While playing The Witcher 3, my PC made a loud pop, suddenly shut off, and started smelling like burnt electronics. The smell seemed to come from the EVGA 850 GT power supply. I removed it and can hear something rattling inside. The system has an RTX 3090, Ryzen 7 3800X, several terabytes of storage, and Corsair memory. Is the power supply definitely dead, can it be repaired or salvaged, and should I replace it with another 850W unit or upgrade to 1000W?
3 Answers
Replace the power supply rather than trying to salvage it. A pop, burnt smell, and rattling are serious warning signs. Do not open the unit—even unplugged, its capacitors can retain a dangerous charge. With an RTX 3090, choose a high-quality 850W or 1000W model from a reputable manufacturer, depending on your budget and the rest of the system.
Treat the failed PSU as unsafe and dispose of it through an electronics recycling facility. Don’t keep testing it or shake it to investigate the noise. Buy a modern, well-reviewed replacement from a reliable brand, and inspect the motherboard, graphics card, and cables for scorch marks before installing it. Hopefully only the PSU failed, but a power event can sometimes damage other parts too.
A quality 850W unit should generally be sufficient for a Ryzen 7 3800X and RTX 3090, but a good 1000W model gives you more headroom for power spikes and future upgrades. Higher wattage does not force extra power into the PC, so using a properly installed 1000W PSU will not damage the components by itself.
That helps. I was worried that moving from 850W to 1000W could somehow overload the system, but extra headroom sounds useful.
I don’t have a spare unit to test with, but the smell definitely seemed to come from the power supply. I’ll avoid opening it and replace it instead.