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Macbook smell

Fiveos22

Fiveos22

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 20, 2003
1,080
1
Its been a long strange road with my early 2006 Blackbook, but by and large she has held up well through two years of daily toting to school and otherwise use as a desktop replacement.

With the exception of:
- That screen flicker issue
- A motherboard replacement
- A bizarre case crack due to engineering flaws
- An overheating powerblock
- Two dead batteries (because apparently you can't leave a laptop plugged in :confused:)

I am now faced with addressing a problem that probably should have been addressed a long time ago, that being: why does my laptop always smell like burning crayons?

Its not overpowering, and not a plastic burning smell, and it doesn't get markedly worse with heavy CPU use, but its always there and its kinda bothersome. I'm not worried about the computer dying on me, because I have a desktop now, but I want to hear what other people think and if others have had this same situation.
 
geoffreak

geoffreak

macrumors 68020
Feb 8, 2008
2,193
2
The plastic is likely slowly melting from the inside from the heat of the computer. This isn't a fast process and shouldn't be of any concern unless clouds of green smoke start coming out.
If you still have AppleCare, you should run it to the AppleStore and demand a replacement outer shell just to make the computer last longer.
 
B

beg_ne

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2003
452
0
I had an old iBook that had that smell too, kind of a BO/Burning Crayon smell. I thought maybe the person I gave it to was doing something to cause it to have that issue. But nothing seemed to get rid of it. I tried using rubbing alcohol to clean it and leaving the lid open so it could air out. Even sunned it a bit. No luck though.

I didn't have the same BO problem on my White MB during the two years I had it, although it suffered from pretty much everything else on your list.

Not sure there is anything you can do about the nasty smell unfortunately, although you could try calling / taking the laptop into Apple and see if they think it is an issue such as the laptop getting too hot.
 
JamesGorman

JamesGorman

macrumors 65816
Dec 31, 2008
1,123
1
Winnipeg
Shake 'n' Bake said:
It damages the cells.
Click to expand...

What about people, who like me, use there laptop as a desktop replacment? as long as you calibrate the battery once a month or so theres no way that having it plugged in all the time can kill the cells so dramatically that it renders the battery useless.
 
student_trap

student_trap

macrumors 68000
Mar 14, 2005
1,879
0
'Ol Smokey, UK
JamesGorman said:
What about people, who like me, use there laptop as a desktop replacment? as long as you calibrate the battery once a month or so theres no way that having it plugged in all the time can kill the cells so dramatically that it renders the battery useless.
Click to expand...

it can actually, i used my 2.33 mbp like this for a while and its battery would only last about 30 seconds after a 1.5 years:eek:
 
spinnerlys

spinnerlys

Guest
Sep 7, 2008
14,328
7
forlod bygningen
Regarding leaving the battery inside:

So what about the non-replaceable batteries in the new MBPs?

As they are designed to withstand 1000 cycles, are they better equipped to be plugged in most of the time without loss of health/capacity?
 
Buskape

Buskape

macrumors 6502
Dec 10, 2008
300
0
NGC 4889
spinnerlys said:
Regarding leaving the battery inside:

So what about the non-replaceable batteries in the new MBPs?

As they are designed to withstand 1000 cycles, are they better equipped to be plugged in most of the time without loss of health/capacity?
Click to expand...

Well macbooks since the whitebook have some kind of security to prevent it from charging and discharging while being plugged in, unlike Windows notebooks which does that and kills the battery if you leave it plugged in by doing as many cycles by recharging 99% to 100% every minute.

The macbooks don't charge unless it goes under 95% of battery and while being plugged in, it uses the power from the power adapter where windows notebooks take the power from the battery then recharge the battery all the time.

I have left my macbook mostly plugged in wherever i go, for 8months now i have 100% health and 86 cycles.
 
andalusia

andalusia

macrumors 68030
Apr 10, 2009
2,945
8
Manchester, UK
Buskape said:
Well macbooks since the whitebook have some kind of security to prevent it from charging and discharging while being plugged in, unlike Windows notebooks which does that and kills the battery if you leave it plugged in by doing as many cycles by recharging 99% to 100% every minute.

The macbooks don't charge unless it goes under 95% of battery and while being plugged in, it uses the power from the power adapter where windows notebooks take the power from the battery then recharge the battery all the time.

I have left my macbook mostly plugged in wherever i go, for 8months now i have 100% health and 86 cycles.
Click to expand...

This is correct, I'm not sure when Apple implemented this, but newer Macbook (at least Aluminium and onwards) batteries can be left plugged in with no issue. Which is sooo useful :)
 
N

nancysmacbook

macrumors newbie
Aug 21, 2011
3
0
macbook smell

I was going over my cpu limit (hp scanner using 100% cpu and at the same time I tried to burn a DVD); the dvd got spit out with a bad electrical smell. I don't know if i broke something but the mac is working. But there is a faint smell when I use the scanner now.
 
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