Things I've learned the hard way . . .(Part 2)

[Monocrom]

Read post #1010; I already have. :sigh:

~ C.G.

Genuinely sorry to hear that. Also, it is my left side as well. I got just a bit confused.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Genuinely sorry to hear that.

Thanks. Not too much to complain about, really. I just miss being in the 30's. 59 this April.

Also, it is my left side as well. I got just a bit confused.

A bit confused. That's funny. :laughing:

~ Chance

 

[PhotonWrangler]

If you're having some trouble with gas and bloating, avoid eating things with cabbage in it. This will only make it worse. :toilet:

 

[StarHalo]

cabbage

Fartweed, you mean

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Lol, something like that.

 

[P_A_S_1]

Some foods should be seen and heard.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Good: vacumming out your computer. Less dust means the CPU has better cooling and is less likely to throttle down in speed to protect itself from overheating.

Bad: zapping one of your cards with static electricity from the vacuum.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Good: vacumming out your computer. Less dust means the CPU has better cooling and is less likely to throttle down in speed to protect itself from overheating.

Bad: zapping one of your cards with static electricity from the vacuum.

Experts have told me, "Never use your vacuum on your computer." Compressed/canned air is the best choice. It doesn't contain moisture.

~ Chance

 

[Burgess]

to Photon Wrangler --


Didn't you PREVIOUSLY write something here about that ? ? ?


I seem to recall. But I guess I *might* be mistaken.

And don't wanna' read through 10,000 posts to verify.


But when I saw it before,
I immediately stored it away in my Brain,
for future reference of what NOT to do !


_

 

[StarHalo]

The vacuum motor is a big magnetic noisemaker, a quick and easy way to erase your hard drive. But I remember discussing that back in the Pentium days, back when hard drives were magnetic, so that shows you how old that piece of advice is..

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I think the culprit this time was the electrostatic charge that builds up from moving lots of air through a small plastic nozzle. This action just naturally rips some electrons off of the air molecules.

I pulled the bad card out and did a thorough visual inspection to see if I accidentally cracked one of the SMD solder joints but I didn't see anything obviously wrong, so I probably zapped one of the CMOS LSI chips.

I've been considering replacing that card anyway (an old ATSC/QAM tuner card) because I can't get current drivers for it and it occasionally acts up. This event just pushed me over the edge for an upgrade.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Here's a safety related thing I learned today -

If you're planning on driving on the highway with your windows rolled down, make sure any lightweight paper and plastic items are firmly secured. I was driving along the highway today when suddenly WHAP! All I could see was white.

A plastic grocery bag became airborne somewhere behind me, when it suddenly blew right into my face and completely obstructed my vision until I grabbed it and stuffed it between the seats.

That will not happen again. :shakehead

 

[Poppy]

Experts have told me, "Never use your vacuum on your computer." Compressed/canned air is the best choice. It doesn't contain moisture.

~ Chance

OK... maybe I am a little excessive.

My box is about 4 years old, so I guess my HD is still magnetic?

At any rate, for years, the way I clean out my computers is:
I take them out into the driveway, pull the cover off, and fire up my leaf blower

lol

It cleans them out in a heart beat.

I never had a problem with the EMP that the electric motor puts out.

Have I been LUCKY all these years?
The motor is typically 4 feet away from the hard drive.
As would be the case with a canister vacuum cleaner.
I wonder if they are referring to one of those little hand held vacuums, where it is possible to get the motor very close to the HD.

 

[Poppy]

Here's a safety related thing I learned today -

If you're planning on driving on the highway with your windows rolled down, make sure any lightweight paper and plastic items are firmly secured. I was driving along the highway today when suddenly WHAP! All I could see was white.

A plastic grocery bag became airborne somewhere behind me, when it suddenly blew right into my face and completely obstructed my vision until I grabbed it and stuffed it between the seats.

That will not happen again. :shakehead

Similar but different scenario.

Don't drive to the bank with a few checks, you plan to deposit, on the passenger seat, with the windows down!

Question... which is more distracting:
1. texting while driving
2. trying to catch, checks flying around in the air of the cab of the car, threatening to fly out the window?

 

[PhotonWrangler]

At any rate, for years, the way I clean out my computers is:
I take them out into the driveway, pull the cover off, and fire up my leaf blower

Lol. Youtube or it didn't happen.

I've seen some anti-static vacuum hose attachments. I don't know how well they work, but they probably help. There are different schools of thought on vacuuming vs blowing out with air. If you use compressed air, you can get into really tiny crevices with the nozzle and you can usually get a pretty good blast of air in there. However you can theoretically blow some dust particles deeper into crevices like sockets.

If you vacuum instead, you don't have the issue of forcing dust into crevices, but you usually can't get enough suction into small crevices to get all of the dust out, so in a way you're left with the same situation. And there's the static electricity issue.

I'm not sure what I'll do the next time I need to clean out my computer, but right now I'm leaning towards compressed/canned air. Or a leaf blower.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Question... which is more distracting:
1. texting while driving
2. trying to catch, checks flying around in the air of the cab of the car, threatening to fly out the window?

Ha! Been there also, but in my case it was a prescription instead of a check.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

OK... maybe I am a little excessive.

My box is about 4 years old, so I guess my HD is still magnetic?

At any rate, for years, the way I clean out my computers is:
I take them out into the driveway, pull the cover off, and fire up my leaf blower

lol

It cleans them out in a heart beat.

I never had a problem with the EMP that the electric motor puts out.

Have I been LUCKY all these years?
The motor is typically 4 feet away from the hard drive.
As would be the case with a canister vacuum cleaner.
I wonder if they are referring to one of those little hand held vacuums, where it is possible to get the motor very close to the HD.

Just do what I did, buy a Mac. There're sealed.

~ Chance

 

[StarHalo]

The vacuum/hard drive issue is for folks with their old school desktops who put the CPU on the floor and then vacuum around it, bad idea.

And +1 on the Mac; typing this on a Macbook Pro with an SSD, a computer that has no moving parts and makes no noise (most of the time, there's a cooling fan I can get to kick on when heavy-editing big photos,) those Cupertino folks know their Zen..

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Yeah I have an old school desktop that I built. It doesn't sit on the floor bu it still collects a fair amount of dust over time. I've thought about water cooling it and sealing all of the vents but that would be messy.

MAC does do a nice job with their hardware. I had a friend whose house burned down; he gave me his charred macbook to see if I could rescue any information from it. The plastic connectors were melted in the back, but the inside of the case was surprisingly pristine. I was able to recover everything off the hard drive include family photos.

But I'm still a Windoze user myself. And I like having a machine that I can upgrade any which way I want to. Still looking for the best way to handle dust though. If I ever vacuum it again, I'll probably use one of those anti-static attachments.

BTW a long time ago I accidentally blew out a MOS clock chip just by touching the pins with an ungrounded hand. I didn't feel a static shock; it simply stopped working. Modern CMOS chips are generally more rugged but they're still static sensitive.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

The vacuum/hard drive issue is for folks with their old school desktops who put the CPU on the floor and then vacuum around it, bad idea.

And +1 on the Mac; typing this on a Macbook Pro with an SSD, a computer that has no moving parts and makes no noise (most of the time, there's a cooling fan I can get to kick on when heavy-editing big photos,) those Cupertino folks know their Zen..

Yep, that's how mine was set up. It was amazing how much dust it'd collect. It gave the refrigerator a run for its money. When we purchased the Mac we left the old CPU running 24/7 as a room cleaner.

~ C.G.