As long as the tube is intact there is no difference between whether it is burnt out or not. You shouldn't smell anything from inside the tube. Fluorescent bulbs to have a ballast which may emit a smell if it is faulty. In this case you may have a bad ballast and not a bad bulb. If you put in a new bulb and it doesn't work, it is likely the ballast that is bad.
it smells like a substance that has a bad smell it stinks very bad
A ballast that smells burnt is going bad. The ballast will have to be replaced to fix the problem.
bad
Bad.
bad
It will smell and may have mold on it. The mold can be yellowish in color.
they smell very bad
It doesn't really have a "bad" smell, but it does smell much like tin and other metals. It doesn't smell as bad as rusting tin, since it doesn't contain iron.
Oh its not good at all, they smell like rotten eggs or really really bad like the mushroom farm.
It small bad
bad