Housecleaning Standards

[Mercutio]

Today I made somene who brought me their 4-month-old computer buy a new chassis, CPU fan, DVD burner, floppy and card reader.

Why?

Cause it was filthy. I wasn't going to touch it.

The real problem was that their video card fan had failed and killed the card (Does anyone want a burned up 6800GT?). But whoever built the computer had made it into a fucking wind tunnel - two front fans, a side fan and funnel, a northbridge fan and two rear fans blowing inward. There was, no kidding, a three inch deep layer of dust in the bottom of the case and a thick coating on everything inside. Neither of the front fans could even spin.

I used three cans of compressed air on it and ended up covering up with rubber gloves and a trashbag over my clothes, just to get the motherboard out. I'm having an allergy attack anyway.

I can't figure out for the life of me how a computer could get to that state so quickly. The computer was apparently built sometime in late November and has top-shelf parts (AMDx2, 6800GT), other than the case... which looks like one of those taste-challenged things that very poor members of the LAN party set would use.

OK, so besides wanting to rant about how disgustingly filthy this rich guy's computer is, here's the question for the members of SF: Is it reasonable to expect a PC to meet some basic standard of cleanliness prior to service? And if that's the case, what do you do when it doesn't?

 

[timwhit]

I remember seeing some of the dirtiest computers possible when I was working as a technician in High School.

I remember one guy that brought his computer into the shop. This thing was absolutely disgusting, the whole thing looked like it was coated in grease and it had a cup of coffee spilled on/in it.

It sat there for about a week or two before anyone would touch it. Every time any of the techs was told to work on it they would make up an excuse so that they wouldn't have to touch the thing.

Finally, a fellow tech decided to open it up, the inside was just as bad as the outside. The guy was probably a smoker too because the inside was filled with tar dust (I'm sure most of you have seen the machine of a heavy smoker).

Anyways, the tech called the guy up and told him that he found a hamburger in his computer and the guy actually believed him.

 

[Bozo]

The computers I service are from a heavy industrial industry. It's an aluminum rolling mill with tons of dross dust, liquid coolant and oil mist. We have over 75 computers that are running in this enviornment. But the absolute dirtiest computers are from peoples homes. On the rare occasion that I work on a home computer I am appauled at how dirty they are. Some could grow flowers or vegtables in the dirt that is inside.
The next dirtiest are from the offices. Layer after layer of dust and dirt. And to think that people breath that s--t.
I have never refused to work on a dirty computer, but a few went to the trash can after a peek inside. They were labeled 'unrepairable'

I guess thats why they make rubber gloves and dust mask.

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[ddrueding]

I build and work on quite a few industrial machines. The nursery is pretty bad, especially their landscape supply division. They seem to always need me under their desk any time I wear black slacks. The absolute worst is the redi-mix contcrete plants. Two of the materiels they work with (fly ash and cement) are so fine that they go through any filter I have. And once they settle on a part and the humidity goes up, they create a perfectly solid insulating layer. Lately I've been using VIA fanless machines in giant cases with tons of filtration and a 120mm fan at low speed on the exhaust.

 

[Buck]

Is it reasonable to expect a PC to meet some basic standard of cleanliness prior to service? And if that's the case, what do you do when it doesn't?

My standard is pretty lenient. As long as I'm not concerned that there is some bio-hazard material, I'll clean it. That's one reason why I recently purchased a small cannister vacuum cleaner. It does a great job blowing out all the dust/lint/pet hair. Compressed air is useless in my opinion for two reasons: 1. Cost is prohibitive 2. It loses too much pressure after one minute of use.

The absolute worst is the redi-mix concrete plants.

I've had machines in similar situations, and that concrete dust is horribly fine. This was a few years back, and the machines were Socket-7 based. Fortunately, the only two fans needed were on the CPU and the PSU. The systems were on lease, and when they returned, the insides were coated with a 1mm layer of concrete. I was able to clean up the motherboard/CPU/RAM/HDD/adapter cards and used them again. The PSU/FDD/Optical drives were history.

 

[Tannin]

Is it reasonable to expect a PC to meet some basic standard of cleanliness prior to service?

Yes. Entirely reasonable.

Who is responsible for meeting that standard?

You are. You are the technician. They are schoolteachers or housewives or cost accountats. They don't know what's inside the box, bar understading that it's expensive electronic components of some kind, they often don't even know how to open the box. Inside the box is your department.

How do you get it clean enough to work on?

You need two tools: an ordinary pastry brush (same thing you baste a roast with, costs about $1), and an ordinary dustpan brush (same thing you sweep up the dust on the kitchen floor with after you use the full-size broom, costs about $3). Oh, and a more-or-less clean cloth.

If it's bad, step outside before starting so that the dust can blow away. Stand upwind when you do it! Use the brushes, and as required take a deep breath and blow the dust out. Takes two minutes and you don't have to get dirty, bar maybe your hands, which you can wash in about 20 seconds.

It's no hu-hu. All part of your job, and sort of satisfying in a way as this pile of crud starts turning into a nice, clean computer.

How do you clean the outside of the system?

With a pastry brush for the cracks, a cloth, and a bottle of ordinary furniture polish. (I use Mr Sheen, but whatever you like is fine.) Takes a few moments, gives your customer a nice, shiny machine that doesn't only work well (it will after you do your stuff with it, I mean) but looks good too. It's the same as when you take your car to be serviced at one of the better mechanical places: they change the oil, replace the clutch, check the plugs, and run it through the carwash. All part of the routine. Think of it as a courtesy. People often appreciate it. And those that don't, hell they are paying for it whether they want to or not. Besides, who wants to work on a super-grotty computer?

 

[Will Rickards]

With my new case the P160 it has a filter on the front under the bezel. But I found that the air is going around the filter as well. The holes all around the front bezel let dust in. So I taped them over with clear tape. Same with the top usb and firewire ports, dust city and I don't use them (I use the usb ports on my dell 2001FP) so they got taped over as well. Now all I really have to do is swipe the front filter every week and the dust stays at bay.

I'm now convinced that new builds will need directed airflow through filters. I've heard stretched pantyhose works well.
And I'm convinced front mounted usb ports and the like are nothing but dust holes. I'd like to see a case that isolated the main components, hard drives and 5.25" bays into three separate airflow zones. Each with a good filter. I'm thinking fan in side for mainboard/video/cpu, fan in top for cd-rom and another fan mounted horizontally above the hard drives blowing down and air out the bottom of the case.

 

[CougTek]

Buy an air compressor. This is what we use at the store. It would be a lot more expensive if we had to waste one or more compressed air cans every time we have to de-dust a computer.

 

[freeborn]

I only work on friends computers and oddly enough xboxes.

I have a 50 gallon tank I fill off the compressed / clean / dry air system that runs through my work. I got the tank at Sears and added a house with quick connects. I added an inline regulator and a cheap air nozzle. Set it at 30psi outlet and charge the tank to the 105 psi of the air line. With that setup I'm able to clean about 15 computers.

The xboxes seem to be the worse for gathering up dust. Some air coated in smoke tar, some smell of perfume. The worst smelled like my cat's litter (before use) so I can only guess their was a litter box nearby. Cleaning them up is a matter of opening them up, taking them outside and blowing them quite well. Replace the optical or hard drive, reimage, and go.

The computers are generally a lot cleaner but still get filthy.

Oh, if my friends have small children it is always amusing to see what's lying inside the optical drives. Be sure to wear your gloves

Free

Free

 

[freeborn]

lol, I need to spend more time on the preview pane. House should of course be hose.

Free

 

[freeborn]

Today I fail at the English language. Too many corrections are needed for me to list them all.

 

[Bozo]

I've found that the case air filters are worthless. Around here they plug up in a matter of days. I make sure the exhaust fan is larger and/or running faster than the intake fan. Try to keep the air moving so it deposits as little as posible.
But I'm concerned about the new Antec cases with the hole and funnel on the door for the cpu. I might have to rig up a filter of some sort. Heat is a major issue here. We melt aluminum in furnaces around 1500F and hot roll ingots at ~900F. In some areas of the plant it gets to be ~120F on the floor. (in the summer) Not as bad as a steel mill, but still hot.

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[mubs]

That's why positive air pressure is important. When you have negative pressure (more air sucked out than is blowing in), air gets into the case from every crack and crevice, from every FDD and optical, every USB, FW and sound jack. With positive pressure, you control the entry points and can filter them appropriately. Yes, the filters do clog up pretty quick, but I wouldn't call that useless, I'd say that the filters are doing a great job.

Merc's example of front and rear fans blowing in is, of course, a nut job.

 

[sechs]

I dunno about you guys, but I clean out my computer every once in a while. I've never worked on the computer of a person who did that.

 

[Sol]

Wow, everyone has such complex and/or expensive methods for cleaning computers... Even Buck uses his vacume cleaner to blow the dust out of the case...
Is there some terrible reason that I'm not aware of that means you can't just use a standard little brush attachment (the type you get with just about any vacume cleaner) on a bog standard vacume cleaner to suck all the dust and crap out of a PC?
The end result tends to be no dust in the pc and none on you, in your nose or scattered arround your office... Sure maybe use Tannins basting brush to loosen the dirt in cracks, but with a vacume cleaner there's no worries about standing down wind...
Compressed air in a can seems like a reasonable plan for when your out on a site and don't have a vacume cleaner handy... But in the end practically everyone has one anyway...

The worst PC's I've seen were from farm offices and a couple Tony had from a chemical plant... Although they were more rusted than dirty...
As nice as it would be to have users clean their own machines before bringing them in I just don't think it's a reasonable expectaion. Many users live in fear of even opening thier pcs, and I for one kind of prefer it that way...

 

[ddrueding]

I've been thinking of getting a small air compressor for a long time now. What is the smallest/cheapest you can get? Obviously I only need around 30-50 psi, and a very small tank.

 

[LiamC]

...Is there some terrible reason that I'm not aware of that means you can't just use a standard little brush attachment (the type you get with just about any vacume cleaner) on a bog standard vacume cleaner to suck all the dust and crap out of a PC?

I have seen some rather large static charges build up on vacuum cleaner wands/nozzles—of course this is dependent upon what floor covering is used, shoe soles worn and a raft of other factors. Not sure if you want to take the chance...

 

[Sol]

You could always just earth it... Actually I suspect that since your pretty much always going to be touching the case and the metal tube of the vacume cleaner you pretty much always are earthing it anyway...

 

[LunarMist]

Some aeons ago I was an electronic repair tech for a while. I remember receiving one unit that was just full of cock ost were dead, but many were still alive. It was really gross. uke-r: The solution: spray the crap out of it with Raid, shove it in the box, return as beyond repair.

 

[ddrueding]

Some aeons ago I was an electronic repair tech for a while. I remember receiving one unit that was just full of cock ost were dead, but many were still alive. It was really gross. uke-r: The solution: spray the crap out of it with Raid, shove it in the box, return as beyond repair.

I actually got a computer in this kind of state while working at CompUSA in SF. I wasn't the tech, but was called down to the repair shop when they found it. I called the customer and told them to pick up their machine. I didn't say it was fixed, just for them to pick it up

 

[LunarMist]

..."cockroaches. Most"...

 

[LunarMist]

I actually got a computer in this kind of state while working at CompUSA in SF.

Mine was from Chinatown in SF, though the shop I was far far from there. Weird.

 

[Mercutio]

Sol, standard vacuum cleaners have brushes that spin and contact with each other. In other words, they generate static as part of normal operation.

As a background to my previous comment, I'd like to add that I have a rather extreme allergy to common dust.

I've worked in manufacturing environments like coal power plants and dealt with Office PCs. My standard for cleanliness is really set by the PCs that get stuck under desks in offices - after a year or so they have a modest layer of dust, maybe a quarter inch, and worse buildups on fans and filters. That's fine and normal.

To me, common sense say that at the point when you can't be sure whether your computer case was beige or black, you might want to give the machine some kind of once over with something - canned air or a vacuum or... who cares what. I understand that many people don't want to open a case, but I also don't think I'm being paid to be a housekeeper.

 

[Mercutio]

OK, topic #2:

Keyboard/Mouse Schmutz. I'm far from blameless on this one. If I'm gaming my hands sweat a little and grey funk builds up on my trackball. However, I clean mine at least once a week.

However...
Does anyone know how to prevent that stuff from building up in the first place?

ddrueding, do (or did) you have any particular strategy for keeping input devices clean at your LAN center?

 

[ddrueding]

ddrueding, do (or did) you have any particular strategy for keeping input devices clean at your LAN center?

Interesting question. When I first opened, I made the decision to allow all food and drink at all the machines. I have never had an issue in 2 years of operation. The keyboards more often fail when the "w" key gives up the ghost. No matter, $5 keyboards (about one a month) aren't an issue. The mice (Logitech MX500s) I get for about $25 a piece and last about a year. In all this time they typically get a little build-up around the feet (little pads underneath) but nothing really on top. I spray everything with disinfectant at each shift change (twice a day), but there really isn't any clean-up to be done.

 

[sechs]

Maybe people who don't have their own computers don't know how to mess the equipment up.

 

[MaxBurn]

Not a computer story but I used to service big UPS's for a company on the left coast. We had a relatively small 30KVA 480 3 phase unit in a SUGAR mill, I think it was C&H sugar and they had a belt going right over the machine transporting sugar to a different part of the factory. Now as you know sugar melts when it is heated, and the inside of a UPS has lots of big heat sinks and other things that get pretty hot. What would happen is eventually the sugar coating would build up on the contacts of breakers and rotary switches and they would be unable to complete the connection, or worse barely complete the connection with a high resistance and burn up (catastrophically). We had pictures of the UPS in the office that we put up during Christmas because it looked like it snowed inside of it everything was so white. That was the only customer we had that we cancelled their service contract on due to environmental concerns, the thing needed big repairs every quarter.