I’m working on an old G5 iMac that was brought in for repair;
Problem description; machine shuts down after an hour of use, runs really hot, spacebar on keyboard is sticking
Diagnosis; Black Lung (Black Fans?)
Notes; Machine’s plastic is slightly yellowed, has a distinct odor of cigarette smoke, upon exploratory surgery, it has been determined that the patient is suffering from severe cases of Emphysema, Lung Cancer, and drastically diminished lung capacity, as well as Bronchitis…
seriously though, this machine is FILTHY, the intake grate on the bottom of the machine is 96% obscured by nicotine/tar dust, the fans are badly clogged, the power supply is caked with nicotine/tar dust, as is the heat sink, actually it’s easier to say what’s NOT contaminated by tobacco residues… the foot
I’m going to have to tear this machine apart to the module level, complete breakdown, and cleaning, and it’s going to be at least 3-4 hours of labor, MINIMUM, and the customer will be billed for not only the labor time, but the canned air used to clean the components, this thing is absolutely filthy and disgusting
I can only imagine what the customer’s lung looks like…
I’ll bring in my digicam tomorrow and document the carnage…
I once saw the inside of a PC that had been in a heavy smoker’s office for several years: everything was coated in this uniform layer of ever so slightly sticky brown dust.
As part of our “keep employees happy!” program, we offer free computer support to our staff.
I really, really hate getting the laptops from the cat-owning smokers. There’s nothing like the lovely wad of hair in the fans, stuck together with the tar from the cigarettes.
And its amazing - just yank out the wads of icky stuff, and the laptop works 100% better.
One time I read somewhere - rinkworks, probably - about a computer in a taxi dispatcher’s office that was filled with smoking drivers 24/7. After three or four months, it was so gummed up with obscene amounts of residue that they just gave up on it.
I’m a cat owning smoker, but I clean my computer out every couple months.
3 or 4 hours of pure profit sounds perfectly fine to me. Be thankful there are still people that are scared to do basic computer maintenance like blowing off heat sinks and running antivirus.
I have a friend with two dogs who couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her laptop, so another friend who’s very computer savvy took a peek and went, “Woman, do you not know anything about keeping the vents clean?” She had WADS of dog hair inside that took forever to clean out.
I once lent a VCR to my father for a couple of years. When I got it back, the interior works were covered in a golden-brown film of tobacco gunk. It was unusable.
heh. I remember, back in my computer tech days, encountering a severe dust-related problem. The guy called us because his computer monitor had lost all color and was only displaying red. I check the software, and everything seems fine, so I open the computer case.
The inside was absolutely choked with dust. There were little “hills” of it on the motherboard. A thorough blasting with compressed air (taking it outside first, yeesh), and the problem was fixed. Still not sure exactly what happened; my best guess is that all that dust caused a short on his video card or something, preventing everything but the red channel from getting through.
