It will go away on it's own eventually, but putting it outside will help... Out of the rain of course.

The only thing that has helped me with smoky smelling items is to put the affected object in the attic for 6 months to a year (over summer), spreading the parts out if necessary so everything is exposed to the atmosphere. The summer heat helps the smoke smell that was absorbed into the plastic to disperse, and since it's in the attic it disperses outdoors.

If there's a faster way to get rid of the smell, I don' t know it.

I use DuPont Freon-TF spray for all electronic components. It gets rid of all surface contaminants and oils that hold the stale smoke smells. I can do an ATX motherboard in about 30 seconds and make it smell like factory new. For all non-electronic components that aren't sensitive to water, just wipe them down with a mild soapy water. Dawn dish soap works great for things like external housings/cases.

I recently chucked a case I really liked but was otherwise incurably smelly (and sticky in hard-to-reach areas with brown tar) into the dishwasher. Was half expecting the steel to have rusted and the plastic melted, but it turned out great. Wouldn't try that with the case of my MT-32 though, let alone with its innards...

I would be reasonably happy if I could even make it smell less. Like if I would only smell it when I go close to it instead of it making the whole room smell.

I always felt that electronics is a bad thing to put in a dishwasher machine. You are going to use it for washing things that you eat with. And old computer stuff contain led and other bad things.

For surface, I recommend a certain thing we have here in denmark. I have no idea what it is sold as, brandwise in other countries. Here it is names "Rodalon", and is a liquid that can be used to remove cat-pee odor, strong smell of sweat on clothes and other things like that. I do not recommend it for curcuit boards, as I have no idea on how acidic or alkaline it is. All I know is that it kills fungus, kills bacteria, removes bad odor and do not contain chlorid so it will not bleach. Do not mix it with soap or anionic surfactants. Just mix with water or use undeluted.

There is something about pumpkins and stuff, in english here below. They explain what rodalon is a mixture of...

http://worthredoing.com/tag/rodalon/

brostenen wrote:

I always felt that electronics is a bad thing to put in a dishwasher machine. You are going to use it for washing things that you eat with. And old computer stuff contain led and other bad things.

Lead is in the PCBs & solder. I certainly wouldn't put that in the dishwasher. This was just the plastic front plate, the metal ATX case and two side panels. Even that I would not otherwise have done, but it was this or throwing it out the stench was so bad.

For surface, I recommend a certain thing we have here in denmark. I have no idea what it is sold as, brandwise in other countries. Here it is names "Rodalon", and is a liquid that can be used to remove cat-pee odor, strong smell of sweat on clothes and other things like that. I do not recommend it for curcuit boards, as I have no idea on how acidic or alkaline it is. All I know is that it kills fungus, kills bacteria, removes bad odor and do not contain chlorid so it will not bleach. Do not mix it with soap or anionic surfactants. Just mix with water or use undeluted.

There is something about pumpkins and stuff, in english here below. They explain what rodalon is a mixture of...

http://worthredoing.com/tag/rodalon/

Sounds interesting. I'm sure that Packard Bell won't be the last smoky thing I encounter...

Of course the question remains: if that's not good for PCBs, what to do with them? I have a beautiful Abit So478 board that is sealed in plastic because of the smell. Just washing in distilled water with a little soap, then rinsing with plain distilled water didn't help at all - this is from the same batch as that case and needs something more aggressive. Same might apply to TS' MT-32: he could do the case in that Rodalon stuff, but the PCB would still smell.

I dont know if it will damage pcb's or something like that. As I do not know exactly what the active ingredients in Rodalon is. If you can get a hold of it, then perhaps test it a low grade modern PCI network card or something. Take it to a smokers home for a couple of weeks, and then test the Rodalon on it and see if it survived. 😁 Perhaps wash it in clean water and isopropyl alcohol after Rodalon.

brostenen wrote:

I dont know if it will damage pcb's or something like that. As I do not know exactly what the active ingredients in Rodalon is. If you can get a hold of it, then perhaps test it a low grade modern PCI network card or something. Take it to a smokers home for a couple of weeks, and then test the Rodalon on it and see if it survived. 😁 Perhaps wash it in clean water and isopropyl alcohol after Rodalon.

That's the best application for *another* one of those RTL8139D cards I've heard in a long time. I think my little brother (an inveterate smoker) is getting a new ornament to hang over his ashtray 😉

If you want to expose any decent hardware to heavy smoke, just send it to me. Hurry though, as I'm trying to give up smoking after a 40 year habit 😀

Air circulation, put a high cfm behind it opened up, like an industrial squirrel cage fan for a few days.

brostenen wrote:

For surface, I recommend a certain thing we have here in denmark. I have no idea what it is sold as, brandwise in other countries. Here it is names "Rodalon", and is a liquid that can be used to remove cat-pee odor, strong smell of sweat on clothes and other things like that. I do not recommend it for curcuit boards, as I have no idea on how acidic or alkaline it is. All I know is that it kills fungus, kills bacteria, removes bad odor and do not contain chlorid so it will not bleach. Do not mix it with soap or anionic surfactants. Just mix with water or use undeluted.

I had a kitten let her glands go all over a keyboard. The smell was NASTY. Long story short, I took it apart and gave it a rinse down with dilute IPA. It came out smelling fresher than new.

gdjacobs wrote:

brostenen wrote:

For surface, I recommend a certain thing we have here in denmark. I have no idea what it is sold as, brandwise in other countries. Here it is names "Rodalon", and is a liquid that can be used to remove cat-pee odor, strong smell of sweat on clothes and other things like that. I do not recommend it for curcuit boards, as I have no idea on how acidic or alkaline it is. All I know is that it kills fungus, kills bacteria, removes bad odor and do not contain chlorid so it will not bleach. Do not mix it with soap or anionic surfactants. Just mix with water or use undeluted.

I had a kitten let her glands go all over a keyboard. The smell was NASTY. Long story short, I took it apart and gave it a rinse down with dilute IPA. It came out smelling fresher than new.

Yup. Sometimes cat pee is easy to get rid of. Sometimes not, like when it is in a sofa or clothes. The worst part of cat pee, is that it eats electronics, faster than a leaking barrel battery. I guess you were lucky it still worked.

Put some baking soda and the MT-32 in a small box, smaller the better. Close it. Leave it in a room for hours. Should help.

Thanks for the advice. I will try anything that does not have risk of damaging it. I was actually looking for a MT-32 for over a year before I found this one, so hopefully it will work for a long time. At least I saw there was no bulging caps when I opened it for cleaning even if the unit is probably 30 years old by now.

brostenen wrote:

Yup. Sometimes cat pee is easy to get rid of. Sometimes not, like when it is in a sofa or clothes. The worst part of cat pee, is that it eats electronics, faster than a leaking barrel battery. I guess you were lucky it still worked.

I wish it was only pee. 🙁

gdjacobs wrote:

I wish it was only pee. 🙁

Awwww I’m trying to eat my breakfast here man!

RIP your brekky

badmojo wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

I wish it was only pee. 🙁

Awwww I’m trying to eat my breakfast here man!

It wasn't what you're thinking, either. Having said that, read on if you dare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_gland