Date   : Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:01:17 +0000
From   : julesrichardsonuk@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: Smoking ! !

Peter Craven wrote:
> Just received Master from UK.  Changed electrical plug (from UK ?
> Australian, as I have for my other Acorns). After 30mins, the Power Pack
> started making a searing sound and then let out a huge puff of smoke.....any
> clues?

Almost certainly one of the noise suppression capacitors in the power supply - 
I'm forever changing the darn things when they fail (old ones seem to be rated 
at 250V and don't age well; new ones all seem to be 275V and will hopefully 
outlive the rest of the machines...)

It'll run without them, you'll just introduce a bit of electrical noise back 
on to the mains wiring from the beeb. They tend to produce a lot of smoke when 
they fail, and they don't half stink :-(

> I had also be told that the capacitors in these old monitors could explode -
> any truth to this?

I wouldn't worry about it. Sometimes stuff fails, sometimes noisily, but it's 
very low risk that it'll injure anyone. I'd be more worried about sub-standard 
circuitry in modern equipment (TVs etc.) than I would the old 80s stuff.

cheers

Jules