Clean Your Damn Computer!!!

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Long time [H] reader "G.B. Rhodes" sent in this picture with no description to go with it, just the picture. So, being the nice guys that we are, we are going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it wasn't HIM that neglected this system.
 
It just boggles my mind that someone would build a system like that then neglect it.
 
Two cans of compressed air, and a full vacuum cleaner bag later and it might be presentable again.

If you take just 5 minutes and hit it with the compressed air once a week, or even once a month, it will never look like that.
 
This is why I clean mine every week. Compressed air and rubbing alcohol. Shines up really nice :)
 
I once found a dead and crispy frog in a customers computer.

Okay this takes the cake. I am sorry but I am truly grossed out at this point. I would have sent that thing back and told them to clean it first. ugh...
 
If the inside of the computer looks like that imagine what the rest of the house looks/smells like.

gotta wonder how much of that shit is in their lungs.
 
I need to clean my main rig tonight. I never let it get anywhere near that bad, but its time. Also, never smoke inside!
 
That looks like a Venomous X or some other high end CPU cooler. Odd that he'd take it somewhere where they'd take a photo of it and post here. Unless it's the owner who sent the picture in.
 
The best is when you work on a customer's pc and you can literally smell their household while the thing is running. Smokers and people of certain culture have the smelliest computers.
 
Customer complained about her system being slow. It was overheating. Front fan wasn't spinning. Found a dead scorpion in the fan blades. ACK!
 
Customer complained about her system being slow. It was overheating. Front fan wasn't spinning. Found a dead scorpion in the fan blades. ACK!

ICE, you live in Arizona with me I think. So what you are saying is if we put a layer of 120mm fans around the base of our houses, we are safe? Done and done!
 
Wow. Just wow. That is a relatively new PC, and for it to be that dirty they must have stored the damn thing in a sandblasting machine. :p
 
Filters are cool ;)

Positive pressure case + fan filters are cooler... :p

And the occasion spot cleaning. Doesn't have to be every month, but at least once a quarter.

Also, don't smoke inside. I used to know a guy who's cat would like the front of his computer because it was so addicted to nicotine. His system was full of tar covered hairballs... Never again. "Hey man, my computers running a little slow. Can you take a look?"

I still think the guy that told us about finding a tooth in a customer's printer wins this competition, forever. Ugh!
 
^^LMAO niconx!!

animals in the house + carpet + no vacuuming + smoking + being a dirty filthy person will do that to a computer.

this is a part of pc repair that i hate. having to deal with gross computers like this.
i have an acrylic "biohazard-decontamination-fumigation" box i put computers and game consoles in just in case theres roaches.. before i bring them inside.
 
Seeing that picture is actually beginning to make me worry. Folding1 has been running 24/7 for over a year now without ever seeing a cleaning. Maybe I should make it my priority to try to make time to clean it soon..........
 
Seeing that picture is actually beginning to make me worry. Folding1 has been running 24/7 for over a year now without ever seeing a cleaning. Maybe I should make it my priority to try to make time to clean it soon..........

At least crack the case and air dust the crap out of it so you can continue to fold.
 
Nothing like spending $75 on a high-end heat sink only to let it clog with dust and be totally ineffective.
 
^^LMAO niconx!!

animals in the house + carpet + no vacuuming + smoking + being a dirty filthy person will do that to a computer.

this is a part of pc repair that i hate. having to deal with gross computers like this.
i have an acrylic "biohazard-decontamination-fumigation" box i put computers and game consoles in just in case theres roaches.. before i bring them inside.

You have my condolences, there is no amount of money that will make me work on a computer like this again.

I am sure it costs me business, but I refuse to work on a machine like this that comes from the house of a heavy smoker. That shit just absorbs through your skin and wrecks your day. This machine needs a Very heavy wash down with rubbing alcohol.
 
my personal observation.

black customers computers ALL smell the same!! they either smell like black and milds or carpet deodorizer.
white customers computers smell gross, either cigarettes or just gross human odors or animal odors.
 
i recently encountered a system not quite as bad as this.

my brother contacted me telling me his computer wouldn't boot, and would crash once logged into windows. he brought it over for me to look at.

after cleaning probably a whole cats worth of cat hair out of every fan, heat sink, and video card cooler. i pronounced his video card death due to dust poisoning.(a geforce gts 640 if your wondering).

one new video card later(a geforce gt 460 1 gig) and his system is back up and running. and hes promising to be more diligent with cleaning it. but i doubt it.
 
Used to see this a lot when I worked at a PC repair shop. Most of them weren't this bad, but we would see a few like this every week. Disgusting shit.

We took them outside at the back of the shop and used an air compressor to blow them out.
 
I upgraded my brothers PC after 2 years, no cleanup at all in meantine. the dust filter was full, there was some very small dust layer on bottom of the case plus a minimal dust on components, nothing you couldn't solve with a simple air blow from your lungs. I can't imagine how can anyone come up with such... mess ?
 
On the subject of cleaning, I like cleaning my computers on the first day of every season but are there any decent electric compressor? Would like to have one around and clean more often! Those little cans adds up fast.
 
On the subject of cleaning, I like cleaning my computers on the first day of every season but are there any decent electric compressor? Would like to have one around and clean more often! Those little cans adds up fast.

i actually use a small shop vac i got at home depot. i hook the hose up the the outlet, use the small corner tip, and turn it on. hepa filter in the vac itself keeps clean air blowing rather well. and it can also be used as a vaccum for my car. :D
 
This machine was an outdoor rig :) at least seems to be, the back of my brain hurt a little when i saw it.
 
On a closer look, it doesn't look that bad. It was the spider webs that made the case look worse than it should be. I think it was built by someone that knows computers for his girlfriend where the grilfriend wouldn't even know to clean the inside once in a while. A lot of care went into assembling the parts. It is disappointing though that the person cheaped out on the PSU and the case. A case with front filter and 120mm fan would have prevented most of the dust from getting in.

So I blame the girlfriend for letting the computer get into this state.:)
 
Someone asked me to repair a 10 yr old PC with more dust and dirt than that. I opened it up, was insulted, and gave it back. :mad:
 
can someone explain to me how spider webs are there i never seen this ever before in a case.
 
lol blame the women!

Heh. I'm more poking fun at my girlfriend. All she cares about is to make sure it will play WoW without any problems. She doesn't read this site so I'm safe. Speaking of which, it's probably time to air dust her computer again.
 
I upgraded my brothers PC after 2 years, no cleanup at all in meantine. the dust filter was full, there was some very small dust layer on bottom of the case plus a minimal dust on components, nothing you couldn't solve with a simple air blow from your lungs. I can't imagine how can anyone come up with such... mess ?

exactly if people get something like this then they should see whats wrong with their house first.
 
Back
Top