Computers Ahoy!

Because it only took Viking-Sensei three years (and the approaching end of Errant Story) to come up with a better name for "General Discussions"
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finalcarrot
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Computers Ahoy!

Post by finalcarrot »

So, a friend asked if I'd take a look at his failing PC. It's a Compaq, and it's an old husk, hollowed out and filled with mostly new hardware. It's a fine piece of equipment, but it's not booting his OS.

To my dismay, I opened the casing to find heaps of dust, smoker's dust at that. My whole office smells like nicotine and cigarettes. I got a blast of it right in the face ::yack::

Needless to say, this acumulation of the dust was his problem, and the slow seeping of nicotine into his parts has ruined some functions of a cd-drive, so I've replaced it with a spare I had lying around. The power supply had to be torn apart just to clean the mounds of dust from it.

Still, I wonder. Does anyone have an idea, short of just replacing the computer, to solving his nicotine-dust problem?

I figured the "geeking out" forum would be appropriate for this since computers are a part of geek culture, and I don't see a "talk about your crap here" forum.
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Viking-Sensei
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Re: Computers Ahoy!

Post by Viking-Sensei »

Well, I don't know about his computer... but you might be able to save your smoker friend's life. Just show him the inside of the computer and say something like "and the computer isn't even the one that smokes... holy crap, InsertNameHere, imagine what your lungs must look like...

Then again, my father died of lung cancer, so I'm a little sensitive on the issue.
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finalcarrot
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Re: Computers Ahoy!

Post by finalcarrot »

I hate to say it, but his father did too, and yet he still smokes a pack a day. I honestly hate going in his house because smoke just bothers me endlessly. My parents smoked through my childhood and stopped when I was a pre-teen. Now, just the smell of it sends me sneezing.

Maybe I should roll up his nicotine-dust in some paper and show him what he's smoking for real.
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Re: Computers Ahoy!

Post by Ghost in the Shell »

I agree with these measures to save your friends life totally.
Other than that, the dust problem could be reduces by using stockings. Sounds weird, but it can help to filter the air vents of the PC so not that much dust gets into the case anymore. Just cut in form a womens stocking and put it over the holes where the machine sucks in the air for cooling. I haven't done that myself but heard it works. The thin metarial won't affect the air flow, but keep the dust outside. You can place it over the cooling ventilators, too, though putting it over the ones on the air exits of the case doesn't sound useful to me.

That said I assume that the actual nicotine, i.e. the stuff that makes walls sticky and yellow and is just fucking gross won't be stopped by this, so after fixing the PC I'd suggest to use another stocking and threaten to strangle your friend with it if he doesn't stop (that stops him from inhaling...).

I'm probably a bit sensitiveon this, too. I haven't lost someone due to cigarettes so far, but my sister smokes too much as well (and she has a chronic stomach disease, so my family is pretty worried about this).
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Re: Computers Ahoy!

Post by Slamlander »

I smoke but, not in the house. The crud gets in there anyway. Yes, my dad also died from ling cancer, at 63.

If you think that stopping smoking is going to keep the creeping crud out of the box then you are dumber than you look stupid. The other name for a computer case is vacuum cleaner and they do that job pretty nicely. All PCs, since the original IBM, are designed as negative pressure cases. This means that they will suck in dust through every crack and crevise. What you need to do is convert it to positive pressure and then filter the fan intakes. On one previous case, I actually filtered it with a K&N Air filter for a Suziki GSXR 750 (with appropriate plumbing).

The reason they went with negative pressure is that if you don't keep the filters for a positive pressure case clean then you don't get cool air. Main mainframes, in the 60's and 70's were lost due to overheating because the filters were clogged. However, K&N filters are the cure for that ;)
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finalcarrot
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Re: Computers Ahoy!

Post by finalcarrot »

Didn't say stopping smoking would keep crud out, just that it would keep out nicotine-dust, which is much more corrosive than your average flaked-off skin cells, pet dander, and microscopic dead bugs.

The back of the PC, which I have now repaired and is happily being used by an exuberant 10 year old with an iPod, has corrosion on every socket. I thought at first it might be polished, but it's not rust that I could get rid of it, it's eaten-away metal exposing the base material that was coated. ::yuck::
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Re: Computers Ahoy!

Post by Imp-Chan »

When I was a kid, my parents had this lovely modern art sculptural foiled wire piece hanging in my dad's office. I always thought it was gold.

One day, when I must have been about five or six, my mom took it outside to clean it. Globules of yellow came off in chunks, revealing that the piece had actually been silver foil all along. It was about the most sickening thing I've ever seen, and even if I hadn't later turned out to be allergic, that alone would have convinced me not to smoke.

Later though, right around the time I started high school, I began noticing that I got dizzy when around smoke for too long. These days, I can't even be in a non-smoking hotel room on the floor above a smoking floor, because the smoke moves through the vents and makes me sick. I have to make sure a restaurant is non-smoking before I even walk in the door, or I will be driven out before I even get my food (sometimes before I'm even seated!). I got yelled at by a cop once, because I'd chosen to cut across a circular driveway rather than walk through the visible cloud of smoke near one of the doorways. So it's pretty bad... nontheless, so long as you're smoking on private property rather than in public where it would render shared space unusable for me, I would defend to the death your right to put whatever damn fool chemicals you want into your body, not the least of which is cigarette smoke.

^-^'
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