- Jan 7, 2025
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To preface, my father and I are very allergic to chemicals, and my mother lost her smell. This is relevant.
Might be a little rambely, I feel like I'm losing it trying to figure this out. TL;DR at the bottom.
About a year ago I bought my pre-built tower and about a week after started emitting a smell. At first I thought it was the PSU and replaced that, but that wasn't the cause. Then I cleaned it in hopes it was just some factory dust, no luck. And then it went away. And then returned. And it would repeat this pattern with and without intervention. It would stay away for weeks and I could do whatever, no matter how big the load (I've done model rendering with 100+ tabs and a large game open) with no issue. Until it would return and stay for several days, even if left at idle or off for hours, before going away again.
So far I've been the only one who can actually smell it. Most of the time when it's happening its a consistent smell, but then will suddenly get very heavy for no apperent reason. It also soaks into fabric and hair. If you just walk in the room it's fine, but if you stay for a bit, enough of the molecules will gather in your palette to be able to pick up on it. Stay for long enough and you can taste it when you breathe through your mouth. It took my father ~30 min of being in my room before he started having a reaction, but even then still couldn't smell it.
I've tried using my nose to find the source many times at this point and can't even get a consistent answer, but it's chemically with a bit of hot metal. It does not smell like burning plastic. The first time I tried to pinpoint it I thought it was the PSU, then the GPU, my AIO, a case fan, my Monitors, and now I'm getting a heavier hot metal smell from the backside of the motherboard while the more chemically comes from the front near the CPU. My temps are fine and I cannot stress this enough, it does NOT smell like burning plastic. The closest match I've found for the chemical part is thermal paste but that shouldn't be causing this weird and bad a problem over a year after it was built, right?
What would cause this kind of smell to be so bad that I have an allergic reaction and can't even pinpoint where it's coming from? The PC has changed rooms and moniters several times and the smell has consistently followed it.
I'm gonna get some headache meds and step outside for some clean air.
TL;DR: Chemically/hot metal smell, not burning plastic, causing reactions in 2 people. No one else can actually smell it despite that. Normal temps. Can't even pinpoint compenent causing it but it's 100% the computer.
Might be a little rambely, I feel like I'm losing it trying to figure this out. TL;DR at the bottom.
About a year ago I bought my pre-built tower and about a week after started emitting a smell. At first I thought it was the PSU and replaced that, but that wasn't the cause. Then I cleaned it in hopes it was just some factory dust, no luck. And then it went away. And then returned. And it would repeat this pattern with and without intervention. It would stay away for weeks and I could do whatever, no matter how big the load (I've done model rendering with 100+ tabs and a large game open) with no issue. Until it would return and stay for several days, even if left at idle or off for hours, before going away again.
So far I've been the only one who can actually smell it. Most of the time when it's happening its a consistent smell, but then will suddenly get very heavy for no apperent reason. It also soaks into fabric and hair. If you just walk in the room it's fine, but if you stay for a bit, enough of the molecules will gather in your palette to be able to pick up on it. Stay for long enough and you can taste it when you breathe through your mouth. It took my father ~30 min of being in my room before he started having a reaction, but even then still couldn't smell it.
I've tried using my nose to find the source many times at this point and can't even get a consistent answer, but it's chemically with a bit of hot metal. It does not smell like burning plastic. The first time I tried to pinpoint it I thought it was the PSU, then the GPU, my AIO, a case fan, my Monitors, and now I'm getting a heavier hot metal smell from the backside of the motherboard while the more chemically comes from the front near the CPU. My temps are fine and I cannot stress this enough, it does NOT smell like burning plastic. The closest match I've found for the chemical part is thermal paste but that shouldn't be causing this weird and bad a problem over a year after it was built, right?
What would cause this kind of smell to be so bad that I have an allergic reaction and can't even pinpoint where it's coming from? The PC has changed rooms and moniters several times and the smell has consistently followed it.
I'm gonna get some headache meds and step outside for some clean air.
TL;DR: Chemically/hot metal smell, not burning plastic, causing reactions in 2 people. No one else can actually smell it despite that. Normal temps. Can't even pinpoint compenent causing it but it's 100% the computer.
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