How to de-stinkify an iBook?

[livingfortoday]

I recently bought a stripped iBook G3 from We Love Macs, and when I got it the first thing I noticed was how absolutely horrible it smelled when I opened it. Just a really bad smell of body odor. So. How can I fix this? I was hoping to either fix it up and resell it or to use it myself, but I can't possibly sell something that smells this awful.

Any ideas?

 

[bill4588]

pop it in the dishwasher, that should get rid of the smell 😉 but honestly, the only thing I would recommend is shutting it off, remove the battery, and get a damp cloth and give it a good cleaning. Remember, no solvents or aerosol scent stuff. I'm guessing that the smell is mostly coming from the palm rests and keys, so maybe you could dampen up a dryer sheet and scrub it with that?

 

[livingfortoday]

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. When I take it apart again tonight maybe I'll clean the plastics with a damp cloth. Any particular cleaner you would recommend that would desmellify without harming it? It just kinda feels like the smell is a part of the iBook now - like they've merged. It's really pretty disgusting.

 

[bill4588]

well if you're going to completely take it apart (like removing the shell) then maybe you could use a cleaning solution. I don't have any recommendations because I'm not sure which ones are harmful. If I was in this situation I would just wipe it down with windex (NOT the screen of course), and once it dries, clean it again with cloth and water. But I would try to get some more recommendations from other people who know more about this than I do.

 

[mick4394]

I've destinkified several iBooks with isopropyl alcohol, inside and out.

 

[macjay]

I once bought a used iBook G3 with dead logic board off eBay. It absolutely WREAKED. I have a theory about it though: I think the odor had something to do with the logic board getting fried. The reason why I think this is that I also have an iBook G3 that I've had since new. I'm superclean with my laptop, and if I put my nose right up to the keyboard, there is a very, very faint version of the exact same smell that had been overpowering with that used one. I'm positive this odor is emanating from the internal components somehow.

 

[interlaced]

I second Isopropyl Alcohol. I used it to clean a powerbook that smelled like vodka.

 

[mkrishnan]

Your iBooks smell? 😱 Wowsers....

 

[livingfortoday]

Ok guys, thanks for the tips. I'll give it a shot this weekend and see if I can give it that new Mac smell again.

 

[smokeyrabbit]

Here's the last page of an undying thread on apple.com that deals with the sorrows of this issue: linky. There's glue on a sticker under the keyboard that emits the iBOok smell, apparently.

 

[OttawaGuy]

"This is beyond B.O., this is is B.B.O.!" --George

😀

 

[macjay]

Here's the last page of an undying thread on apple.com that deals with the sorrows of this issue: linky. There's glue on a sticker under the keyboard that emits the iBOok smell, apparently.

I knew it! Thanks smokeyrabbit.

 

[livingfortoday]

Here's the last page of an undying thread on apple.com that deals with the sorrows of this issue: linky. There's glue on a sticker under the keyboard that emits the iBOok smell, apparently.

Oh, but these two iBooks came without keyboards...

 

[Schnebar]

Yeah my dad had an iBook that started to smell like B.O.

But it was just the sticky stuff on the bottom of the keyboard.