Strange Substance

[herme3]

A friend's computer turns off after running for about 15 minutes. She asked me to see if I could fix her computer because she doesn't have very much money. I started working on the computer, and I realized that the power supply is overheating. There is some type of brown substance coming out of the power supply, and it covered the power supply's fan. It is also falling down into the rest of the computer. It is on the CPU, IDE cables, hard drive, and RAM. It looks like it could be dirt that came in though the vent on the back of the power supply, but I'm wondering if it could be any type of hazardous or corrosive material that came from inside the power supply. I want to make sure it isn't anything dangerous before I try to clean it. Can anyone please give me any advice about this? Thanks.

[Lance]

I can't think of anything remotely dangerous from a PSU. If it did come from the PSU than I doubt its going to work again anyway.

[herme3]

Thank you for your reply. The PSU is working and providing power to all of the computer's components. The only problem is that this brown substance is blocking the PSU's fan. The PSU will overheat and turn off the computer's power after it runs for about 15 minutes. I don't know where this stuff came from. Should I take the PSU apart and try to clean it?

[Edward]

I belive it is comming from the PSU the fan may be dammaged. A good temporary fix is to clean everything (Wearing a mask that stuff really gets into the air and ur lungs).

[ElijahJones]

Can you describe the offending substance? Is it sticky like syrup, or is it more like stickky brown grey dust? What type of tower does she have or is it a workstation. If its sticky syruppy, you won't get it off the components without hurting something. Be careful open the PSU, there are high voltages. Wait at least five minutes after turning off the machine and be sure to not let your fingers become connectors for a spark.

[5614]

I know the brown stuff you mean, though I do not know what it is.

 

Obviously if everything works except for the fan then you need to fix the fan. Take it out of the computer and try to get the brown stuff off it. If it comes off easily then clean the other parts of the computer as well.

 

If it is impossible to get off then you'll need to buy a new fan (they're quite cheap) and hope that the brown stuff doesn't effect the rest of the computer!

[YT2095]

the only Liquid I can think of in a psu is that inside of the electrolytic capacitors, that`s if this stuff is a liquid?

[5614]

OK, at the moment it is not in liquid form, but if heated it could melt and would fit his description very well. Or maybe the PSU is otherwise broken.

 

If you see here:

and this:

The part circled in blue is just enamel wire, but the red parts are all a brown stuff which is solid, but looks like it could be a liquid... like dried ferrofluid or a drop of enamel paint, it sounds like what he's talking about and I can't think of anything else.

 

Here's another pic of the same thing:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/5614/PSU1.jpg

[YT2095]

well those frequency transformers are usualy dipped in a varnish/laquer after they`re made, Rare to see the old wax dipped types anymore, that varnish will not melt or drip when it`s set, also you`ll find that the part blue circled part is copper foil shielding, not actualy the wire

[5614]

Rare to see the old wax dipped types anymore

Indeed this is a very old PSU.

 

also you`ll find that the part blue circled part is copper foil shielding, not actualy the wire

Nah, it's the wire. Because firstly I pulled some of that shielding off, but part of it is left so I can see what you are talking about. Also I cut some of the wire and it seems like wire. Additionally (I just did this now) I cut the wire at a very steep angle, so, if it is enamel wire, I'd be able to see the inside... which I can. There's an enamel looking coating and a silver inside.

 

(Obviously it is unlikely to actually be real silver and the reason for the steep angle was because the wire is quite thin, the steep angle means a large surface area is visible.)

[herme3]

I appreciate all of the replies. I also contacted the manufacturer of the computer, and they said that there is nothing dangerous in their power supplies.

 

The substance isn't any type of a liquid. It is more like a type of dust, or dirt. I took a few pictures, but it is difficult to see the substance clearly. Look on the top IDE cable in these pictures:

 

 

[YT2095]

aha

that`s nothing at all to worry about, that stuff is dust, in fact in one of my PC it`s thick enough to roll up like a sheet of felt or carpet.

it`s quite harmless unless you have dust alergies, in which case expect alot of sneezing.

a good way to prevent it is to get an old pair of tights (pantyhose) and put the PSU inside one of the legs, but you will need to change it regularly.

[5614]

2 things about those pictures...

 

1) You realise what you are talking about could just be dust. I've opened up 3 computers recently which have not been opened in many years (one was something like 5 years) and dust does look very much like those pictures. The only thing against the dust idea is that it is slightly brown. Dust can help things to overheat, for mezarashi dust meant the difference between ~40C processor and ~50C, which is considerable.

As for stopping the fan, I suppose it might get in, but that seems unlikely, maybe the fan is just old and died!

 

2) The 4 pin molex thingy in the 2nd picture... you realise when a computer is turned on all molex pins are given a voltage, but only if connected will a current flow. If that molex pin were to touch the mobo or any component or anything whilst the computer is on it could be dangerous as those things may be a small voltage but they provide big currents.

Maybe molex pins don't normally have a cover/protection hence the actual metal contacts are inside the plastic casing (like you can't see the metal in that picture, only the plastic case), but at high currents it could spark, dunno, maybe it's the just the fact that with my computer the molex pins come covered so I'm used to that, just seems a bit of a risk.

 

[edit] took me more than 4 mins to type and YT beat me to it! but yeah, it most prob is dust.

[Klaynos]

It's nearly DEFINATLY dust, any chance they have a brown carpet or some other enviromental thing that would produce brown dust?

 

My rooms got a grey carpet, computer is near the floor, it get alot of grey dust in it, when I open it up to do stuff inside I give it a nice good clean and it goes back

 

Holding the end of a hover attachment near to the fan offten helps alot...

 

||edit

 

Is the fan still turning before the shutdown? if tehre is a second fan on the psu is that still turning or are they making any funny noises?

[herme3]

Ok, thank you. I've cleaned up most of the dust, and the fan is working again. There is still a lot inside the PSU near the fan. The strange thing is how difficult the dust is to clean up. I had to use a toothpick to scrape most of the dust off.

 

When she first gave me the computer, the outside was very dusty. The interesting thing is that the dust on the outside was grey, and the dust on the inside was brown. I'll ask her what color her carpet is.

 

Is the fan still turning before the shutdown? if tehre is a second fan on the psu is that still turning or are they making any funny noises?

 

The fan hasn't been turning at all, which was causing the PSU to overheat. There is only one fan, and it sounds fine now that it is running.

[5614]

One thing that a friend of mine uses to clean his computer is a can of presurised air, so he'll press the button and a lot of powerful air shoots out quickly, this is good for cleaning heatsinks or inside a PSU. Indeed the air canister he brought (from Maplins) was specifically designed for that purpose.

 

My carpet is red and the dust is grey,,, still, different types of carpet!

[Edward]

Ok i don't agree with all you guys this is not normal dust I have olny seen this dust in electronics. I found some in the optical drive of an xboxas well as a stero and tv. It seems to be different each time sometimes you need a steel brush to remove sometimes a tooth brush ll do it. I have also seen electronics with loads of dust but nothing brown.

[5614]

It looks so much like dust.

 

The fact it's brown can be accounted for, now the only thing against our "dust theory" is the fact it's hard and sticky.

 

You say you've seen this exact thing before... I haven't! Has anyone else???

 

Maybe it got mixed with something, somehow,

 

There's no electronic component in the world (other than a sticky-dust-blowed) that I can think would create what you describe, let alone in a computer. Maybe if you think it's from the PSU you should try opening the PSU (this will void the warranty) and discover the source for yourself.

[Klaynos]

I have seen brown dust in a house not in electronics :|

[Lance]

I agree. I have no doubt that it is indeed dust. It can be harmful if it clogs any heat sinks though. I have hat my cpu heat sink completely filled with dust. The fan wasn't clogged but it was useless on top of the sink because it was essentially blowing on a wall of dust rather than the sink. I couldn't do anything resource intensive until I figured it out the cpu would just shut off as it overheated. There wasn't any permanent damage though, I just cleaned it out with a can of compressed air and blew dust all over the house.

 

Keep in mind the your computer's fans pumps lots and lots of air through the computer. Even if the air has a very slight amount of dust in it, it will accumulate in the computer over time. The clock on top of your fireplace mantle doesn't have air pumped through it so its no surprise that the nature of the settled dust would be very different. I would expect that the accumulated dust in a computer would be much more sticky because some of the other dust cant cling to the components.

[drz]

hmm, any chance a drink was spilled on it? We've all heard the one about the guy who used his cd-drive as a coffee cup holder.

 

Maybe it's kinda moist in the house, combined with normal dust build up inside a computer.

 

But if it is brown and sticky, I'm voting on coke