Keep your computer clean

[BobSch]

Or else...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/06/dirtiest_pc/

[pelligrini]

Doesn't look as bad as the machine I built for my mom a while back. She brought it by a couple years later and it died from being smothered in cathair and dust.

[cabinetman]

We have 4 computers, and they never have been that bad. Every 2-3 weeks we need to do a thorough D&C (3 cats and 2 German Shepherds).

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[cgallery]

I routinely see machines that bad, and once every few months I see one much worse.

The ones belonging to smokers are the worst, as the tar acts like glue that binds the dust to anything and everything inside the machine.

[LinuxRandal]

My brother bought a refurbished machine a while back. It was dangerously high on temps and he called them on it. They claimed no way.
After some round abouts, he was PO'd and saw a building your pc series on You Tube (with some new higher end hardware). He had seen the same hardware in a pc, he had been wanting, that was always out of stock. He priced the parts, watched the videos, and figured he could save $100 and get exactly what he wanted, so he asked me for advice. I have built most of my pc's and he was afraid of goofing them up. LOL

After he built it, we were rearranging his network, cleaned some pc's, and he decided to open the refurbished one. It looked close to that on the inside. A quick cleaning and it hasn't had any issues since (and was a upgrade for his wife). It makes a HUGE difference, and I don't trust pc makers to check this (also seen what happens when pc's are cave stored, in a store next to a fire, etc).

[crokett]

Wowzer! I've seen some dirty PCs in my time, but I think that is the worst I've seen.

[jackellis]

We have cats, aka shedding and barfing machines.

I had to have the fan replaced on my laptop when too much cat hair got wound around it. Unfortunately, not a repair I was ready to try on my own. Fortunately, I'd purchased a service contract (always do for laptops).

The desktops (actually mini towers) get vacuumed periodically. I also have temp monitoring software installed.

[Kristofor]

I routinely see machines that bad, and once every few months I see one much worse.

Agreed, that looks pretty run-of-the-mill. You can still see the motherboard between the slots, and you can still tell it's green since it's not too dingy at all.

[JSUPreston]

I routinely see machines that bad, and once every few months I see one much worse.

The ones belonging to smokers are the worst, as the tar acts like glue that binds the dust to anything and everything inside the machine.

I'm with you on this one. I remember doing a motherboard swap on a server at a manufacturing plant in '96. Everything was covered in a black soot that was so bad, I had to throw away my clothes. My boss was there and had be doing the work. I offered to clean out the system completely, and he told me not to. He was afraid that if we cleaned it up, parts would start to fail. BTW: the motherboard swap was for an upgrade from 486 to Pentium Pro. The 486 board was working fine.

The worst are machines used by smokers. I've had a couple where I've opened the cover, immediately closed it back up and refused to work on it. I've seen some that were so covered in tar, it looked like someone had poured syrup inside the case. The tar was literally dripping! And then the folks wonder why the manufacturer wouldn't cover the parts failures under warranty.

[Uncle Cracker]

Imagine what their lungs look like...

[gsmittle]

Ewwww…

g.