Q:My IBM Thinkcentre - Fumes cause medical symptoms
 

I'm not sure where to post this, so I've searched for old msgs. Please
excuse me if I'm in the wrong place.

I bought an IBM ThinkCentre PC a few months ago (well, now Lenovo
Thinkcentre). Since the beginning, I've been getting a bitter taste in
my mouth and watering/burning in my mouth, when the computer is on (so
I keep ventilation up.. which is not always so easy). I thought maybe
some chemicals need to burn off.. but now I'm getting concerned. I
don't smell anything.

I've called IBM, they had me look for leaking electrolyte from
capacitors on the motherboard. I don't SEE any (does that mean I'm free
in that regard)? They have now escalated and will get back to me.

(My Laser printer is OFF... In case you're wondering about Ozone
effects.)

Any other suggestions?

I would contact the lawyer who handles the McDonald's hot coffee
spilled on lap ... and the Wendy's chile with cut-off finger cases.
Come on now..... I have been working in electronics since I was 12
years old... I am now 56. I have been exposed at close range to
electrolytics blowing up, burning plastic, x-rays from CRT's, high
frequency high voltage arcing, lead solder fumes, etc, etc.........
aside from male pattern baldness, severe cataracs, lung cancer,
impotency, incontinentcy, erectile disfunction and diabetes... I am
doing just fine.
You might want to go to the newsgroup
alt.frivilous.lawsuits
Get a new computer from a different company or get a life.
electricitym
..
..

Now that you brought up the idea! :-)

Seriously, I am not looking for money... I have a serious issue I'm
trying to solve. If you search old postings, other people have had
similar issues over the years.

I believe a more likely candidate than the PC would be the monitor. High
voltage for the screen requires some large electrolytic capacacitors. Have
you taken any steps to isolate the failing unit.... PC, monitor, scanner,
external drives, etc?


wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm not sure where to post this, so I've searched for old msgs. Please
excuse me if I'm in the wrong place.

I bought an IBM ThinkCentre PC a few months ago (well, now Lenovo
Thinkcentre). Since the beginning, I've been getting a bitter taste in
my mouth and watering/burning in my mouth, when the computer is on (so
I keep ventilation up.. which is not always so easy). I thought maybe
some chemicals need to burn off.. but now I'm getting concerned. I
don't smell anything.

I've called IBM, they had me look for leaking electrolyte from
capacitors on the motherboard. I don't SEE any (does that mean I'm free
in that regard)? They have now escalated and will get back to me.

(My Laser printer is OFF... In case you're wondering about Ozone
effects.)

Any other suggestions?

wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm not sure where to post this, so I've searched for old msgs. Please
excuse me if I'm in the wrong place.

I bought an IBM ThinkCentre PC a few months ago (well, now Lenovo
Thinkcentre). Since the beginning, I've been getting a bitter taste in
my mouth and watering/burning in my mouth, when the computer is on (so
I keep ventilation up.. which is not always so easy). I thought maybe
some chemicals need to burn off.. but now I'm getting concerned. I
don't smell anything.

I've called IBM, they had me look for leaking electrolyte from
capacitors on the motherboard. I don't SEE any (does that mean I'm free
in that regard)? They have now escalated and will get back to me.

(My Laser printer is OFF... In case you're wondering about Ozone
effects.)

Any other suggestions?


Perhaps you have an allergy to a compound used in one of the many plastics,
adhesives, inks, and other substances that go into making or packing the
computer? Is anyone else bothered by it? Things like that can be tricky to
track down but some people are just very sensitive to certain chemicals.

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:53:38 -0500, Don Hickey wrote:

I believe a more likely candidate than the PC would be the monitor. High
voltage for the screen requires some large electrolytic capacacitors. Have
you taken any steps to isolate the failing unit.... PC, monitor, scanner,
external drives, etc?


wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm not sure where to post this, so I've searched for old msgs. Please
excuse me if I'm in the wrong place.

I bought an IBM ThinkCentre PC a few months ago (well, now Lenovo
Thinkcentre). Since the beginning, I've been getting a bitter taste in
my mouth and watering/burning in my mouth, when the computer is on (so
I keep ventilation up.. which is not always so easy). I thought maybe
some chemicals need to burn off.. but now I'm getting concerned. I
don't smell anything.

I've called IBM, they had me look for leaking electrolyte from
capacitors on the motherboard. I don't SEE any (does that mean I'm free
in that regard)? They have now escalated and will get back to me.

(My Laser printer is OFF... In case you're wondering about Ozone
effects.)

Any other suggestions?



Many years ago, we had a customer bring an Emerson 27" television in
because it had this "bleach" smell when it was left running.

We're thinking "Yeah, right!", but told the lady that owned the TV to go
to bring it in and we'd take a look at. Initially, we couldn't smell
anything when the TV first came in or when we first powered it on while
she was there. She told us that it might take an hour before the smell
started. So, she left it and we let it run.

Our first thoughts were she must have been cleaning with a bleach
solution of some sort and spilled it down the back of the TV through the
ventilation holes. Well, we left it on for just over an hour and it
started to smell like bleach!

We took the back off the set to see if there was any kind of residue -
nothing, the chassis looked clean. Upon further inspection, the flyback's
iron-core lead had a hole the size of a quarter in the printed circuit
board. It had either not been soldered properly or had broken at some
point and was arcing madly from the lead to what was left of the chassis
ground on the PCB. The burning of the PCB was giving off the bleach smell!

A little copper braid and a little board re-work took care of the problem.
One of the weirdest things I'd ever seen... Glad I'm not servicing TV's
any longer.

Randy

P.S. e-mail subject to change without notice thanks to so-called
"Internet marketers" - AKA spammers

I had a Philips VCR that had a bad power supply, when i got it back from the repair shop and let it warm up, it would give out a bleach type smell, turned out to be excess solder flux (the orange stuff) around the joins - when the transformer in the PSU would warm up it would give off the stink. I left it plugged in and the smell 'burned' itself away in about a week.
Also, my LG CRT monitor gives off a less noticable smell, caused by the deflection yoke, if you leave the room and come back in a few minutes later you can smell the nice warm fuzzy monitor, Ahhhhh!

Thanks for the replies.

Well, it's not the monitor, as I've been using the same monitor for the
past couple of years.
Only one other person normally accesses the computer... with no
symptoms. Then again, I'm much more sensitive to the ozone from laser
printers, than many other people are.

I removed some "excess" internal peripherals, to see if increased PC
airflow will help.
EG Maybe a ribbon cable is touching against something hot and will no
longer do so, with more room in the case... This is the first PC I've
had that did this! I had a Thinkpad for work and it was totally fine...

Just to clarify.. I'm not saying that my sense of small was destroyed
:-)
(Just that there is no smell from the computer)

" I thought maybe some chemicals need to burn off.. but now I'm getting
concerned. I
don't smell anything. "

On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:53:38 -0500, "Don Hickey"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

I believe a more likely candidate than the PC would be the monitor. High
voltage for the screen requires some large electrolytic capacacitors.

IME, the highest voltage for electrolytic capacitors in a monitor or
TV is around 200V. This is for the supply to the video amps. The HV
and horizontal deflection circuits use film or ceramic caps.


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.