Burnt smell, shut down... but now okay?

karavite

karavite

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Last night the old G4 DP 1 GHZ was running away syncing to the iPOD. I left the room, came back and smelled that horrible burnt electrical smell. The computer was off! I thought, okay, this is it, the old standby died. Opening the case the smell seemed to come from the power supply. Figuring what the heck, I started it up and here I am writing a note to you about it from the same machine. No apparent damage.

I have a hypothesis. With the heat and so many AC's on, perhaps there was a dip in the voltage and it was too much for the computer to handle? The room was very cool itself. Even though it works, obviously something in there is fried - right?

Any way, I am in luck. I do have the replacement power supply sent by Apple years ago to make this machine quieter. I was saving it for a time like this.
 
Well, as I went out to lunch today to buy a can of compressed air I will sheepishly answer, yes - lots of dust. I had no idea it built up so fast since the last cleaning!
 
karavite said:
I left the room, came back and smelled that horrible burnt electrical smell. The computer was off! ... Even though it works, obviously something in there is fried - right?
I do have the replacement power supply sent by Apple years ago to make this machine quieter. I was saving it for a time like this.
Click to expand...

And if I were you I'd use it! The smell of burning dust is different from that of cooked cable sheathing and soldered connections, and if it were just the dust it probably would have been noticed earlier.

I suspect there's a cooked cable in that old PSU. Replace it for safety's sake, and, once removed, it can be checked for damage, even though it's working. You can always keep the old one as a standby once it's been repaired (if necessary).
 
I may be dumb, but not that dumb! :) I just replaced the power supply and the old one was definitely 100% absolutely the source of the burnt smell. Before this I removed the dust and I was shocked at how much there was. Never under estimate the dust in an old house! Whatever caused the problem last night, I'm not taking chances. Regular dusting will be a routine.

Now I feel even stupider. This was the PS Apple put out to address issues of noise. This unopened PS has been in a closet for five years and I have been living with the unbelievably loud G4 "Hoover" edition for 6 years! Now it is quiet as a mouse!!! Even though it is essentially the third computer in the house, I am glad it has a new lease on life and I was lucky enough not to blow it up last night. Thanks for all the tips.
 
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