Got dust?

I was putting the new PCs in the Jag plant in Liverpool a few months back.. You should have seen the state of some of them in there! They were old Dell GX1s running 98 and had been there for around 7 years I think. My college got the same spec machines back when I was 16 and they were ok then..

Some of them took about 30mins to boot up and get to the desktop and all the ones from the factory floor, especially the press shop were coated in a think layer of dust inside and out. I feel sorry for the new ones we put in, at least they were black though so won't show up the dirt as much:)
 
What ram is that in the first pic? :eek:
I've got ancient machines here but have never seen that ram before.
 
I can't believe someone's not already chimed in with a...

Dust.
Anyone?
No?
Dust.
Anyone?
No?
Dust.
Anyone?
No?
 
no_1_dave said:
No, but the static caused by a hoover could fry everything :rolleyes:

Hoover causes static? How?

I vacuum my pc once every year, done it 3x now, nothing sucked off apart from dust.

All parts working like norm.
 
Bah, people are too careful with components! I've never once fried a piece of hardware by hoovering inside my case. I never wear those anti stat wrist straps when working inside etc and when I'm building a PC, I usually leave the parts all over my carpet or bed:D
 
Street said:
Bah, people are too careful with components! I've never once fried a piece of hardware by hoovering inside my case. I never wear those anti stat wrist straps when working inside etc and when I'm building a PC, I usually leave the parts all over my carpet or bed:D

Same, but I touch the back of a PSU that is plugged in before I start. But god that is dusty... edit: and old...
 
Vacuum cleaners can cause a lot of static, but a single static jolt, while it may cause damage to the componants, may not always cause an obvious fault. There are millions of transistors on a modern CPU, and millions more in every gig of memory.

A single 'failed' transistor may not cause the computer to stop booting, but it could cause small errors to crop up, random windows crashing, many people just blame microsoft on their bad programming, its just as likely to be a minor hardware fault.

Sometimes the static discharge wont even do that much damage, it may just weaken a componant reducing its lifespan, or reduce a good overclocking part to being just 'ordinary'. But then if you have upgradeitis like I do, then the average computer part would be replaced before it actually broke down.

On the whole, using a vacuum cleaner on an open PC, or any electronic circuit boards is a very bad idea, a compressed air duster is the more appropriate way to clean them.
 
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