[melesmama]

I have a Whirlpool Quiet Partner II that is about 5 years old. No complaints with the machine, it does great and I've never had any problems.

2 nights ago, about 25 minutes into a cycle, the machine started to emit a burning smell from the control panel area. I can only relate it to the plastic melting/ozone burning smell that happens when a computer monitor burns out.

There are no smoke/fire and there are no melted/hot/scorch marks anywhere. I pulled off the bottom panel to be sure it wasn't something in the wire harness melting but everything down there looks clean,connected and dry.

Anyhow, the cycle stopped on its own. I cancelled the cycle, restarted the machine and the cycle started and finished without incident.

Yesterday night, I tried to run another cycle. It sensed, started washing, released the tablet, but about 25 minutes in, the cycle stopped, and the "clean" light started flashing repeatedly (7 times). I opened it up, there are no obstructions, the water is hot, everything inside looks good.

Reading up on the error - I performed the following to clear the error.

Reset breaker, pressed "heatdry normal heatdry normal cancel" open door close door. Error cleared.

Tried the cycle again - same thing. About 20-25 mins in, the cycle stops and the same error occurs.

I'm thinking that the control board melted, or maybe the fuse blew (I didn't know it had one) I remember what burnt fuses smell like from being the kid who got sent to change them - I don't remember plastic smell.

So my questions are these:

What is the likely source of the error/melting smell? No one else with this error reported any sort of melting smell that I could find.

How do I look at the control board? Is it through the inner door panel, or do I have to pull off the sticker/control panel to get to it?

Should I just start shopping for a new dishwasher I can't afford?

Thank you for your time and expertise!