hardware can fail "partly"?

My desktop PC is giving out unpleasant burning smell , I will bring it to computer shop for repair in a few days, the man told me that it could be failing capacitor or some components are burnt. I told him my computer still worked totally but he said it 's possible and likely that some components fail or burnt but the whole system still works without obvious signs.

Well, is it real? I have this desktop PC fixed for a couple of times. It's the first PC I built by myself three years ago. Yes, this is the First PC I've ever built by myself. Before that, all PC I had were bought as a whole unit from Dell or Acer. I never built one by myself.

I really feel so frustrated and I don't know if I should still spend $$$$ on this PC. It looks like I am so unlucky with building a PC.

 

Seriously dude, I had an issue years ago where my computer would shut down for no reason, even just after booting.
I sent it to repair center and they told me they looked but couldn't find anything wrong, and so gave me it back.
Not giving up, I took the back off the desktop and to my astonishment there was this massive piece of fluff (dust) between the heat sink and the fan. I removed this and I had no more issues for a couple of years. Amazing!! True story by the way!!

EDIT: I suppose what I'm trying to say is....Have a wee look yourself before you give it away or spend a fortune trying to get it fixed.

 

Yes, he is correct. A lot of the larger smd components are meant for power conditioning, such as capacitors, vrms and inductors. Some can fail and the system will still run (since there's several doing the same job), whereas with others it'll be terminal since there's only a single one and the signal can't pass through anymore.

Replacing these components, especially large ones, isn't terribly hard or expensive. Mainly you'll be paying an hourly fee, but you could also diy if you have a multimeter (or not, if it's obviously defective) and a soldering iron. The item itself should be ~$1 or thereabouts.

 

First off if the system you built has warranty for the board then I would contact the board maker for the warranty first.