removing bad smell

[Hyperspeed]

Phoo!

I know the smell you mean... and I think it's electrolyte!

It smells of fishy or rotting flies, not sure why. Electrolyte may be an organic compound or it may just contain a lot of sulphur.

Don't know whether it's a leaked capacitor or battery, but it goes after a while, maybe a few months.

I did hear of one guy who kept his Amiga tower open for a while and one day he opened it after a bad smell and found a cooked mouse inside.

Mmmmm...

[Hyperspeed]

Oh yeah, could be the batteries - hadn't thought about that.

The pungeant odour always used to waft into MY nostrills whenever
Windows would load though...

;-)

[Hyperspeed]

@Holley

During your time working as a butcher how many horses did you carve?

I can taste it right now... fillet of filly.

The French make a good corned beef from little wild Shetlands too,
bit too bony(/pony) for my liking.

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

[Hyperspeed]

Okay, I leave this thread overnight and what do I see?

Suggestions for Pot Pourri and Cologne!

:-D :-D :-D

Now THAT'S Amiga sophistication!

[Hyperspeed]

You might also want to try carbon filters. These little black foam
things they put in air purifiers and maybe vacuum cleaners.

Although prevention is better than cure so it'd be good to clean the
inside of the machine out.

Lately I bought a couple of Dyson S-Level electrostatic filters and
I'll use them to cover fan inlets to stop much getting in. I think
they should give a good airflow but capture particles.

Not sure if ladies tights can do this?

I think also that computer rooms should always have dehumidifiers and
air-conditioning to stop organisms flourishing and making a stink, and
also to keep the room cool to stop batteries and capacitors leaking
everywhere.

Consider that these internals cleaners mustn't be used on your
external casing or they might turn it yellow, same goes for Ionic
surfactants (such as in washing detergent) which can make your
keyboard letters rub off!

:-) :-)

[Hyperspeed]

I've never understood the point of compressed air. You just blow the
dust elsewhere as opposed to sucking it up and putting it in the bin.

A mini vacuum cleaner with a bristle attachment would be great as long
as you keep the motor away from magnetic sensitive devices and keep
yourself earthed against static.

A large vacuum cleaner nozzle might produce too much static but would
be better than putting a motor near a motherboard. Maybe trail a
crocodile clip to the case (when the machine is plugged into the
wall) so that the earth can drain out ESD.

A quick way to purify water would be to Brita Filter it but it doesn't
have any cleaning effect other than to dilute and pad up other
chemicals.

You can get vaccum cleaner supplies on your local market
washing-machine supplies shop. Usually they sell cheaper 3M
electrostatic filters compatible with Dysons that may be half the
price but the same quality.

It might pay to put one in your PSU, remembering to face it with the
writing indicating OUTLET of air. And make sure it's not touching
anything hot (be careful also with those giant capacitors which can
give a nasty shock!).

To reduce other entry points for dust you might want to buy that
roll-out draft excluder foam from DIY shops. Just cut it into the
shape and size you require and line the edges of your tower's lid
(like Packard Bell PCs have).

Tower cases have more ventilation holes too, you might not want an
S-Level filter over these (as an S-Level impedes draft unless an
airflow is directed at it) so go for a foam/carbon/ladies tights
filter just to stop the large dust floating in by luck.

:-D

Camera shops will sell the best cleaning solutions as they stock stuff
for cleaning precision-ground lenses. Their lense cloths such as the
blue and grey Hamma® range are truly excellent and no doubt they have
great cleaning fluids too.

:-) :-)