Mac Pro Smell

Hi Udo,

exactly the same issue with a reburbished 3.0 Mac Pro here.
The smell doesn´t go away but luckily (after 4 weeks of trying) my local Apple Certified Repair Center said that I could bring it in. Before that I was on the phone with German Apple Care and the rep said that he knows of 1 case but cannot tell me any solution.

I really recommend you to bring your Mac to an Apple repair station in order to have it checked.

kind regards
Tom

Mac Pro 3.0 Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Hi Tom,

the story so far....PSU changed, all parts inside checked, no solution, the Mac Pro still smells strange (and this means: you can't be in the same room while the machine runs....). My Apple Repair Center said, there is no bad or broken part inside, but the cables are indeed smelling chemical, the rear fan blows the bad smell into the room. But they can't change the cables, so they offered a new machine. We'll see if that solves the problem.

Any new development with your machine?

Cheers

Udo

PS. regarding the German Apple Care Center, I also talked to them and they never heard of the problem...maybe they are not able to use google and the words: mac pro, bad smell or bad odor.....otherwise they would come up with the idea, that there is indeed something going wrong with some of the machines.

I've had my Mac Pro replaced once already, the first one had the random 'turn myself off' problem. Apple had it for 1 month and didn't fix it, so I got a replacement.

Not only did the replacement take 2 weeks to get to me after the order was placed, one of the rubber feet under the processor was not fixed properly and fell out when I opened the case and then to top it off, IT STINKS!

I haven't called Apple about it because I don't want to be without the machine for a month again, but the smell hasn't gone away and it's starting to make me feel ill. The whole room smells like rotting carpet.

Apple, I know you're listening... come on, I buy lots of these machines for work, you can do better. Expect a call from me soon.

Dan.

Our Mac Pro has also had the Power Supply changed,Logic Board changed.There is less smell now,but I can still feel it.I'll wait couple of days and unless the smell goes completely away I will send the computer back to Apple.

Just a short update:
Since my previous post from the end of June, the smell has diminished a little bit... but not too much (still enough to give me a dry throat after 2 hours).

Our local Apple Authorized Repair Center could not give me any timeframe when they could check the system ("because we have so much to do") and since I need my Mac nearly every day, I am not sure when I can take it to repair.

Of course I´ll keep you all posted of the results (if something can be done that is).

Cheers
Tom

I recently purchased my MacPro 3 weeks ago and I have the same problem: A terrific smell very powerfull. I have a room well ventilated but the problem maintains.
I live in Portugal, and I found in other forums of discussion's Mac in Europe, equal problems about bad smell in MacPro. I think the solution is to change with a new MacPro...

Got mine a week ago and it was really bad too , so I opened the window in my room left it running continously for over 72 hours with the side cover off.
The odor is 98 percent gone ,and I can't smell it unless I stick my nose on the back of the computer a few inches away. lol The smell was definetly coming from the PSU . I called Apple and they were going to send a onsite tech to replace parts PSU, logic board etc. I called to tell them all is fine now .

Doug T

Support says the problem is with a seal or gasket in front of the psu. I'm waiting for the part to be replaced in mine. It's been a long wait because they're back ordered.
I ran mine for 3 weeks straight and it still stinks.

I thought it might have something to do with it coming from China but we also purchased a 2.66 GHZ MAc Pro, that was assembled in CA, at work and it smells the same.

How can you tell where your Mac was assembled?

Funny that support is saying something like. Of course that could be the case but...
In our case the processor heatsinks have now been changed twice and the last thing that was done in an
authorized Mac service was that the paste that lies between the heatsink and the processor has been cleaned and and changed to another brand. It still smells the same but I'll wait couple of days to see if it goes away now.
Does anybody know how to run Mac Pro on full processor load?

There is a little program from Marcel Bresink called SystemLoad. You can trigger all processor cores to run on whatever load you want. Don't know his website, but you'll find the program via versiontracker.

Since I myself am plagued by a stinky Mac Pro, I don't suppose that this will help...but nevertheless good luck!

William Lloyd wrote:
<dennis hopper>
Ahhh... I LOVE the small of Mac Pro in the morning!
</dennis hopper>

Not to napalm on your parade, but it was Robert Duvall. Sorry.

I have had a two week saga with the problem of a sweet musty, solvent type smell coming out of a brand new quad pro, a great machine otherwise, but wow, this is bad.
Returned it to apple and got another one. Same problem.
I let each of these machines run for 4+ days..had to move it out in my garage it smelled so bad. Stinking up the home office. Still bad. At first I thought it was kind of like a new car smell, not that bad, but after working around the machine for about an hour, start getting a bad headache, and a metallic taste in my mouth. And the garage is now filled with these fumes, you can smell it when you open the garage door, 20 feet from the computer!
The guys at our local apple store have been great to work with on this problem, but apple definitely has a problem here that needs to get fixed.
Apple said thay would take this second machine back, but now I am stuck. I’m going to try to pick up a used machine somewhere. Or I might downgrade to a new Imac. Sheesh.
Has anyone had this experience and been successful in waiting it out? How long does it take for whatever it is to burn off? Seems like mixed stories/problems/resolutions in these postings so far, which leads me to believe it is a problem with some batches on the production line or something…

I'm on my third Mac Pro (even moved up to 3.0 thinking it might be a power supply unit problem) and it still stinks. Apple says it's a problem with a gasket or seal in front of the psu giving off the odor and I'm waiting for the back ordered part to repair it.
I let my first unit run about a month constantly and the smell never went away. They're aware of the problem now they just have to fix it. I bought mine in March to give you an idea of how long it's taken to fix this smell.

The odor is coming from the compound used on the heat sink seal on top of the processors.
The Mac tech just finished cleaning them and putting a different seal material on. It's running now to burn off any residual odor left behind.
The fumes were getting channeled thru the vent system making it seem like it was coming from the psu area and the whole time it was coming from the area below.
Check out http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61705&page=3