What is the possible problem of my desktop PC?

[louis2008]

My desktop PC is put in a very small room, recently, I find that there is strange smell probably coming from the PC, it's like burnt charcoal, besides this, there is no other sign, and my PC still works perfectly. The PSU should be decent because it's by Antec.
I took it to a nearby small computer shop for check up but he wasn't able to figure out what the problem was.

However, the smell is really obvious. It has persisted for a week already, I cannot find any other sign. I am quite pretty sure that the smell comes from the desktop.

Is there any underlying problem that we have overlooked?

I want to once emphasize that the computer still works perfectly.

Could it be the PSU failing but not has not failed totally?

 

[rootabaga]

It could be the fan in the PSU or the CPU fan, the latter of which would be disastrous as the CPU would fry. Your video card may have a fan on it as well, and you may also have a case fan.

With it off and unplugged, stick your nose in the PS vents and take a whiff. If the odor is strongly present just replace the whole PS. Unless you are qualified you could be injured or die trying to replace it.

If the odor is not strongly present at the PS vents then open the case and sequentially check each of the fans in a similar way.

Good luck. And find another shop, too. This kind of thing is easy.

 

[jhtalisman]

How old is the PC? Are there any other symptoms such as random rebooting or shut down? When was the last time the inside of the PC was cleaned of dust accumulation?

You can monitor temps and fan speeds (if enabled by the motherboard manufacturer) with a program called Hardware Monitor by CPUID. It will not monitor PSU fan speeds, but it will monitor the voltages.

If something is burning or overheating it could be anything from memory to a hard drive and anything in between.

 

[louis2008]

How old is the PC? Are there any other symptoms such as random rebooting or shut down? When was the last time the inside of the PC was cleaned of dust accumulation?

You can monitor temps and fan speeds (if enabled by the motherboard manufacturer) with a program called Hardware Monitor by CPUID. It will not monitor PSU fan speeds, but it will monitor the voltages.

If something is burning or overheating it could be anything from memory to a hard drive and anything in between.

No other symptoms, everything is just fine. The system works totally.

However, the smell is really obvious. My room is really small.

 

[nickdalzell]

Could be RIFA-madness, aka a failed, venting RIFA capacitor. Those are usually used for filters and aren't vital to the system functioning properly. However, I'd be looking for the bad one and unsoldering it from the board to avoid not only the smell but a potential fire hazard.

This YouTuber had a RIFA go poof on a monitor on video, yet the monitor kept going.
Compaq DeskPro 386s first (and last ?) look - YouTube