Disgusting Computer Award

That was nasty to see, and I've watched the whole Hellraiser series.:p

Dan_D said:
Them: "Well I knew about the cat urine on the outside of the machine, but I didn't think it was a problem. It didn't get inside the machine."
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:eek:
 
Bohica69 said:
Anybody else remember Apple's policy about computers in this condition? Something about not working on them because they were hazardous to the health of the tech? Or was it just an extra charge?
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Yep. Take the word "Apple" out of a story and ZOMG. OPINION REVERSAL!!>!!>!
 
trynberg said:
Amazing that people can see shit like that and still smoke!

It is hard to believe how some people live (roaches, cat urine, etc.).
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Tell me about it. My parents chain smoke and the ceiling of their SUV is literally stained yellow across the front seat (it's supposed to be light gray).

It's gross. I'd be embarrassed to sell that car without replacing the ceiling fabric first.
 
Dan_D said:
I've seen worse machines myself. One of which was an old Macintosh that was filled with fried roach parts and some live roaches. Yeah he took the compressed air to it and didn't think about it before hand. The end result was flying live and dead roaches all over the tech shop. This was along with roach feces, nicotine deposits, dust bunnies the size of golf balls, and crap we couldn't identify.

I've also found earwax in an Epson printer before. (Just a little side note.)
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If I worked in a shop, one of my purchases would be a 3M toner / service vacuum with appropriate filters, it's static grounded / EMI/RFI filtered / toner safe. Over the long term it's cheaper than canned air, and much more environmentally friendly and human friendly.
 
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qdemn7 said:
If I worked in a shop, one of my purchases would be a 3M toner / service vacuum with appropriate filters, it's static grounded / EMI/RFI filtered / toner safe. Over the long term it's cheaper than canned air, and much more environmentally friendly and human friendly.
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+1, those "seem" expensive, but having one will save your butt (or whoever owns the computer you're working on's butt)
 
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Dan_D said:
I've seen worse machines myself.
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Ditto.

Smoking around your PC is a horrid horrid idea if you like it. Can you imagine the extra heat that blanket of dust/tar holds in, instead of allowing it to dissipate. The worst is the smoker/pet owner combo. Awful stuff.

After what I put into my rig, I sure wouldn't let anything like that just crap all over it.
 
If I worked in a shop, one of my purchases would be a 3M toner / service vacuum with appropriate filters, it's static grounded / EMI/RFI filtered / toner safe. Over the long term it's cheaper than canned air, and much more environmentally friendly and human friendly.
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You obviously haven't tried to clean a smoker's PC. No amount of blowing or sucking will get the surface residue off (barely gets the caked on stuff). The only way is a solvent & brush/rag.
 
I've seen cases like that from non-smoking homes. Get a few cats, or live in the dusty desert and you get the same thing. Stick the pc in a damp basement as suggested in the responses to the article and you can get mold and rust. The close up pics of the board look more like oxidation than tar.

The one thing that's annoying is the smoker's angle every time someone gets a few pix of a dirty case. Like the only thing that could make a case dirty is someone who smokes. Just get off it already!
 
Guys just because you smoke doesn't mean you never clean out your computer. I am a smoker still. I hope to be quit soon, but it's not easy. Anyways, My PCs never look like that. I find that dawn dish soap and water will clean the tar easily with just a soaking if it is something that can be soaked. Otherwise, electronics parts cleaner will handle things that cant get wet.

Sure smoking is bad, but that is a PC that has probably never been cleaned. Like others have stated, I have certainly seen worse. Nasty old tobacco tar is not that big of a deal when you have seen the things I have seen. I'm sure cat piss is pretty bad but I have cleaned PC's that had roaches! Then mice moved in to eat the roaches, and then, of course, one of them didn't make it out. That PC was in the managers office of a restaurant by the way.:eek:
 
Even when you clean your PC regularly, you still get that nicotine "film" all over everything. Its fucking gross.
 
The worst part is there is no way to get rid of that nasty stench in the case. Its litterally tarnished forever unless you give the entire thing a full submersion alcohol bath.
 
normalicy said:
You obviously haven't tried to clean a smoker's PC. No amount of blowing or sucking will get the surface residue off (barely gets the caked on stuff). The only way is a solvent & brush/rag.
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No, I haven't. Notice the part where I said "IF I worked in a shop".
 
I dont have pictures, but my disgusting computer horror story is much worse than that
Working for a local walk-in computer repair shop, guy brings in a desktop chassis which is very very grimy, obviously smoked next to his computer
... however that wasnt the worst of it
Got it back to our bench (had to wear gloves to even though it, popped the case on it and no less than 40 roaches exited the case

We made the guy come back to our bench area, get his system and leave, then sent him the pest control bill
 
I definitely see worst than that a lot. I work with a company that contracts with Dell, so I see a lot of machines. That is not as dirty as half of the machines, not to mention how many times I open a machine and it's filled with roaches. I won't even send the parts back. I usually toss them since I don't want that shit in my car.
 
lloose said:
The worst part is there is no way to get rid of that nasty stench in the case. Its litterally tarnished forever unless you give the entire thing a full submersion alcohol bath.
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I tried chemical cleaners in a bath tub with one case. I never could get the smell off of it. So I ended up using that case for target practice. It had been given to me for free so I was out nothing by trying to clean it up.
 
InsanePerson said:
I dont have pictures, but my disgusting computer horror story is much worse than that
Working for a local walk-in computer repair shop, guy brings in a desktop chassis which is very very grimy, obviously smoked next to his computer
... however that wasnt the worst of it
Got it back to our bench (had to wear gloves to even though it, popped the case on it and no less than 40 roaches exited the case

We made the guy come back to our bench area, get his system and leave, then sent him the pest control bill
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*to even move it*
 
I know it's gonna sound a little weird but I like cleaning out computers that dirty with a good vacuum or compressor. Feels good to get it clean.
 
What the pics can't convey is the smell. That's pretty normal for a smoker's computer, disgustingly.
 
Guys just because you smoke doesn't mean you never clean out your computer. I am a smoker still. I hope to be quit soon, but it's not easy. Anyways, My PCs never look like that. I find that dawn dish soap and water will clean the tar easily with just a soaking if it is something that can be soaked. Otherwise, electronics parts cleaner will handle things that cant get wet.

Sure smoking is bad, but that is a PC that has probably never been cleaned. Like others have stated, I have certainly seen worse. Nasty old tobacco tar is not that big of a deal when you have seen the things I have seen. I'm sure cat piss is pretty bad but I have cleaned PC's that had roaches! Then mice moved in to eat the roaches, and then, of course, one of them didn't make it out. That PC was in the managers office of a restaurant by the way.
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I'm certainly not saying anything about the person who smokes. That's your choice. I'm just saying that the dirtiest cases are almost 90% of the time smoker related. True, they never clean their case. However, I've worked on similarly uncleaned cases from non-smokers that only have the occasional dust-ball which is easily blown/vacuumed off. Believe me, if you've worked on as many computers as me, you wouldn't look forward to a smoker's PC either, even if you are one.
 
Simple Green.

Mix 50/50 with HOT water. Strip the case, and dunk it. Strip the motherboard, and dunk it too. Rinse the MB with distilled water, and air dry for 24 hours. The tar and nicotine smell will be gone.
 
91% Isopropyl will get the smell off of most plastics "stained" by smoke. I really hate it when I buy something off of FS/FT and it smells like a damn ashtray.
 
BallerX said:
Guys just because you smoke doesn't mean you never clean out your computer. I am a smoker still. I hope to be quit soon, but it's not easy.
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I call BS. It is very easy to quit smoking. I've done it at least three times! ;)
 
I used to smoke heavily, and my PCs never got that bad.
I do tend to take a can of compressed air to them up every month or two, so I guess it never had a chance to build up.
Even then, when I gave one of my old computers to a cousin, a PC that for all appearances was very clean inside, my non smoking cousin swears that she smelled and still occasionally smells cigarettes from that PC.
 
Smoke smell is really tough (if at all possible) to get rid of if it was in a heavily saturated area for quite a while. I completely agree with Oldie when he says...
Oldie said:
I really hate it when I buy something off of FS/FT and it smells like a damn ashtray.
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:(
 
Steve said:
And the award for the most disgusting computer of the week goes to this guy. I wouldn’t recommend viewing these picture if you just ate. You’ve been warned. Blame Izzy R. for this one.
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Yes, the guy smoked, but the real problem is that he clearly didn't clean during the 5 years he owned the PC. I haven't smoked in years, but I clean my fans and dust the case several times/year.

If that guy hadn't smoked a day in his life, that case still would have been disgusting.....but smoking does make it worse.
 
nilepez said:
Yes, the guy smoked, but the real problem is that he clearly didn't clean during the 5 years he owned the PC. I haven't smoked in years, but I clean my fans and dust the case several times/year.

If that guy hadn't smoked a day in his life, that case still would have been disgusting.....but smoking does make it worse.
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It wouldn't be disgusting, it would just be dirty. That nasty tar in the smoke makes it MUCH worse.
 
galland1 said:
That model case is a dustsucker anyway. Cat hair and dust with a little(alot) of tar and nicotine glue. If it wasn't for the smoke it'd blow out easy. The smoke makes it near impossible to clean.
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Quicksilver G4. My ex got one off eBay.

You would not believe how deeply ingrained that tar was. Rubbing alcohol and qtips still couldn't get it out of some of the nooks and crannies on that case... not to even get into what the board looked (and smelled) like.

Ugh.
 
Here is the HS/Fan of a PC someone bought in to me a couple weeks ago. Seems it was constantly rebooting because of overheating for some reason...


 
OK, take that pic & imagine the space between the blades filled as well & you'll know the worst I've seen.
 
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