Compressed Air Smell ?

Not sure if this is the right section of the forum to post but i'll give it a shot.

Does anyone know what do cans of compressed air smell like ?

I'm talking about the ones used to clean PC parts.

Had a weird issue... my PSU died and the service replaced it with a new one : Corsair CX750M.

Ever since replacing it 5-6 days ago, whever i turn ON my PC there's like this weird vague sweet chemical type smell that lasts for about 15 min and then goes away slowly. I am wodering if perhaps they used compressed air and that's what i am sensing when i sniff next to the PC case.

Someone else told me this might also be solder flux but right now i'm more concerned to finding out what the smell is.

Hi,

I googled "Corsair CX750M smell" and you are not alone. I would return that and buy an ANTEC.

The Power Supply series - Antec

MaloK said:

Hi,

I googled "Corsair CX750M smell" and you are not alone. I would return that and buy an ANTEC.

The Power Supply series - Antec

That's not what i asked...

I didn't say the PSU smells, all i said is there a VAGUE sweet chemical type smell and it's not even coming from the PSU as far as i can tell... i just sense it up top where the dust filter is and have 2 coolers also over there. I also need to be really close to the PC like 3 cm away to sniff... if i'm sitting 2 feet away on my desk chair i can't sense the smell.

Temps are also good, i already checked, voltages are good, check that also.

It's not intense or anything, it's actually quite FAINT but i would just like to know what the hell it is.

It's probably only the paint they used and it will fade soon. or it could be a cleaning product they used. But canned air smell dissipates really fast and it cant be that.

MaloK said:

It's probably only the paint they used and it will fade soon. or it could be a cleaning product they used. But canned air smell dissipates really fast and it cant be that.

So what other cleaning products would they have used ?

Scum removers, some are quite smelly like ScumOff, GooGone, they leave a smell for a while.

Bree said:

The smell of burnt electronics is quite distinct, and not 'smokey' as you'd expect. Once experienced never forgotten. Those of us who have worked as electronic engineers have learned to know and fear that smell.


The thing about a failing component is that it vaporises the component casing. You can usually spot a small melted spot on one end of a dead integrated circuit chip where vaporised plastic has erupted like a mini volcano.

Your smell may well be the condensed vapours from you previous failed PSU, still lingering on the filters. Try taking them out and sniffing them on their own. If that's the source of the smell you could replace them, or at least relax knowing that it's not a new fault developing.

But that's just it, i did sniff the PC after the old one died and there was no smell, hell the old PSU itself even looked clean. LOL

I am just hoping this smell isn't the new PSU being faulty.

At the moment you described it as a "sweet chemical type smell" That would fit with the product used to clean. These no petroleum solvent have a very strong sweet and fruity smell that holds for a while.