My main and old computer (Pentium II from 1998) is giving off a bad smell, as if rubber/tyres are burning or I'm in a train/bus with new brake lines. It's giving me a headache and I have a bad feeling about its health effects.
No wires are touching the heatsink - I already checked that.
Any ideas on what this is?
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6 comments:
Uhm, well, just in case you're not kidding about this... something in your computer is dying (or is already dead). Likely suspects are the power supply, RAM, CPU, video card and/or motherboard (probably in that order too). Hard drives rarely make a funny smell if they're dead.
I would check for bulging capacitors on the motherboard too... although it seems like the Taiwanese capacitor problem didn't exist during the Pentium II era.
Maybe an old rubbing fan.
I had a problem like this a while ago - was the PSU.
My bet is the PSU as well.
Probably a electrolytic capacitor is dying and they do smell very bad.
You could also check if the electrolytic capacitors around your CPU have a "bulge" on top.
I had a motherboard that went bad with burnt capacitor's (as in, it started smoking and there were black scortch marks). That smelled awful.
Thanks to everyone for their replies. Apologies for my late one.
It turns out it is probably the fan in the power supply unit. Removing the dust from the fan not only gets rid of some noise (which I thought was the hard disk getting scratched) but also gets rid of the smell on most days. Sometimes the smell is still there.
I tried to look for a new power supply but given how old the case and motherboard are, I still haven't succeeded and it would probably cost more than the computer anyway.
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