The last time I do free work.

[BuzzKillington]

A coworker of mine mentioned his computer wouldn't turn on after he got back from boot camp and it's been sitting since. He said he tried turning it on a while ago and it said something about a battery. (I thought to myself, an easy quick fix...replace the CMOS battery and hand it back over).

Instead I get it here to find out the LCD had a back backlight. I give it back to him and tell him it's time for a new LCD... it can be repaired but I wouldn't do it and it'd probably cost quite a bit to have it done elsewhere... not worth it for an old school dell 15".

About a week later my buddy asked if I wanted 2 Dell LCD's. I said Hell yes. Because I got them for free I gave my coworker a newer Dell 17". I told him to bring his tower back to work so I could bring it home and actually get a chance to look at it. I never got a CMOS warning but the computer was extreeemely slow. I checked the harddrive and it had something like 100MBs left. I called him and asked if he wanted his music backed up and he said no so I went ahead and deleted 20gigs worth of music and that brought the rig back to life BUT after running about 15 minutes the fans would kick into high.

I got around to picking up a can of air and just opened up the case. WOW.

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2951/20090919150447.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/1593/20090919150557.jpg
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4508/20090919150500.jpg
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/5052/20090919150904.jpg


Basically I'm down a couple hours of work, a 5 dollar can of air, a 17" LCD and a few pounds of inhaled dust because I had to resort to physically blowing out the case when I ran out of compressed air. I "like" doing things for people but this was an eye opener... I was scheduled 9 hours last week and 10 hours this coming week. Why in the HELL did I do all this for free?

Never again.

[Zephik]

Holy dust blankets! lol

[Mark_Hardware]

geezass! It's like a fricken blanket

[slaveofconvention]

Time to invest in an el-cheapo air compressor - you can get low pressure ones for very little now and they'll pay for themselves in air cans in half a dozen jobs and you never have to worry about them running out. I've seen some seriously dusty PCs in my time, but I do think you got em all beat :p

[nevermind1534]

I usually just use a blow dryer with the heat turned off to clean out computers. I've seen one or two computers that look that bad.

[farlo]

thats the worst dust problem ive ever seen, seriously the only thing close to that ive seen was tar-y dust from a chain smokers pc.

[BuzzKillington]

It had that cakey dust in there too, coating every fan. I was entertaining the thought of cleaning them off but that's right about when the "F-THIS!" hit me.

[TheGreatSatan]

The ones that come from cigarette users are the worst.

We have an enclosed tech bench that we put computers in so they are out of the way and not at risk of being stolen. It has holes on the sides for the computers get some fresh air. When I walked anywhere near the bench I would smell the cigarettes. When I opened the bench, the long trapped hot cigarette air slammed me in the face.

I am not a smoker you and would feel like throwing up all over their disgusting case

[nevermind1534]

The ones that come from cigarette users are the worst.

We have an enclosed tech bench that we put computers in so they are out of the way and not at risk of being stolen. It has holes on the sides for the computers get some fresh air. When I walked anywhere near the bench I would smell the cigarettes. When I opened the bench, the long trapped hot cigarette air slammed me in the face.

I am not a smoker you and would feel like throwing up all over their disgusting case

I hate when I have to work on a heavy smoker's computer. Stinks up the whole area.

[killergamer]

You do this because your a kind guy. Its worth it or at least I would say so. So what may be he will end up helping you in some way in the future. I really hope kindness comes back to some people because of lately Ive been feeling that it doesn't to me.

[Liquid_Scope_99]

I know where your coming from man you are doing a good deed that says a lot about your character i have a lot of people that i work on there stuff for free and lots of times dont even get a thank you .
It would be nice if he bought you a can of air anyway though .
Also man giving away that monitor shows your hearts in the right place .
Who knows now maybe somebody will give you a 22 inch lol +rep man .
I thought my father in laws was bad the last time i cleaned it lol you beat that .

[killergamer]

Last time I cleaned the inside of my computer I could have made a blanket with all the dust. It was horrible I was ashamed to see all that. But we bought it used and it had probably never been cleaned.

[chaksq]

Back in high school I bought a used Dell XPS, apparently the guy chain smoked cigars and had cats. It was nasty in that case. Animal hair in a case is horrendous to clean out.

[NightrainSrt4]

When I get free rigs that look like that what I do is rip every component from the case. Take the entire case to the shower/tub and wash it all out in the bath. Works wonders and gets everything brand new. You just have to make sure you manually dry everything then toss it all in front of a big fan so you don't get any water damage.

You can do the same with the fans. Just spray them down with the kitchen sink spray gun. I haven't had a fan die from that yet, AND it wouldn't really matter anyway as they are just the cheapest brands the company could find anyway.

Makes everything SO much easier, and gets everything even cleaner. I've done it on close to 10 rigs/servers without issue, then again these were mine so I didn't have to worry about jacking someone else's stuff.

Try it sometime.

[Xpirate]

Dang that's a lot of dust. Working for free does suck. I'm the resident PC support person in my extended family. It's not that bad most of the time, but sometimes one of them will get a problem that takes way too long to resolve.

[si-skyline]

WOW, dust bunnies :)

Fan filters are my top as a hell load of dust collects on them.
I would of stuck all that dusk in a bag and told him thats his problem. Its nice to know computers get ready for the winter but that takes the.. something

[Airbozo]

I feel your pain!

I have several friends and family that believe I am their personal sysadmin and PC repair tech. It gets old to have them only call you for computer help and expect you to drop everything to make it better.

I only respond with service like that to my favorite customer; The Wife!

[slaveofconvention]

Yeah, my wife is constantly on my back about the amount of free, or so cheap it might as well be free work I take on....

She's right but I'm too soft with people - hate saying no and I'm a sucker for a sob story lol

Had a guy ask for a HSF for a PIII recently, took pity on him and gave him a whole P4 based tower

[x88x]

Ouch...that's a lot of dust.
Agreed, though; smokers' PCs tend to be pretty nasty. I actually had a friend a while back who gave me a 19" LCD that died on him...turns out it was just overheating from the cigarette smoke...

++ Agreed on the air compressor. Soooo much more convenient (and cheaper) than canned air. Also, a small shop vac helps for really thick blankets.

[nevermind1534]

She's right but I'm too soft with people - hate saying no and I'm a sucker for a sob story lol

Had a guy ask for a HSF for a PIII recently, took pity on him and gave him a whole P4 based tower

I usually charge people way too little or help friends with their computers for free.

[crenn]

Until you can pull out a solid block of dust, you ain't seen nothing 8)

[Liquid_Scope_99]

Speaking of fixing peoples computer i fixed a guys laptop not to long ago and somebody else told everyone he fixed it lol that sucks

[BuzzKillington]

Speaking of fixing peoples computer i fixed a guys laptop not to long ago and somebody else told everyone he fixed it lol that sucks

What a smack in the face. That would piss me off. lol

[Mark_Hardware]

Speaking of fixing peoples computer i fixed a guys laptop not to long ago and somebody else told everyone he fixed it lol that sucks

ask him in front of the other people, including the owner of the laptop, what was wrong with it and how he fixed it.

[Luke122]

When friends and family ask me for computer help, I aways say the same thing.

"I've got a half dozen customer machines I'm working on, so I wouldnt be able to get yours for at least two weeks."

If they insist that's fine, and they'll wait, say ok. In two weeks when they call again, say the same thing. When they ask why you are blowing them off, say, "I'm not going to drop paying customers to work on something for free. I'll work on yours when I can."

[Oneslowz28]

I only have to maintain my mothers computer and I get asked every now and then to troubleshoot a problem with my elderly neighbor's dell. Most of the time its just simple task as spyware or malware removal.

[Kayin]

I found it's all free work, eventually. Everyone I know asks for advice, or favors, or something. Let people know you have a little skill, and yeah.

[gramatton]

Thats pretty bad. But unless there's a nest of cockroaches coming out of it its not the worst I've seen(go that was disgusting, we sold the woman a new computer cause we didnt want to work on it, thhen took it out back and torched it)

Air compressors are nice, we use a leaf blower at work though. Everyone gives us weird looks when we tell them we're gonna blow out their pc and then they hear a leaf blower crank up in the back.

[BuzzKillington]

I came across a quote that reminded me of this thread and many of TBCS members... from free computer work to frustrating labor (like building a wheelchair ramp for an elderly woman "with" a group that decided to not show) anyway, here it is:


The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.-Samuel Johnson

[Liquid_Scope_99]

Good quote i like that makes since

[progbuddy]

I find it funny that it didn't catch on fire from all the dust and bellybutton lint that accumulated on the heatsink.