Literally!! I work in the IT industry, and though most of the time its mundane work, occasionally we get to be amused by geeky things like ‘The Dirtiest Machine’. When clients bring in their PCs for repair or maintenance, we give it a blow job (whaaaat? I had to, what with all this talk about dirty fans ‘n all!) to get rid of the dust bunnies. Its normally just a small layer of dust on the componants, and maybe a little in the power supply. Nothing exciting.
But what an exciting fortnight for me! Two machines came in that were diiiiiirrrrty! So much so that the fans actually stopped working and the CPU’s overheated (layman’s terms: your machine is broh-khen!). They were both due to lack of maintenance on the clients behalf (if its in a dusty area, bring it in every 6 months, m’kay), and unfortunately we see this all the time (though normally we catch it before it gets to the point of overheating). If we find a particularly dusty one, we like to gather around while its being blown out to see just how big the puff of dust that comes out is. Yes yes, g33k, I know haha.
Fan A: Before, caked with dust…
Fan A: After..what its supposed to look like.
Then, we got a client who was too proactive. We spoke with him on the phone and said we’d rather he leave us to de-dust (un-dust?) it since he was bringing it in for work anyway, but he said no, he’s done this before and he’ll take the componants out, dust them off with a soft paintbrush and he’ll be fine. Now, we sometimes use a brush if its not too dirty, and we do know this client is not a complete n00b with computers, so we left him to it.
Fan B: Before, caked with (yellow/green looking??) dust…
Fan B: After..what its supposed to look like.
When he brought it in, we plugged it in, turned it on, and nothing happened. So I opened it up, looked around and everything seemed normal. So we called him. Apparently, he’d taken all the componants out, including the fan and CPU. Well, the CPU should have stayed put, but when he pulled the fan off (Heaven knows why he did this – its NOT necessary!) the CPU came with it. So he told us, “just take the CPU out and turn it 90 degrees. I might not have put it in straight.”
WHAT??! Now, for those who dont know, some CPUs (the older ones especially) have pins which slot into the CPU socket on the motherboard. Like a sim card, theres a cutout to show which way it must be positioned (two CPU pins arent there). Now, if you put the CPU in the wrong way, you can shift the pins because, obviously, there’re no holes for them to slot into.
Well thats what happened. Unfortunately, sometimes its fixable, but these two pins were mashed and broken. In short, he had to buy a new machine, because you couldnt get a matching CPU (too old), so upgrading the CPU meant upgrading the motherboard (old motherboard couldnt take the newer CPU), which in turn meant upgrading the RAM (also too old for new motherboards). In short, new machine.
Eish. Doesnt look like much, but thats a whole machine’s worth of damage!
So, though I did feel bad for the guy, that was my g33ky entertainment for the month. 
pics taken with my cellphone
This is a simple card I made for my sister’s 29th birthday which is tomorrow (happy birthday, sis!). Its simple, but I love it! This card is easily customisable with colours and different decals (ie a four-leaf clover for a good luck card instead of a cupcake), so go wild with your imagination!
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