Question Strange chemical/chlorine smell coming from top of PC Case

[Blavikn]

I've had this PC a year, my case is a phanteks eclipse P360A. For some reason, when the PC is off, the top of the case which is covered by a dust filter has a really strange smell. I regularly clean my PC, my CPU and GPU temps are fine.

I've opened the case sniffed around, nothing found. Power supply is healthy and showing no signs of symptoms. Is this something I can ignore? The smell isn't there when the PC is on and removing the filter for a bit lessens the smell.

Perhaps I'm being paranoid but the smell is driving me insane.

 

[Eximo]

Not the smell of Ozone is it? That could mean something is shorting out and making O3 which is volatile and can make all kinds of chemicals when reacting with plastics and rubbers. A small amount would be more quickly dissipated when the system is on. Try unplugging the front I/O on the case, that might have 5V standby power running through it.

Do you have a water cooler in there? I wouldn't expect a bleach/chlorine smell from coolant. Usually some glycol mixture which smells like anti-freeze (which is what it is)

 

[CompuGuy71]

Could be the material reacts weird with the heat of your system.

Do you have an AIO or water-cooling system?

 

[Blavikn]

Not the smell of Ozone is it? That could mean something is shorting out and making O3 which is volatile and can make all kinds of chemicals when reacting with plastics and rubbers. A small amount would be more quickly dissipated when the system is on. Try unplugging the front I/O on the case, that might have 5V standby power running through it.

Do you have a water cooler in there? I wouldn't expect a bleach/chlorine smell from coolant. Usually some glycol mixture which smells like anti-freeze (which is what it is)

My cooler is a scythe fuma 2 so not a water cooler

Could be the material reacts weird with the heat of your system.

Do you have an AIO or water-cooling system?

Not a water cooler, I have a scythe fuma 2.

 

[Blavikn]

Not the smell of Ozone is it? That could mean something is shorting out and making O3 which is volatile and can make all kinds of chemicals when reacting with plastics and rubbers. A small amount would be more quickly dissipated when the system is on. Try unplugging the front I/O on the case, that might have 5V standby power running through it.

Do you have a water cooler in there? I wouldn't expect a bleach/chlorine smell from coolant. Usually some glycol mixture which smells like anti-freeze (which is what it is)

Not the smell of Ozone is it? That could mean something is shorting out and making O3 which is volatile and can make all kinds of chemicals when reacting with plastics and rubbers. A small amount would be more quickly dissipated when the system is on. Try unplugging the front I/O on the case, that might have 5V standby power running through it.

Do you have a water cooler in there? I wouldn't expect a bleach/chlorine smell from coolant. Usually some glycol mixture which smells like anti-freeze (which is what it is)

If I unplug the front IO on the case will my PC turn on though? Also it's a scythe fuma 2 cpu cooler.

If you meant something else with the io, I apologise as I am new to pcs.

If it is ozone I'm not sure what I can do unfortunately.

 

[Eximo]

You can still turn on the PC.

Not likely for the power switch to be the problem you can leave that one plugged in. But you can also start a PC just by shorting the two pins for the power switch, that is all a power switch does. Many motherboards also have a power switch on them.

Ozone is just a sign that something is causing an electrical arc. This is bad. You would want to track it down before something catches fire or the system burns out.

You can also remove the PSU, but don't unplug it to see if you can isolate the smell to the PSU.

 

[Blavikn]

You can still turn on the PC.

Not likely for the power switch to be the problem you can leave that one plugged in. But you can also start a PC just by shorting the two pins for the power switch, that is all a power switch does. Many motherboards also have a power switch on them.

Ozone is just a sign that something is causing an electrical arc. This is bad. You would want to track it down before something catches fire or the system burns out.

You can also remove the PSU, but don't unplug it to see if you can isolate the smell to the PSU.

Isolated PSU, no smell.

Ran the PC with dust filter off, barely any smell. Perhaps its the material on the filter.