Something smells fishy...

Gatsby · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:15

Well it does. My brother has a rather old computer which I just noticed smelled heavily of fish after being left on for a few hours. According to a friend this usually means something electrical is overheating but couldn't be any more specific.

The computer is one I bodged together from old bits of mine and has been prone to overheating in the past (graphics problems occur if you play dod:source on it for more than an hour or so on a warm day) but this is the first time the smell has happened. And we weren't gaming on it this time, it was just idle.

I'm going to move the computer to a better case with more ventilation and clean out the dust to see if that helps, but I'd like to know if anyone has any experience of this because its the first time any of my computers has smelled of fish... :confused:

Traducer · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:19

Sounds like something is corroded to me, or corroding hehe.

Mr Mister · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:20

probably the first thing to check for would be any signs of fish clogging up the cpu fan. Tuna is most likely if you eat near the pc but also the likes of kipper (pranksters favourite) and also sardines as they can easily slide out of a tin and into your pc.

Traducer · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:25

Mr Mister said:
probably the first thing to check for would be any signs of fish clogging up the cpu fan. Tuna is most likely if you eat near the pc but also the likes of kipper (pranksters favourite) and also sardines as they can easily slide out of a tin and into your pc.

Yes this may also explain the problem.

Gatsby · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:27

Heh, knew there would be a joke post in this

But I have checked for any actual fish inside the computer and I can assure you no sardines have crawled in to the case and died or anything like that.

Traducer, any idea what would be corroding? I'd like to avoid replacing the whole rig.

Traducer · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:36

I'm not exactly sure to be honest as I never seen this problem on a PC before, and I have worked on some very very old machines.
I guess it could be the PSU maybe, or something to do with the case, you need to open the case when its on and try and find out where exactly the smell is coming from.

WJA96 · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:56

Has he just had the "Real Doll" driver upgrade?

Gatsby · 20 Apr 2006 at 19:57

Yeah I tried that but couldn't pin-point it. Though I have just noticed that speedfan reports the voltages to be way off what they should be (apparently the +12v rail is at 4v :eek:

) so I'm guessing a new psu is in order at any rate.

AtreuS · 20 Apr 2006 at 20:13

Check the bios battery isnt leaking and do a visual inpection of the capacators on the mainboard. These can also leak before they fail.

Other than that it could be lots of dust and crud in the PSU overheating?

Mercutio · 20 Apr 2006 at 20:15

that sounds like possible popped capacitors - id suspect it even more if the PSU is out by that much. The electrolite in them that holds the charge tends to pong a fair bit

Traducer · 20 Apr 2006 at 21:16

WJA96 said:
Has he just had the "Real Doll" driver upgrade?

Talking from experience here?