new Ultra PSU gives out slight smell of plastic

C

cheezies

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 8, 2003
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My new Ultra X-Connect 500 arrived a few days ago, but it is giving off smell of burnt plastic, or maybe it's just a plastic smell. I've opened up the PSU, to inspect, right off the boot, the smell can't be noticed, but if I close my windows, my doors and Prime95, when I come back, I notice the smell again.

I now have my PSU opened and running on the side of my computer, I've inspected the PCB and components, it doesn't seem like anything is wrong. But the smell is still there.
 
Anyone know about burning components? I'm afraid something might be burning.
 
Usually what you fear is the smell of burnt silicon.
:rolleyes: Play with some circuits and put 18volts into something that should use 1.5 volts and get a nice puff of smoke.. thats what you have to fear.. its possible that the smell is actually the psu melting and its doomed.

But overall I think if the voltages are okay and the psu isnt excessively warm, then just hope its burning off some packaging and it will all be okay.
 
The voltages are very, very, good. It's not too hot either, so I think it's all good. The scent has died down in the past couple days.

I'm just paranoid about stores of other PSU's blowing up and taking the motherboard, RAM, and video card with them. That would suck.
 
I have been running the same PSU and am getting the smell also. Reading this thread has alleviated my concerns.
 
I always get weird smells from new hardware, and eventually it goes away, so I wouldnt worry too much about it.
 
just make sure none of the wires dont loose thier supple quality
(extremely hard to do considering those cables)
that is when you have to worry, hardened cables\wires, is a sign of heat
thus a sign of too high a draw, thus a sign of a short

thats how you get fires
 
:eek:, now I'm leaning more towards the antec neo is people are reporting burning smells from this PSU.
 
I had bought a tv that did the same thing too, it's just the smell that comes from manufacturing.
 
Kain said:
Any luck with the review?
Click to expand...

Hi Kain, yeah, my team is setting up the webpage layout and my friend. We're just waiting for the layout and our domain name.

Ice Czar said:
just make sure none of the wires dont loose thier supple quality
(extremely hard to do considering those cables)
that is when you have to worry, hardened cables\wires, is a sign of heat
thus a sign of too high a draw, thus a sign of a short

thats how you get fires
Click to expand...

What do you mean by supple quality?
 
flaxibility, that the plastic isnt hard, or dried out to the point of cracking
that is a really good indicator of a problem

as xonik points out in the thread directly below this one
"18 gauge stranded wire used for the power cables are capable of passing about 10 amps of current through them" you start to exceed that and the wires will first harden, then burn, and finally ignite

that occurs from a short generally, those cables contain the assorted wires of a typical lead a +12V +5V and dual grounds, if a short where to develop in the cable between any of the active wires and the grounds....

but, its very likely just off gassing from manufacturiing as already mentioned
 
It's probably potting varnish...

After they wind the transformers and inductors used in power supplies, they dip them in varnish to keep the wires securely in place and well insulated from each other. During operation, the cores and windings of these magnetics heat up and some chemicals from the varnish are gassed out. It reeks at first, but it'll go away after a while.

We go through this at work. One of my company's products has twenty 2KW switching power supplies, each containing 3 magnetics that are potted in varnish. When we burn the thing in at first, you can probably get high by putting your face near the power supplies :D

Oh, and Enermax supplies tend to reek for a while after you run them.
 
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