# Laptop fumes - question



## SilentLoner (Jan 30, 2006)

My brother's laptop has an odd smell to it and he's not sure why. He and I don't really smell it but my mom claims its very strong to her nose (she tends to pick up on smells no one else does), its like fumes of something burning. My laptop doesn't.

What do you guys think it could be? I tried to google it and got a variety of answers ranging from leaking battery to something meting on the inside.


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## rincewind (Sep 7, 2009)

Could just be dust or other debris building up inside it and getting mildly toasted as the heat builds up  Do the air vents on it look clear or are they blocked? With a lot of laptops there will be a panel on the bottom that you can unscrew to get access to some of the components. If you feel comfortable opening it up, you should be able to check if there is anything stuck inside or something that looks melted.


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## Akane (Jan 2, 2008)

Most likely the battery. Just making things a bit too hot doesn't give that smell. I have a very sensitive nose. Aside from batteries laptops don't generally make burning smells until they are real close to dying and your processor will throttle so the computer fails to run properly before that happens. The only one I could smell had failed to shut down properly and continued to run all night after it no longer had connection to the fan. Needless to say it was unrepairable. How old is the battery? I know certain dell laptops the battery will die about yearly and are under warranty for that long. A few make it a couple years but it almost always happens. Power issues are pretty common with all laptop brands and dead batteries the most common of that.


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