Smells like SID spirit?

[ris8_allo_zen0]

Sorry about the title, I couldn't resist :P

That's a question I had to ask since long time: everytime my MBSID is on, it begins smelling like the flux paste "cooking" during a solder. But I don't see any point SO hot in the boards, neither the components! And all worked perfectly well (except for a 6581 and a LCD fried some days ago while messing with overlapping PCBs :( )... is it normal?

Best regards,

Enrico

(WOW, my 101th post! Now everyone can know my real psychic status :D)

[Davo]

Try washing the boards, top and bottom, with flux-remover.

[Jaicen]

It's probably the voltage regultor getting hot. Nothing to worry about unless it gets very hot.

[AndrewMartens]

Try holding your fingers above (not touching) various components, including the voltage regulator.  Be careful, as the voltage regulator can easily get hot enough to burn you.  It's probably that, and if you slap a heatsink on it with a bit of thermal paste (I just used some spare Arctic Silver from working on my PC), it will help matters.

Another method is to buy a can of that spray-coolant stuff, spraying the board, and then turning it on.  Watch to see which component thaws first, and that's probably your culprit.