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#1 |
Badcaps Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2020
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![]() So I assembled my new PC. Ir runs fine, no issues whatsoever.
I noticed I was starting to get a strong odor of urine in my bedroom (the room the PC is in). The only new thing in the room is the PC. Just to eliminate all other suspects, I turned the PC off, unplugged it, and then spend all day today cleaning the room. Like really cleaning the room. The urine smells is gone now. Tomorrow I am going to turn the PC on and if the urine smells comes back, then thats the culprit. But why in the world would a computer make a urine smell? |
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#2 |
Badcaps Veteran
Join Date: Feb 2014
City & State: Midlands
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![]() Leaky caps have a smell of ammonia.
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#3 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() It was a very strong, pungent urine smell.
The motherboard says it has a "Solid Capacitor Design" https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970M%20Pro3 Here is the PSU in the computer https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The video card and HDD's are a swap from another PC that didn't smell, so I don't think they are a possibility. |
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#4 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Do you have young kids or critters?
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#5 |
Badcaps Veteran
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#6 |
The Boss Stooge
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![]() Let everything finish outgassing. This can take a few days. If it persists, check the caps.
FWIW, outgassing of plastics & glues curing is what creates the 'new car smell' in a new car. ![]()
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#7 | |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Quote:
I am still not 100% sure it IS the PC, tommorow will determine that. If running th PC causes the odor to return, I'm guess it can only be wither the motherboard or PSU, and I would likely suspect the PSU both because the motherboard is advertised as having "solid caps" and the PSU has a fan in it that would blow the odor out causing it to spread as much as it did. We will see what tomm brings |
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#8 |
The Boss Stooge
Join Date: Oct 2003
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![]() Do you have any pets? Old carpet? Humid?
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#9 |
Badcaps Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2010
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![]() I find new PC power supplies stink terrible - the varnish, fiberglass resins, plasticizers will off-gas for at least a week or two. So that is more like Dollar Store stink than urine. Unless the cat pissed on it.
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#10 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() You might try the PC in a different room.
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#11 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Just to close the loop, I restarted the PC and the odor never came back so it must have been something else.
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#12 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() OK, the case is reopened. I took a side cover off the case, fired up the PC, and the odor does seem to be coming back. It is less "urine"-y now and def more of a "hot electronics" odor. I sniffed around the inside of the case and best I can tell it seems to be coming mostly from the CPU cooler itself. My temps are 21-22C so nothing is overheating, the cooler itself is cool to the touch. It'a an overall very low power system. The power supply does not seem to smell at all. I looked around with a little flashlight and see nothing leaking, burned, or otherwise out of the ordinary. I touched around various areas and the only mildly warm thing I felt is a passive heatsink on the motherboard which I assume is the Southbridge
I used a fresh application of Arctic Silver thermal paste when I installed the CPU cooler. The cooler itself is a "black" model, maybe it's that paint curing over time? |
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#13 |
Great Sage 齊天大聖
Join Date: Dec 2009
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![]() maybe the fan plastics are the cause.
i got a radio a while back - the moulded plastic tray in the box smelt so bad that i binned it |
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#14 | |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Quote:
This is the cooler I have https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HH6G48J/. It is painted/coated/made black somehow, my thinking is maybe whatever the black coating is needs to cure? The only really hot thing in the PC is the CPU, and by contact the bottom of the cooler. When I touch the upper fins of the cooler it is barely warm though. But the smell is building up. Not sure if it is worth swapping out the CPU cooler for a different model |
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#15 |
Badcaps Veteran
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#16 |
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![]() I took the PC apart, and the smell is definitely coming from the motherboard. It is coming from the area of the expansion slots. I took off the northbridge heatsink, and the heatsink itself does not smell, but the chip underneath does. I cleaned the entire area of the board with IPA, but the smell is not going away. The only things near this area of the board are the plastic PCI-e and other card slots, the BIOS battery, the northbridge, and some random caps. There is no leakage or damage on either side of the board in that area
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#17 |
Great Sage 齊天大聖
Join Date: Dec 2009
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![]() must be the plastic connectors then.
![]() maybe heat does it - try using a hair dryer |
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#18 | |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Quote:
Tonight I am going to do a full teardown of the machine, load up my little spray bottle with fresh 99.9% IPA, take a brand new ultra soft toothbrush, and really scrub down the entire motherboard. If it is some sort of reside or coating that was just not washed off at the factory, that should clean it up. I took a detailed visual examination of the area and nothing seems wrong, no caps bulging or leaking, and while in operaiton the board functioned flawlessly. As an aside someone said in another forum that Mass Air Flow Sensor cleaner also makes a good circuit board cleaner? By happenstance I just bought a fresh can of MAF cleaner yesterday, I could give the board a good spraydown with that before going in with the toothbrush. Or is straight IPA preferred? |
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#19 | ||
"Oh, Grouchy!"
Join Date: Jan 2011
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![]() Actually, I use MAF sensor cleaner on PCBs, if/when I don't want to "waste" my CRC QD.
Are we certain this is a *new* motherboard? ![]() Not that I do it much anymore since the bottom's fallen out around here, but: My usual routine is IPA+ Simple Green, "spray & wait" (5-20mins), then thorough rinse w/ either cool tap water or RO filtered water if something like optical pickups or inkjet printheads. If it involves cigarette-paste-infused TV/VCR/DVD/stereo boards, I've been known to use 409, various "orange cleaners," and even Spray-Nine. ![]() For a mobo, I first use an electric "air duster" such as used in the 80's-90's for TV & other electronic servicing, to remove most of the water from the PCI & RAM slots. I have an apparatus consisting of an inline blower and 1980's PTC Pelonis heater. I turn the heater way down and have the blower's intake an inch or so away from the heater's front; most of the air bypasses the heater and the result is 80-100 degree air at the blower discharge. I attach a round cardboard "duct" to the blower outlet and place the PCBs inside to dry. With something like a mobo, I "blast" it in quadrants, rotating it every half hour, for maybe 4 hours. When I *think* it's dry, it gets another hour to be sure. ![]()
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#20 | |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Quote:
I think I will just use IPA, I have 2 big jugs of it and I use it to clean electronics all the time so I know it' safe. I will be scrubbing it clean, then leaving it overnight to see if the odor returns, so it will have plenty of time to dry |
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