Strange hissing sound and smell comes from the monitor

Whenever you experience an unusual smell coming from anything electrical, always turn it off and/or disconnect it from any power source until you learn more about the problem. A fire can make make any problematic device seem suddenly unimportant.

An extremely common component in nearly any electronic device is a capacitor. The sizes vary from baby-tooth-sized to bowling-ball-sized found in the power box for most photography studios. The hissing sound is likely caused by one of these. The noisy capacitor may be going bad or another component or an electrical short may be causing it to get too much power. I've attached a video of what happens when capacitors get too much power.


An electrical short could also be causing both symptoms. If the smell is similar to burning organic matter, you likely have an insect (a crispy critter) that can be removed to remedy your problem. However, an electrical burn usually releases gases from burning rubber or plastic and has a distinctly different type of odor. If that's the smell and you are handy with a soldering iron, remove the cover to your monitor and look for signs of burning or overheating. Otherwise, the task should be left to an electronics shop for repair.

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