Pc smells like burning

[j1gabyt3]

abnormal shut down while booting pc

hi

i got win xp pro on Gigabyte GA-7VA and AMD XP1800+ with GF4MX440 running for almost 13 months. I use 350W ATX power suply.

last week i noticed that my computer was running very slow while
doing the usual stuff browsing internet, playing cs1.6. anyways, when i CTRL + ALT + DEL to check the system performance i saw the commit charge for my CPU was always 0% and occasionally it goes to 45% or 26% or something else, then it always goes back to 0% charge when i leave pc to idle.

i dont know what happened but before this problem i used to see the commit charge at 25% the least and goes up and down from there but never on 0%..

so i just ran the computer for couple more days and in the weekend it simply wont load xp. no matter what i do the computer just shuts down by itself after like a minute into the booting process. and also, everytime i boot the comp i smell sumthing is burning. however the 2 sysfans and my cpu fan is functioning properly.

my question is which part is likely to need replacement.. the CPU, motherboard, or the POwer supply ? i want to be sure which part is really broken because im tight on budget. i'm stuck any help is greatly apreciated.

 

[Grey Area]

Start up the PC, shut it down after you smell the burning. Take out the chip and PSU and take them into a different room and sniff them! Likely the one that smells worst of burning is the culprit.

Failing that, start replacement with the cheapest first...PSU, then mobo, then chip.

 

[Greeno]

Because obviously "Scratch and Sniff" Forum posts are indeed still a thing of the future, your best bet is, like GA says, trust your nose and smell them all seperately... your Windows install might be buggered either way, but you need to make sure your hardwares ok to fully fix the problem.

Do you know anyone else who's handy with PC's or electronics that maybe able to help? we can only really advise, we can't tell you what it is from here.

 

[j1gabyt3]

i follow ur advice. the cpu chip is fine and no suspicious smell. (whew!)

okay in the process of taking out the psu i discovered that the ATX power connector is suddenly very hard to pull out from the motherboard slot. it appears that around 4 small wires on the ATX connector burned (i could see dark outlines of the wires from the oustide plastic of connector that is not visible with the other wires on the ATX connector ) . so now im worried if how i can take this out in case the ATX connector is glued to the slot coz i see a tiny bit of melted plastic around the connector.

curious question : with the ATX connector burned can i still keep this old motherboard once i get a new psu ?

edit:: finally pulled the ATX connector out of the slot. But some burned plastic parts are still remaining on the ATX slot. With the looks of it I may have to buy a new motherboard, but hopefully only a new PSU will be enuf.

By the way Is it just coincidence that all the 4 burned wires on my ATX connector were red wires or is this a sign/hint to the real cause of the burning in the first place?