variety of problems, and I'm not good with computers.. The pc only gets hot and smells weird when playing planet zoo on ultra graphics. (haven't tried the other graphical settings yet). And while it runs fine, the GPU, from what others are saying seems to be melting, due to getting too hot. If this is a defect, I'm not so sure that I can take it back to the store, as I no longer have the receipt due to it being months since I got the PC. I need to check the manual for the warranty, but we already opened the PC once before, in order to take out a plastic bag, and to dust it off, so it probably voided the warranty. I don't know what to do, or what to try first out of these suggestions..

 

[Noobilite]

Get the software to check your thermals. That can potentially tell you what part is getting warm very quickly. That and cleaning out the PC. If the warranty is not an issue clean first. If not check thermals.

The thermal temps can tell you which part is specifically getting warm. Also if you can look in your PC while it's running to see if any fans aren't working. I'm not sure but some modern fans don't turn on until under sufficient load. So, you might need to look into this. It could be your fans aren't turning on when needed. This could be the fans dieing or a number of things like the fan settings. Not sure how the warranty works.

BTW, the thermals may show what is hot even without running the game. It may seem normal without the game running but it might just not be obvious at first glance. Seeing the numbers and posting them will help people possibly figure out the problem. People may know or may be able to look up acceptable temp for the parts you have. That is one possible way to diagnose this.

Getting specific values and showing people can give a lot of potential information to anyone looking at this.

 

[Factabulous]

turn down the graphics level first - see if it stops smelling. Anything else is going to get more complicated / stands a higher chance of things breaking.

 

[Voids Light]

The fans are constantly running when the pc are on, and they work perfectly fine. Both of the fans are still running. I'll see about getting the program in which allows me to check the temperature of the computer.

 

[Voids Light]

Also, where can I find the program to check the temperature at?Just so I know what I'm looking for, and where the real install is.

 

[Sirlacker]

Also, where can I find the program to check the temperature at?Just so I know what I'm looking for, and where the real install is.

https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

Website looks a little dodgy however this is probably one of the best free tools you can use for checking your hardware.

 

[Voids Light]

ah alright. Thank you.

 

[Voids Light]

I don't think opening the PC case voids the warranty, as you have to open it to remove all the plastic bags and stuff.

 

[Silhouette]

Just want to throw out that I found out for the first time today what a burning laptop smells like took me way too long to realize that "weird smell" was actually my laptop.

A bit disappointed, my laptop's taken pretty intensive 3D programs before with no problem, but this game just seems to run it extra hard.

 

[Rick6549]

ah alright. Thank you.

Try msi afterburner. Lets you see your fans, temps, you can underclock it, overclock it, set fan speed, all that good stuff

Afterburner

MSI Afterburner is the world’s most recognized and widely used graphics card overclocking utility. It provides detailed overview of your hardware and comes with some additional features like customizing fan profiles, benchmarking and video recording.

www.msi.com

 

[Voids Light]

Try msi afterburner. Lets you see your fans, temps, you can underclock it, overclock it, set fan speed, all that good stuff

Afterburner

MSI Afterburner is the world’s most recognized and widely used graphics card overclocking utility. It provides detailed overview of your hardware and comes with some additional features like customizing fan profiles, benchmarking and video recording.

www.msi.com

Thank you. Is the site safer than the other one?

 

[Voids Light]

Just want to throw out that I found out for the first time today what a burning laptop smells like took me way too long to realize that "weird smell" was actually my laptop.

A bit disappointed, my laptop's taken pretty intensive 3D programs before with no problem, but this game just seems to run it extra hard.

What if this is a problem with the game itself? Where to some computers or graphics cards, it just melts them?

 

[Rick6549]

Thank you. Is the site safer than the other one?

For sure. MSI makes graphics cards and motherboards. I use it alot.

 

[IPFreely]

maybe we finally got SMELL-o-Vision

 

[Voids Light]

maybe we finally got SMELL-o-Vision

Sadly no. I wish it were that, but I fear its much much worse. My PC could be defective or something, and I'm just now noticing it. Weird how its only on planet zoo where it smells like this though..

 

[Rick6549]

Sadly no. I wish it were that, but I fear its much much worse. My PC could be defective or something, and I'm just now noticing it. Weird how its only on planet zoo where it smells like this though..

Planet zoo appears to be more of a high end game, uses a lot of power