CPU/Power Supply fans work but indicator light in front doesn't turn on.

[rjcs]

Hi guys, this is my very first forum post ever in my life and I hope I get super help.
So there I was working on my computer one day. I was downloading a youtube video with a program that has scheduled shutdown computer option upon download completion. I turned that on and turned off my monitor. After about 1-2 mins I noticed the power and HDD indicator lights in front of the CPU casing is turned off so I thought for some reason my pc probably turned off. I tried turning it on by pressing the power button and at the same time turned my monitor on. It turned on with a light-brown colored background so I quickly hit restart but then it won't turn on. I plugged by USB in hoping it would try to boot from the USB (my bios settings primary boot is set to removable devices). Then I pressed the power button again but THIS TIME I noticed that a very bad wire-burning type smell is coming out so I instantly turned EVERYTHING off.
Later I opened my CPU casing and tried smelling the devices and found that probably the smell is coming from my second (and newer) hard disk that is about 10 months old.
So, finding no hope and ideas I threw myself to computerhope.com's forum from my school laptop...please anyone help me out ASAP!
Note that when I still try to turn my the pc on the power supply fan, the ethernet lights and even the DVD-rom drive works; so I am totally confused!
My pc is  Intel Core2duo, 2GB ram/memory, 256 internal video memory, primary hard-disk=160gb and secondary (newer)hard-disk= 500gb.

I usually am expert in helping out my friends and relatives in fixing THEIR computer but for the first time I need HELP!!!
THANKS to everyone in advance...

[DaveLembke]

Minimal boot is where I'd start. If motherboard has integrated video use that, disconnect all drives, and just have the motherboard set up with 1 ram stick, and try to boot. If you get it to boot then shut it down and add 1 component and boot up again if no boot then you found the cause if it boots then move to next component to add and repeat. If no boot on minimal boot, then swap single Ram stick with another if you had more than 1 stick. If still no minimal boot swap power supply. If still no minimal boot its something local to motherboard. Unistall CPU and check for damage and reinstall it, apply thermal compound and heatsink and try another boot. If still no boot, I'd buy or use a different motherboard unless you have a POST card to work with and want to troubleshoot deeper.

Cooked component smell is not a good thing, if you can localize the smell and find burned traces or parts that would be a help in determining if this can be saved or if you need to start a new build. I have only seen one hard drive smoke before and that was my friend way back when SATA drives first came out and it had a P connection as well as SATA power. He hooked up both and cooked it. On a small warning in the box it warns not to plug power to both. I'd doubt if your drive is one of these drives given that you mentioned that it is 10 months old.