How to remove smell of cigarettes from PC setup [duplicate]

Question

I recently moved out of a place with three roomates who smoked indoors. They smoked in the basement which is also where my PC was set up.

I left my PC on nearly all the time so it's been breathing that air in for a good six months. I took it apart and blew it out with compressed air when I got to my new place, and it was just loaded with thick brown and black dust and all kinds of gross stuff. Definitely smells a bit better now that I've cleaned out the inside but there's still a very noticeable smell around my setup.

I have the following pieces of equipment:

• Desktop PC

• Two flatscreen HDMI monitors

• External harddrive

• Mouse, keyboard, headset, webcam

• Computer speakers with left and right channels and a subwoofer

• Several usb cables

• Also a folding table I had it set up on

All of this stuff smells pretty bad especially when it's all together like it will be when it's set up. The table and gadgetry I'm sure just needs to be wiped down with a wet cloth but I'm wondering if there's any tricks to getting the smell out of the more sensitive electronics, and if I need to clean inside things or just the outsides.

Answer 1

The problem you are going to have with smoke is that it will actually form a film. To totally remove the smell, the film has to go as well.

Once you've physically cleaned as much as you can (and I'd recommend just replacing the cheap stuff like keyboard and mouse, etc.), then bagging everything up in large garbage bags with either activated charcoal (fish tank filter charcoal stuff) or a nice size freshly opened container of coffee grounds.

Answer 2

No promises here, but something you could try is baking soda and maybe just some soap and water by cleaning and removing everything out? Best of luck.