Stuff you've found working on computers?

[C-Man]

My favorite is when the owner is a heavy smoker. The nicotine and dust combine and turn into sort of a cement. When I get one of those, I pop the drives and battery out and scrub everything down with Simple Green.

This guy I know will toss everything but the hard drives in the dishwasher. Sounds crazy, right? But it works, as long as you dry everything completely, and make sure to take the CMOS battery out. It'll come out looking and smelling brand-new.

I'll admit, I used to smoke like a chimney, and kept my tower on top of the desk for easy access. Now I took good care of the inside, but over about eight years, the front panel of the case turned from silver to brown. It looked like a piece of wood! It happened so gradually I didn't even notice. One day, I needed a number off of there, and I couldn't even read it. So I sprayed a rag down with cleaner and wiped it off, and instantly turned the rag brown. I stripped my whole system down and gave the whole case the treatment, and ended up having to toss five or six shop rags. That was one of the things that got me to quit smoking. o_o;

Most systems I get for virus removal and such, I take a look inside, just to blow the dust out, since it only takes a second. It amazes me how few people bother to do it. It doesn't really take any technical savvy to get a can of compressed air, or even the vacuum cleaner if you're really careful, to clean that out. But then, irresponsible owners are a geek's number one source of income, so I won't complain too hard.

What have you guys found in systems?

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Yeah, most electronics will wash well if left to totally dry after, done it with several keyboards etc...

I've found dead mice (serves them right for urinating on the motherboard), copious amount of dust and grime of all sorts but, it's all pretty normal after several years of use I guess.

I always think of this article when the subject turns to dirty PC's.

 

[Qyöt27]

Most systems I get for virus removal and such, I take a look inside, just to blow the dust out, since it only takes a second. It amazes me how few people bother to do it. It doesn't really take any technical savvy to get a can of compressed air, or even the vacuum cleaner if you're really careful, to clean that out.

I use a small air compressor that you'd normally use for inflating bike tires, because you have to make that CPU fan scream when you're cleaning it out. It has the power to get a lot of that junk out of there quickly, especially inside of cramped cases or from inside the PSU. And you don't have that problem with aerosol dusters where you use it for too long and your hand gets numb from the cold.

I don't blow the dust out of mine nearly as often as I should, but part of that is because of placement constraints that make me hate unhooking the thing (or rather, hooking it back up once I'm finished).

 

[Sketcher]

I use a small air compressor that you'd normally use for inflating bike tires, because you have to make that CPU fan scream when you're cleaning it out. It has the power to get a lot of that junk out of there quickly, especially inside of cramped cases or from inside the PSU. And you don't have that problem with aerosol dusters where you use it for too long and your hand gets numb from the cold.

When I was working in the tech shop, that's what we used - though probably larger than the one you are using. Regular dust you could get rid of with a 30 second once-over. If the owner was a heavy smoker with at least one cat, it took a little longer.

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

I got to a point where some of the computers I was working on were so grimy that I just got a shop vac to take care of it. It actually worked so well that I use it on my own whenever it needs a dusting out. Open the case, pull the blower off the vac, pin the fans to keep them from spinning and creating electrical charge and we're good. Takes a few seconds compared to the half hour it use to take me with cans of air.

 

[paul1149]

I also am able to use a compressor to do the blow-out, since I mostly work from home. But I learned to hold the pressure down to about 55#; anything more can do damage.

I haven't found anything exotic in any machine yet, but what does amaze me is the lack of attention to configuring the machines. I've yet to come across a machine with a taskbar on autohide, even on small-screen netbooks. Only a few have turned on the viewing of file extensions - to correct the most idiotic security vulnerability MS ever made with Windows. No one has adjusted the touchpad (and they can do some nice things these days); only one or two set the mouse to jump to the default dialog action, etc.

 

[Joshua0]

This guy I know will toss everything but the hard drives in the dishwasher. Sounds crazy, right? But it works,

Actually I knew a guy who use to do that for a living. Factorys use to hire him to clean the product at different stages of production. Often he would recommend a dishwasher. It was very cost effective compared to the other machines they use for cleaning.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

For the really nasty ones, I'd take the side panel off and hold it over the a/c unit outside. It blew *everything* out in about a second! The drawback is all that gunk comes flying out all at once, so you have to hold your breath. Doing the same job can take a full can of compressed air. That stuff ain't cheap!

 

[Mazzaroth]

Moths all up in the GPU, yo.

/lol


I swear there was a hatchery in there, they were probably nice and warm.

 

[C-Man]

I stripped an old Compaq Athlon XP system down the other day and took bleach, soap, a stiff plastic brush and the water hose to everything, it was so bad. I took the power supply apart, and it was absolutely foul. Couldn't even identify what some of the crud was. But it came out looking and smelling brand-new again, as good as the day it was made.

Unfortunately, the power supply was bad before I even started. It was absolute cheap junk, and didn't even have proper filtering on the inputs. How it didn't go out or even mess up the motherboard six months into the system's life, I have no idea. But I might re-use the case and fan from it. I slapped in an old 400-watt Delta unit I had laying around, and it's plugging away again.
I'll probably post a picture of the "after" soon.

 

[WalksWithChrist]

I stripped an old Compaq Athlon XP system down the other day and took bleach, soap, a stiff plastic brush and the water hose to everything, it was so bad. I took the power supply apart, and it was absolutely foul. Couldn't even identify what some of the crud was. But it came out looking and smelling brand-new again, as good as the day it was made.

Unfortunately, the power supply was bad before I even started. It was absolute cheap junk, and didn't even have proper filtering on the inputs. How it didn't go out or even mess up the motherboard six months into the system's life, I have no idea. But I might re-use the case and fan from it. I slapped in an old 400-watt Delta unit I had laying around, and it's plugging away again.
I'll probably post a picture of the "after" soon.

Idda dropped that mug right in the trash!

 

[C-Man]

Well, it was still working, and did everything the owner wanted, except for glitches caused by the power supply. It was just, well, gross. I gave the owner my usual stern lecture on cleanliness. :3
EDIT: ...the motherboard does need one new cap.
...It's got Teapos. >.>

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

Reeses Peanut butter cup in the wrapper.

 

[C-Man]

I bet it was still good. Maybe a little on the grainy side.

 

[pgp_protector]

Stuff that would get me permabanned if I posted it

 

[C-Man]

There are stranger places people hide such things. o.o;