Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
>
> Dust is a major problem if you leave the cover off a computer. If you allow a
> blanket of dust to form, then heat buildup can definitely be worse than with
> the cover on. Fans are cheap nowadays, I think you should get an extra one.
A Salutary Tale.
Several years ago I was called to Pharmacy to see if I could check
their PC out - they thought that a mouse might had died inside.
The machine was a very tightly packed NEC 8088 clone. I asked
when the machine had last been serviced, and was rather surprised
to hear that it hadn't been looked at since it had been installed
in 1984 and had been running 24/7 since then!!
On opening the case I found a thick layer of matted dust, fibre,
paper and various other bits and pieces which had been drawn inside
the case, which was fitted into a drawer under a bench.
Every component was coated! The floppy drive (5 1/4") was the most
amazing I can say I ever saw - so totally filled with dust it could
have easily been used to make masters for lost-wax process castings.
The smell was from the cooking dirt and dust coating the cpu chip.
I lifted the matted much off and restarted the machine and help my
breath -
It lasted about 5 minutes before giving out a loud 'snort' and failed
completely - clouds of smoke, smell of burning plastic, and general
panic as that was the budinesses complete record of prescriptions
dispensed during the past 10 or so years!
As you can image a new machine was installed and a cleaning regime
instituted!!
Cheers
--
ICQ# 89345394 Mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected"
(The UNIX Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June 1972.)
