I am getting a funky smell coming from my keyboard. I have cleaned the board with some canned air but it still stinks. It doesn't smell like anything burned but more like body odor (yeah, I know, "eww"). I keep my computer pretty clean and I bathe regularly, so I don't know what it can be. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Just to add to the fun, my G3 iBook keyboard smells like some sort of plasticy/gluey stuff but when it gets warm, I get the melting plastic/metal smell.
ya me too.. like body odor or something.
At first I thought it was because of the previous owner's body smell :O (got it second-hand from an Indian fello)
- no offense to Indian folks -
then i made a piece cloth sprayed with perfume and place it on the keyboard when unused.
helps a bit. :P
I dunno it's happening to you guys's aswell
I believe I may have mentioned (somewhere in this long thread) the suggestion to use a fabric softener sheet (the kind you use in the dryer) this way in order to alleviate the smell.
I might also suggest using a spray deodorant on the cloth instead of merely perfume. That may prove a bit more effective.
Ah-HA! So it's not my imagination. Eau de body-odor, or burning crayons, or whatever, it's pretty pew-ee. I think it actually has to do with the kind of plastic that the keys or the underliner are made of. I've noticed a similar smell coming from certain kinds of older plastic, like "plastic decomposition" or something. I've also smelled it in libraries -- though, oddly enough, not in bookstores. Now if I can just get my iBook un-frozen, I can think about a new keyboard. And new rubber feet. And a new screw for the battery latch....
I too have noticed a B.O. smell coming from my iBook (600 MHz, dual USB) for about a year now. It does smell bad and it's obvious as soon as I wake my iBook from sleep by opening the lid. I am picking up another Mac that I had repaired at the Apple Store tomorrow; I will take my iBook with me and have the Apple Genius give it a sniff 🙂
I'll follow-up tomorrow with the result of the sniff test.
Alas, the only way to replace a broken screw for the battery latch is to replace the entire bottom plastics of the case. (Illogical and improbable, but, sadly, true.)
Well I had never thought of a stinky keyboard before until now but indeed, my keyboard does stink!!!!! It's not wreaking yet, I have to put my nose right to it but there is a definite stench...
My iBook (800Mhz 14") smells too, and my wife wants me to take it to the Apple store for some olfactory analysis as you suggested. What action did the Genius take? Should I bother bringing it in, and trying to get them to replace my keyboard with an unscented one?
If you read this considerably lengthy thread, there are suggestions as to possible remeidies short of replacing the keyboard. If you have AppleCare (or are flush with dough), the keyboard replacement seems the surest and most succesful fix, however.
Thanks. I have indeed read the thread and it seems pretty clear to me that all of the other suggestions of ways to clean or cover it up were inneffective. It is actually a real odor that exists due to some physical chemical properties of the keyboard. I'm sure it's worse on some than others, and maybe in some cases those that don't smell it are just less sensitive to such things, or their surroundings are masking it. My wife has been asking "what's that smell?" for months, and only recently discovered it wasn't me, but the iBook, much to my relief. By the way, it's very noticable to me as well, now that she has pointed it out. However, now I that I know what it is I am looking into curing it, and since I am out of warranty I thought I'd try to see what I could learn about the perspective of Apple personell on this problem.
My computer has already been back to Apple 3 times under warranty. Twice for Logic Board replacements. Now it has again begun to "unwake" from sleep to a darkened screen (you can barely make out that there's actually something on the screen). The only way to get it back is holding the power button to force shutdown and then restart. This is a symptom that immediately preceded my previous logic board failures. Recently it has still come back to life so far, but I'm thinking it may be doomed again. After the second logic board failure, within weeks of the first one I was soon expecting another failure, and planning to request a replacement computer. So now that it's acting up in an ominous way again and has hygeine problems I'm just wondering what my options may be.
They usually ask for three chances at fixing the logic board, but where yours went back for something else, as well, it wouldn't hurt to ask for a replacement. They aren't acknowledging anything (extension-wise) about the stinky keyboard, but have been known to replace them under warranty or AppleCare (not consistently, but occasionally).
Meanwhile, I think I'd try a sweetly scented fabric softener sheet (the kind you use in the dryer) closed in the iBook at night and see if that will at least alleviate the stench somewhat.
