Is My Computer Dying?

It is only the candy coating of XP coming off. Very soon you will experience the real bad smell.

Sorry lad, Mac OSX But if you are a Stratocaster person, no offense taken.

I've know at least two people who sold their white G3 iBooks because they couldn't stand the odor. Apparently the buyers were much less offended by the odor. I could smell it, and did find it somewhat offensive, but I didn't have to deal with it for more than a few minutes. I'm pretty sure it is just normal outgassing of the plastic case of that particular batch of plastic, and there is no danger to the computer. I have no knowledge about any toxicity, but Apple is pretty responsible, so I don't think there is a significant danger.

I have two other white G3 iBooks on my workbench right now, and can't smell anything from either of them.

You should be okay until you let the smoke out of it. Electronics actually run on smoke. Ever notice how they completely quit whenever you let the smoke out? The ARRL published an article about that in the April 1999 issue of QST.

no, no, no silly..... all electronics run on FM...

Freakin Magic...

Most probably filters are covered by layers of dust so coolers can't work properly.

Cleaning is needed.

My recent experience with this was the power supply that was plugged into the laptop. Once I replaced it the smell went away.

Talked with an electronics guy at Apple, he had a whole list of electronic malfunction odors. The worst odor he said is power supply meltdown. That is supposed to be absolutely horrendous, with copper and other materials congealing.

The problem is capacitors, about 50-60 in my 6yr. old PowerBook G4. It'll still work ok for a while. The explanation being that capacitors live so long anyway and expire or there is a reverse current that knocks them out. Dying capacitors have a sweet, almost sickly odor. Apple described it as almost like the smell of antifreeze. There were a bunch of other flavors, I went with antifreeze.

Six years of daily Photoshop, I got my money's worth.

Bonus question: ok, we're talking circuit boards, so what are the materials they make capacitors from? And are these materals toxic when they are electrically burned?

You're certainly right about capacitors being a problem, and they commonly do smell quite bad when they go. On the other hand, the caps in laptops are so small that there is not much to leak out. Although I think I have seen some laptops that have died due to failing capacitors, I don't remember any that I could smell. That of course doesn't mean it can't happen, so the OP should be aware of the possibility.

Although it's true that there several dozen capacitors on any logic board, the only ones I've ever seen fail were the metal-can electrolytics, and there are only 4 of those on the 2002 G4 Powerbook LB I just examined, and only 3 on a similar vintage iBook. I have seen non-electrolytics get knocked loose, but that is usually a result of physical damage to the computer or to careless disassembly.

There is a higher probability of cap failure in the power supply, where the voltages are higher. As another poster indicated, that should be checked out too.

Lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries use a sweet smelling 'juice' and when they leak a 'sweet' odor has been noticed.

I'd check your battery and the battery location for any amber colored,gooey gunk.

Hope this helps.

J.

Do you smell it only when it's running?

A slightly sweet odor to me says ozone. About a year ago I had a flat screen go toes up. I could hear a faint buzzing and then could smell ozone. It had to of been something arcing inside. Since it was out of warranty and I knew it was destined for the trash can I took it apart. I could not find any signs of arcing but it could have been inside of some sort of enclosed component.

I don't know if your laptop is on it's way out the door or not but to me it sounds like it's ozone, which you really don't want to breath or have your eyes exposed to.

Travis
KB0PWP

Ozone generation requires high voltage and/or sparking. The only place that could continually happen in a laptop would be at the inverter that produces the 300Volts more or less that run the fluorescent backlight(s), and of course the connections and cables carrying that voltage.

In small quantities, ozone is exhilarating (electric toy trains...). In larger doses it definitely is bad. I don't know where to draw the line. Anyone out there know the physiology?

I'm not sure what the smell may be, but it sure smells like an excellent excuse to buy a new MacBook Pro . With the aluminum case, the new MacBook Pro's are sweet looking machines and appear to be smoking fast. (and that's coming from a Windows guy)

In order to get smell from electrolytic capacitors you have to blow them up. Loud "Bang!", smoke, then smell. After that the capacitor is dead. That means, higher pulsations, or extra feedback through power source. That means if some capacitor smells your computer should be already dead.

As I said before, check ventilation filters through which fans suck an air to cool integrated circuits (CPU, graphics accelerator). If they are dusted temperature inside of your computer may be higher than needed, so some plastics could generate an odor.

However, if you call Apple they will suggest you to spend more money and buy more toys from them...

The smell is clearly worse if they do blow up, and it is a different smell, but at least some people can smell ones that just leak.

Apple has repair extensions (free repairs on out-of warranty devices) on several different computers and other devices as a result of bad batches of capacitors. On most of these, if you open the covers, the bulging ends on those capacitors are quite obvious. I have repaired several - in one case there is a whole row of 6 or 8 plus a couple of other separate ones.

Some of the affected devices work for a while, then fail. Turn off, let cool, turn on - the same thing happens. As you say the dead capacitors kill the unit - either completely or partially.

I had to repair few devices with leaking electrolytic capacitors. In each case causes were placements of them near hot surfaces such as heatsinks. Leaking electrolyte caused shorted traces on PCB, sparks, smell, and death of ICs and transistors.

Here is the picture what did a tiny leaking capacitor with radio from Nissan car:

http://wavebourn.com/images/2005/nissanradio1.jpg

Here is the cap that caused such damage, tiny 1 uF 25V one. Compare with printed 12 pt letters.

http://wavebourn.com/images/2005/nissanradio4.jpg