The white stuff all over the components is that insulation, glue stuff. Is that what you are looking at? I took some better pics of that. When the white spirit came out it didn't go far. It just hovered by the side of the PSU. I don't think it went to Valhalla. But it was kind of dark in the room, so not sure.
As for safety, thank you for the reminder. I know about a kid who died working on his PSU and that scares me (I think he shorted a capacitor). I only worked around the plug and fuse so far. The PSU has been sitting un-powered for about three years now. If I take the main board out, I am going to watch as many tutorials I can find first. I got tagged by a capacitor when handling salvaged stuff and it hurt like a hot knife stab. Now, I am borderline paranoid.
BTW, did any of you ever see the video of the Chinese kid who was at one of those Chinese internet cafes. He had is phone charger plugged into a 220V outlet. He was moving something around and he stuck the other end of the cord in his mouth. About 2-3 seconds later, the saliva seeped in, and he went from a sitting position to straight as a board in a millisecond. Then, his eyes started lighting up like halogen bulbs. He looked like a X-men character.
Thank You!