🚀 go-pugleaf

Garry Wiegand wrote:
> 
> I have a new female friend who insists upon carefully vacuuming the inside of
> her computer, covering it up carefully, etc. For fear of dust in the works.
> 
> So... I have a very very important question which, as far as I can tell, and
> considering the large size and importance of the dust-cover industry, has
> never been asked in the usenet news before*:
> 
>       Does dust inside a computer make any earthly difference?**
> 
>       Has there ever been a computer which died of dust?

My favorite USENET Dust Posting is courtesy of Jeff Leibermann (A local
propellor-head)

The following is from one of my rants in comp.unix.sco.misc on the art of
computer destruction.  It's also a partial summary of what my life has
been like.  Learn by Destroying(tm).

1.  Local machine shop puts their NT workstation next to a centerless
grinder.  This beast grinds metal by literally vaporizing it into dust.
The dust condensed on the computer for about a year until all the plastic
had a noticeable metallic glint.  I checked the conductivity with my
ohms guesser and it was fairly conductive in some places.  The first to
fail were all 3ea fans, followed by the power supply literally exploding.
Scraping the boards with a fiberglass brush, and replacing everything
else, fixed this one.

2.  Many of my customers have relatively clean offices.  However, they
plant the server on the floor, which immediately becomes a proxy vacuum
cleaner, sucking up all the lint and dust from the carpet or floor.  I've
seen servers that look like the inside of a vacuums cleaner dust bag.  
Don't plant the server on the floor.

3.  One customer had an art store where they used spray glue near the
computer.  The fans in the computer sucked the overspray into the
computer, where it glued the dust in place.  When I tried to hit the
computer with an air hose, none of the dust would move.  Scraping the
dust off didn't really help.  I replaced the moving parts affected
(floppy and fans) but left the machine as a permanently dusty monument or
work of art.

4.  I did a tape drive transplant on a Xenix box in a clean room (while
wearing a bunny suit for 4ea sweaty hours).  Next to the Xenix box was an
open vat of unpronounceable acid.  During the installation of the
production line, some acid had been vaporized and was sucked into the
Xenix box by the power supply fan.  Everything near the front of the
computer was fatally corroded or rusted.  The computer continued to
operate in this condition for about 9 months when someone finally became
worried and decided to fix the tape backup.  Much to my amazement, only
the floppy disk drive and tape drives were destroyed.  The Dell 386DX33
continued to operate without incident.

5.  I was asked to fix a laptop for a restaurant owner.  When I arrived,
I found that the laptop plastic case had been partially melted and that
the laptop showed signs of have been submerged in tomato soup.  Don't ask
me how the laptop ended up in the soup.  I replaced the plastic parts,
keyboard, and floppy drive, rinsed the laptop in de-ionized water, and it
worked again.  No clue whether the laptop improved the minestrone.

6.  I've seen computers and monitors that survived fires.  The machines
will usually work just fine, but the smell of incinerated building
material and plastic is usually too much.  I recently removed the outer
covers and plastic parts from a smoke damaged computer and had them
vapour blasted (similar to sand blasting) to remove the charred surface.
The insides were coated with soot, but there was no evidence of any
failures.  I cleaned the floppy and cdrom LED's, and everything works.

7.  I looked at a laser printer, where the toner cartridge had spewed its
guts all over the insides.  While most of the printer looked like the
inside of my woodburning stove, the fuser roller had melted the spilled
toner into a solid blob of plastic crud.  I gave up and scrapped it for
parts.  Some things are just not worth fixing.

8.  I had the displeasure of attempting to repair the computer inside a
smog checker.  The automotive service shop had strategically placed the
computer so that it would receive the maximum amount of exhaust fumes
from the automobile under test.  I resisted the temptation to run the
computer though the solvent bath, and merely hit it with some soap, hosed
it with a garden hose (after removing the drives) and blew off the water
with an air hose.  It worked.

9.  I was recently asked to look at a laptop that had been used on a
sailboat and which had been sitting on the vessel in the harbour for
about 6 months.  The insides were solid green copper oxide.  I plugged it
in anyway and it began to smoke before the fuse went. Absolutely nothing
salvaged from the remains worked.

10. I found a very nice looking UPS in a dumpster.  It was heavy, but I
dragged it home, up 50 stairs, and onto my workbench.  When I plugged it
in, it seemed to work so I let it charge.  Several hours later, I was
cleaning up the acid spill from the exploded battery.  It wrecked my
workbench, some expensive toys that were also on the bench, and started
to eat through the floor.

11. Y2K will probably destroy more equipment preparing for Y2K than as a
result of Y2K related electrical failures.  One local business owner was
doing fine until he installed a cheapo gasoline generator.  Rather than
properly wire it into his building with a commercial transfer switch, he
built his own electrical extension cord system.  Unfortunately, he wired
it for 220VAC instead of 117VAC.  The score was half and half on
equipment that was protected when the fuse blew, and equipment that was
instantly destroyed.

12. Most networks use CAT5 cable which tends to run to a central wiring
closet.  I was trying to gain an extra few inches of cable from an
overhead CAT5 run by pulling on the cable.  The cable moved a few inches,
but so did the suspended ceiling, which decided that this would be a
great time to collapse on my head.  I didn't bill the customer for 4
hours of cleanup.  Beware of wiring closet death traps.

13. There are many books and articles on proper server security
procedures.  None of them bother to mention that one should remember
where the key to the server box was last seen.  I've had to pick the lock
on more than one server box.


-- 
Jeff Liebermann  150 Felker St #D  Santa Cruz CA 95060
(831)421-6491 pgr (831)426-1240 fax (831)336-2558 home
http://www.cruzio.com/~jeffl   WB6SSY
jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us   jeffl@cruzio.com