Date   : Mon, 31 Oct 2005 11:31:40 +1300 (NZDT)
From   : Michael Foot <mjfoot@...>
Subject: Re: Guess age from serial number?

Quoting Annihilannic <annihilannic@...>:

> Anyway, last night I was happily typing in the Lunar Lander programme
> from the BBC User Guide with the beeb sitting on my lap when suddenly
> pfffffft! and some foul smelling white smoke started floating out of
> the
> speaker holes... I switched it off and turned it over, and more white
> smoke came out of the vents underneat... I guess my leg was covering
> the
> vent under the power supply. It had been on for an hour or so... could
> that be the only reason, or is the PSU just showing its age? The
> machine kept running, and still boo-beeps when I plug it in, although
> I'm hesitant to leave it on now.

This will be the mains supressors in the PSU giving up. They are labelled C1 
and C2 and it would pay to replace them both. Quite easy and cheap to do too.

250V AC Mains - Metallised Polypropylene Capacitors - X2 0.01uF
250V AC Mains - Metallised Polypropylene Capacitors - X2 0.1uF

It's a common problem and the machine will run without them but you might get 
interference on other devices.

Cheers,

Mike.

--
Michael Foot <mjfoot(at)paradise(dot)net(dot)nz> *
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfoot/
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