> My favorite USENET Dust Posting is courtesy of Jeff Leibermann (A local > propellor-head) > > 1. Local machine shop puts their NT workstation next to a centerless > grinder. This beast grinds metal by literally vaporizing it into dust. > The dust condensed on the computer for about a year until all the plastic > had a noticeable metallic glint. I checked the conductivity with my > ohms guesser and it was fairly conductive in some places. The first to > fail were all 3ea fans, followed by the power supply literally exploding. > Scraping the boards with a fiberglass brush, and replacing everything > else, fixed this one. 1. V bližnji trgovini so imeli njihovo NT delovno postajo poleg stroja za mletje železa. Ta mlin deluje tako, da železo dobesendno zdrobi v prah. Ta prah pa se je neprestano odlagal na računalniku kako leto dokler se ni na plastičnem ohišju nabrala že kar očitna plast železa. > 2. Many of my customers have relatively clean offices. However, they > plant the server on the floor, which immediately becomes a proxy vacuum > cleaner, sucking up all the lint and dust from the carpet or floor. I've > seen servers that look like the inside of a vacuums cleaner dust bag. > Don't plant the server on the floor. > > 3. One customer had an art store where they used spray glue near the > computer. The fans in the computer sucked the overspray into the > computer, where it glued the dust in place. When I tried to hit the > computer with an air hose, none of the dust would move. Scraping the > dust off didn't really help. I replaced the moving parts affected > (floppy and fans) but left the machine as a permanently dusty monument or > work of art. > > 4. I did a tape drive transplant on a Xenix box in a clean room (while > wearing a bunny suit for 4ea sweaty hours). Next to the Xenix box was an > open vat of unpronounceable acid. During the installation of the > production line, some acid had been vaporized and was sucked into the > Xenix box by the power supply fan. Everything near the front of the > computer was fatally corroded or rusted. The computer continued to > operate in this condition for about 9 months when someone finally became > worried and decided to fix the tape backup. Much to my amazement, only > the floppy disk drive and tape drives were destroyed. The Dell 386DX33 > continued to operate without incident. > > 5. I was asked to fix a laptop for a restaurant owner. When I arrived, > I found that the laptop plastic case had been partially melted and that > the laptop showed signs of have been submerged in tomato soup. Don't ask > me how the laptop ended up in the soup. I replaced the plastic parts, > keyboard, and floppy drive, rinsed the laptop in de-ionized water, and it > worked again. No clue whether the laptop improved the minestrone. > > 6. I've seen computers and monitors that survived fires. The machines > will usually work just fine, but the smell of incinerated building > material and plastic is usually too much. I recently removed the outer > covers and plastic parts from a smoke damaged computer and had them > vapour blasted (similar to sand blasting) to remove the charred surface. > The insides were coated with soot, but there was no evidence of any > failures. I cleaned the floppy and cdrom LED's, and everything works. > > 7. I looked at a laser printer, where the toner cartridge had spewed its > guts all over the insides. While most of the printer looked like the > inside of my woodburning stove, the fuser roller had melted the spilled > toner into a solid blob of plastic crud. I gave up and scrapped it for > parts. Some things are just not worth fixing. > > 8. I had the displeasure of attempting to repair the computer inside a > smog checker. The automotive service shop had strategically placed the > computer so that it would receive the maximum amount of exhaust fumes > from the automobile under test. I resisted the temptation to run the > computer though the solvent bath, and merely hit it with some soap, hosed > it with a garden hose (after removing the drives) and blew off the water > with an air hose. It worked. > > 9. I was recently asked to look at a laptop that had been used on a > sailboat and which had been sitting on the vessel in the harbour for > about 6 months. The insides were solid green copper oxide. I plugged it > in anyway and it began to smoke before the fuse went. Absolutely nothing > salvaged from the remains worked. > > 10. I found a very nice looking UPS in a dumpster. It was heavy, but I > dragged it home, up 50 stairs, and onto my workbench. When I plugged it > in, it seemed to work so I let it charge. Several hours later, I was > cleaning up the acid spill from the exploded battery. It wrecked my > workbench, some expensive toys that were also on the bench, and started > to eat through the floor. > > 11. Y2K will probably destroy more equipment preparing for Y2K than as a > result of Y2K related electrical failures. One local business owner was > doing fine until he installed a cheapo gasoline generator. Rather than > properly wire it into his building with a commercial transfer switch, he > built his own electrical extension cord system. Unfortunately, he wired > it for 220VAC instead of 117VAC. The score was half and half on > equipment that was protected when the fuse blew, and equipment that was > instantly destroyed. > > 12. Most networks use CAT5 cable which tends to run to a central wiring > closet. I was trying to gain an extra few inches of cable from an > overhead CAT5 run by pulling on the cable. The cable moved a few inches, > but so did the suspended ceiling, which decided that this would be a > great time to collapse on my head. I didn't bill the customer for 4 > hours of cleanup. Beware of wiring closet death traps. > > 13. There are many books and articles on proper server security > procedures. None of them bother to mention that one should remember > where the key to the server box was last seen. I've had to pick the lock > on more than one server box. -- Don't feel bad about asking/telling me anything, I will always gladly reply. Wish you a lot of theta brain-waves!! GTSC4 -- If nobody else wants to do it, why shouldn't we?(TM) Meson & GTSC4 are now merged: Http://WWW.MesonAI.Com