If there is a smell from the video card after overheating, does this mean it will end soon or not?

Question

Iron

I played STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, the computer turned off twice during the game, which I had not seen before. At the same time, a faint smell of burnt electronics began to come from the computer. I decided to check the video card cooler. It turned out that he was clogged with dust and did not spin. I cleaned the dust, the video card is still working. But my question is: for how long? If the video card worked without cooling, then its processor most likely overheated and began to set fire to everything around it. Do you think there is cause for concern?

Answer 1

Replace the thermal paste under the cooler, inspect the wires and textolite for color changes, the elements on the board for deformations, clean it very well (I usually put a vacuum cleaner in front of the pipe and walk around the card with a gouache brush, the rest I blow out with a jar of compressed air). If after cleaning the smell is gone - most likely the worst is over. Modern processors have pretty good protection against overheating, so if the computer turned itself off and then worked fine, it is unlikely that significant harm was done to it.

Answer 2

As they say, figs you will understand what is here. But there is cause for concern, because it was not in vain that it smelled of being burned. We will not help here, and you will not do anything with microelectronics either. It might work, it might not. But the best thing to do is start saving...