🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <uriclvgp2afu7eipb66pia36ue4b6jjbba@4ax.com>, Steve 
<p@q.inv> wrote:
>I've heard that the life cycle of a home PC is about 4-5 years, after
>which you can expect problems.  Any truth to this?

Others have mentioned the problem of compatibility with new gear, but 
if you're just talking about the "machinery" you can probably get a 
bit more than that out of them (at least if used in good conditions).

I've recently dismantled a couple of dead Osborne 486s dating from 
around 1991-93 IIRC.  They were still working at the end of 2000, but 
were dead by the end of 2002 if not before.  (One seemed to boot, but 
wouldn't drive a VDU; the other at least let you see that you had a 
problem with the HDD system. :)

In both cases, it seemed the Varta Nicads on the motherboard had spilt 
their guts and corroded tracks on the board (plenty of pretty 
corrosion compounds around anyway).

Now I don't really know whether the battery acid had caused the 
problems, or whether it just looked bad.  Whatever...  These two PCs 
were perfectly reliable for around 7 to 9 years at least, and maybe 
they only died in the end through disuse.

As a corollary -- Does anyone know if that "verdigris" can be cleaned 
up somehow without causing additional damage to tracks such as those 
on motherboards?  I presume there is a point where it *looks* bad, but 
hasn't yet actually eaten right through something.




Cheers, Phred.

-- 
ppnerkDELETE@THISyahoo.com.INVALID