Mac Pro Smell

I assume that you have removed the plastic stickers stuck on the side pannel when you opened the side panel?!?
I discovered about those stickers many months after using my MacPro and reading several posts.

Rio.

I went through the same thing when I got my 8-core about a month ago. I called AppleCare and they were very concerned at first. They wanted me to take the unit to an Apple Store, but since the nearest one is over an hour away, I started the DOA process. On the recommendation of a second level tech, I took it to a nearby Authorized Service Center to be checked out before they declared it DOA. They guy in the service center said that every Mac Pro he has set up has the smell at first, so it appears to be normal in his experience. He thinks it is caused by a protective resin coating on the RAM PCB's and/or RAM riser card PCB's and should diminish over time as it burns away. It's been about 3 1/2 weeks now and the smell has almost totally gone, though I still get a whiff every now and then.

17" CD Macbook Pro, Mac Pro Octo Mac OS X (10.4.9) 2GB Memory MacBook Pro / 4GB Mac Pro

You may want to give AppleCare a call if the smell doesn't diminish very shortly.

I poked my head in my Mac Pro today after getting tired of the smell, and discovered the CPU heatsinks are speckled with partially-melted plastic shavings which are presumably the source of the odor. Looks quite reminiscent of a car's grille after a road trip.

The power supply also smells, but I can't see in there so no idea if it's in the same condition. I'm calling AppleCare tomorrow and will hopefully have a tech out Thursday to do... something.

Hmm. I didn't notice any smell at all... but then again, I have my Mac Pro in a fairly large, well ventilated room.

You may want to give AppleCare a call if the smell
doesn't diminish very shortly.

I poked my head in my Mac Pro today after getting
tired of the smell, and discovered the CPU heatsinks
are speckled with partially-melted plastic shavings
which are presumably the source of the odor. Looks
quite reminiscent of a car's grille after a road
trip.

The power supply also smells, but I can't see in
there so no idea if it's in the same condition. I'm
calling AppleCare tomorrow and will hopefully have a
tech out Thursday to do... something.

The power supply unit is probably the culprit. I have the same problem. I'm working with a good tech at AppleCare to try and correct it. Let me know if want his number.


Mac Pro 3.0 9g Ram, Radeon X1900 xt, 4-750 Seagates, 30" Cinema Mac OS X (10.4.9) G4, G5 Desktops, 2 MacBooks

From another forum: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=297878&page=2

"Update: The repair shop just rang me and said that the smell comes from a chip with heatsink on the logic board and that this chip seems to be overheating. They have ordered a new logic board.

This is interesting insofar as all smelly macs that I have read about had the power supply unit replaced."

Wow - it's not just me. My new 4 core puts out a kind of new car smell. But it's pretty subtle so I was not worried about it. Should I have the unit checked if it persists?

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

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

Well my MacPro is pretty big so I don't think he'd like mine.

Mac Pro 3.0 9g Ram, Radeon X1900 xt, 4-750 Seagates, 30" Cinema Mac OS X (10.4.9) G4, G5 Desktops, 2 MacBooks

No my new 8core doesn't stink, but I have an iBook older G3 that doees smell like armpits and yes stinks up the whole room. Sadly it didn't stink until I sent it back to apple for repair, this was a recall repair and after 2 years of trying to convince apple of the problem,(until they did the recall). I had already bought a new powerbook. Now we just call it old stinky and use it in emergencys. If it was a new mac I would get on the phone with apple and tell them all about it, feel free to have them contact me, I would love to get a new ibook for mmy trouble.
Thanks,
Sleeper

A relative just got a MacBook and I set it up for her. During the first few hours of use I noticed a smell and I got lightheaded. I opened some windows and let the machine run for a few more hours and it seems to have dissipated. Try putting the machine through a "burn-in" period to burn off any original residues.

Well I bought a new Mac Pro Quad 3,0 a few weeks ago. After some hours it started to smell very badly. You couldn't stay in the same room. Smelled like a sort of ammonia. I thought that it might help to run the machine under heavy load, to "burn out the problem." So I ran the machine 24 hours for 4 days in a separate room. It didn't change anything. So I called the company I bought it from. They replaced the PSU. Now after one week I ran into the same problem.

Wonder what to do now? Has anyone solved the problem?

Cheers

Udo

Thanks for the offer, Ken. The AppleCare techs I talked to (I was escalated) ultimately told me to try the Apple Store I bought it from since I was still in the return window.

The Genius there verified I wasn't crazy regarding the smell from the CPU and the plastic shavings on the heatsinks, and they ended up exchanging the whole system for me. One of the heatsinks actually looked to me like something impacted and then was dragged along it. Not good. From the way he described it, they would probably have been swapping out the entire logic board and both heatsinks anyway, so the new system was easier given the timing.

My original system was manufactured in China; the new system was manufactured in the US. The new one just plain smells like fresh electronics, nothing like the funky odor coming out of the first one.

All's well here now, and I still can't believe how quiet these machines are.