The Filthy, Rotten, Nasty, Helpdesk-Nightmare picture clubhouse

lexluthermiester · Mar 24, 2020

E-Bear said:
Man I live in Quebec so where is brown recluse living ? If its a type of spider

It is, and it's too cold where you are. Those spiders live in warmer regions.

Valantar · Mar 24, 2020

silentbogo said:
Or garage.

If so a very oily/smoky/dirty garage. That dust isn't just brown, it's also clearly very sticky and lumps together unevenly, which in my experience is a tell-tale sign of a smoker's PC.

lexluthermiester · Mar 24, 2020

Valantar said:
If so a very oily/smoky/dirty garage. That dust isn't just brown, it's also clearly very sticky and lumps together unevenly, which in my experience is a tell-tale sign of a smoker's PC.

This. I've seen more than enough PC's from smokers to know that look of clumping dust, ash and tar. Nasty stuff that. Takes deep cleaning to get it all off.

Valantar · Mar 24, 2020

lexluthermiester said:
This. I've seen more than enough PC's from smokers to know that look of clumping dust, ash and tar. Nasty stuff that. Take deep cleaning to get it all off.

Yeah, that stuff is utterly disgusting. I have a particular morbid fascination for when it starts to ... crystallize or whatever it can be called, going hard and brittle why somehow still being sticky and fluffy. I bet a chemist or materials scientist would have some fun looking into what is going on with that stuff.

Gmr_Chick · Mar 24, 2020

Jesus, that PC was just NASTY. I can almost smell it from here...

E-Bear · Mar 26, 2020

Valantar said:
If so a very oily/smoky/dirty garage. That dust isn't just brown, it's also clearly very sticky and lumps together unevenly, which in my experience is a tell-tale sign of a smoker's PC.

....or they just fix Dodge trucks

Grog6 · Mar 28, 2020

Formula 409 works great on that stuff; spray it wet, leave it for a few, OUTSIDE, then spray it off with a hose.

Repeat until clean.

Than blow it off with a compressor, until dry, and leave in the sun for a couple of hours.

I do that before I touch one, unless it's something special.

I yanked the Ortec card out of the IBM PC before I sprayed it; that's a damn nice card, even if ISA.
I know the guy that designed it, and the PCA1,2, and 3.
All from the 80's; if you're not in the nuclear business, you've never heard of those.

lexluthermiester · Mar 28, 2020

Grog6 said:
Formula 409 works great on that stuff; spray it wet, leave it for a few, OUTSIDE, then spray it off with a hose.

This is true. The 409 method works well.

Gmr_Chick · Mar 28, 2020

Just curious, so a question for those here who are in the PC repair business -- what was THE most disgusting, filthy, rotten, how-the-hell-is-it-still-working clean/repair job you've EVER done? Like, which one truly took the cake in all the time you've been in the profession?

Regeneration · Mar 28, 2020

Gmr_Chick said:
Just curious, so a question for those here who are in the PC repair business -- what was THE most disgusting, filthy, rotten, how-the-hell-is-it-still-working clean/repair job you've EVER done? Like, which one truly took the cake in all the time you've been in the profession?

I don't work with individuals… but do help family and friends time-to-time.

One time a close friend asked for my help fixing her PC. That friend is living in a small apartment with 2 dogs and 2 cats.

There was basically everything you can think of, inside the case: dirt, concrete, pets’ hair, female hair, even spiders.

I used a hair dryer to clean it up… there was a cloud of dust around me.

Motherboard, RAM sticks, everything was covered by white concrete.

Mussels · Mar 28, 2020

Gmr_Chick said:
Just curious, so a question for those here who are in the PC repair business -- what was THE most disgusting, filthy, rotten, how-the-hell-is-it-still-working clean/repair job you've EVER done? Like, which one truly took the cake in all the time you've been in the profession?

2 cats and 15 years of chain smoking (the PC was on XP, it was old)

the tar was thick and sticky, nothing would clean it off. every single fan had seized... they thought the PC was fine because 'all the bad noises stopped on their own'

Gmr_Chick · Mar 28, 2020

Regeneration said:
I don't work with individuals… but do help family and friends time-to-time.

One time a close friend asked for my help fixing her PC. That friend is living in a small apartment with 2 dogs and 2 cats.

There was basically everything you can think of, inside the case: dirt, concrete, pets’ hair, female hair, even spiders.

I used a hair dryer to clean it up… there was a cloud of dust around me.

Motherboard, RAM sticks, everything was covered by white concrete.

How the hell did concrete get in there? :roll:

Eek, spiders! :fear:

Mussels said:
2 cats and 15 years of chain smoking (the PC was on XP, it was old)

the tar was thick and sticky, nothing would clean it off. every single fan had seized... they thought the PC was fine because 'all the bad noises stopped on their own'

LMAO! Gee, I wonder why the bad noises stopped on their own? :roll:

lexluthermiester · Mar 28, 2020

Gmr_Chick said:
Just curious, so a question for those here who are in the PC repair business -- what was THE most disgusting, filthy, rotten, how-the-hell-is-it-still-working clean/repair job you've EVER done? Like, which one truly took the cake in all the time you've been in the profession?

This thread is full of examples of the types of nasties I and many others have crossed paths with. It should satisfy your inquiry.

Regeneration · Mar 28, 2020

Gmr_Chick said:
How the hell did concrete get in there?
Eek, spiders!

LMAO! Gee, I wonder why the bad noises stopped on their own?

Apparently, the neighbors upstairs were building another room.

It is a regular PC case without a side window or front grill.

Cleaning that PC felt like the car wash scene in Pulp Fiction.

1st layer = Spiders and web

2nd layer = Lots, and lots of hair

3rd layer = White concrete

"Did you find out what's wrong with my PC???"
"Yes, there was a zoo and a construction site inside"

silentbogo · Apr 6, 2020

Quarantine is in full intensity, but the nasty work hasn't stopped...
This is my collection from this week. Nothing dirty, no dead bugs, but the content may not be appropriate for the faint-heated PC enthusiasts :fear:

1) Got a laptop from a friend of mine. I can describe him with one word, and that word is definitely "stupid".
Him: "My neighbor's laptop is broken... one speaker gave out. I tried to take a look and now both speakers are not working and mic has no sound..."
Here's what the broken speaker sounds like

And the second one along with mic did not work cause he mixed up sockets that were clearly marked SPK_R and MIC.

2) A little consequence of quarantine. Came in mail last week from a co-worker. One of our engineers from my second work decided to get a humidifier to soften his in-home isolation. He put it on the desk right next to his Thinkpad and decided to add some sea salt to create at least an illusion of a vacation. The result is visible after just one week (that's after IPA bath)

Lappy stopped booting. I forgot to snap the insides of his laptop, which looked like a fairy tale crystal forest. :roll:

Lots of precious IPA, lots of scrubbing, and now it's back in service. Also got a nice RAM/SSD upgrade at the end.

3) Got an X99 board (another mail-in) which suddenly "stopped working".
Me: "did you do anything out of ordinary with your PC, or did you take out the board at any point"
Customer: "No"
Me: "Was it used, or did you buy it new"
Customer: "New"

To my surprise a chipset heatsink fell off right away after undoing all 4 screws... That was a bad sign... :banghead:

After further investigation I found out that for some reason he tried to change TIM on this chipset after NVME drive started to act up. NVME slot was damaged on its own, but worst of all was this:

4) One of my friends is a local ISP. He is experiencing an overload on his network, which is mostly bottlenecked by his servers and switches.
We've maxed out his main server, and decided to add another SFP switch. He found his spare Dell PowerConnect 6024F, which from his words had one non-working PSU and a jammed fan.
He said he dropped it once off the rack. Just once.
Here's the fan:

Frame is bent and jammed one of the wires, sometimes it gets stuck inside too and starts screaming for help )))
PSU issue was pretty similar, so I managed to fix it in approximately 30min. Didn't bother to straighten SFP ports, cause from his words "they work just fine as is"

silentbogo · Apr 24, 2020

Ok, you lazy couch potatoes. Got a few more for you.

1) Received a completely totalled laptop for repair. One of the major complaints is that "WiFi is bad, dunno why". I was surprised to see only one antenna on a 2x2 adapter, but further disassembly revealed wur the internetz gone.

2) Older lady asked to fix her cheap HP laptop. It was in a repair shop once with a broken USB port and sporradic black screens, and from her words "we broke USB, but they couldn't fix it. They said laptop occasionally won't start cause of BIOS". It worked, if you can call it that, for about 4 months until going dead-dead.
Looking a bit closer revealed that they did indeed smear a shitton of flux near flash IC, but it was never de-soldered. Instead of simply replacing one broken port they cut pins that were supposedly shorting +5VUSB to ground.... Supposedly, cause they were all WRONG[!!!] pins :banghead:

It would've made more sense to just disconnect the daughterboard, but that's what you get when you have rat droppings for brains. BTW, a replacement board costs $2.00

3) That's the weirdest order as of late. Got a relatively expensive professional trimmer from a local barber girl. It has a 3.6V charger(3xLiFePo 14500 cells), but was accidentally plugged into 230VAC from her other trimmer. It wasn't her fault, cause manufacturer of the exploded device used the exact same socket as typically used for 2-pin AC.
What's weird, is that there are no fuses or dedicated charger circuitry. There's only one P-channel mosfet that turns charging on and off, but due to a fatal flaw in design it's actually always on. While these weirdos skimped on important stuff, they spared no expense on Atmel microcontroller just to control LEDs and turn motor on and off through a ridiculously overcomplicated chain of mosfets and transistors.

The device was beyond saving, since MCU was fried as well, but I applied some creative thinking to convert it into a "dumb" trimmer with few cuts and a couple of jumpers, but now with polyfuses instead of inappropriate array of shunts, and proper protection.

lexluthermiester · Apr 24, 2020

Messy, but not unfixable!

Mussels · Apr 25, 2020

Gave my dad my old 4770k system a few years ago, it came back for maintenance - CPU fan was loud

biffzinker · Apr 25, 2020

Mussels said:
Gave my dad my old 4770k system a few years ago, it came back for maintenance - CPU fan was loud

I've seen worse for the radiator? It's not the end of world?

Mussels · Apr 25, 2020

yeah, but thats AFTER he used compressed air and a vac

yes i've seen worse as well, but not on 4.5Ghz OC'd systems

Chrispy_ · Apr 25, 2020

Mussels said:
Gave my dad my old 4770k system a few years ago, it came back for maintenance - CPU fan was loud

Aha - I see the problem; The 240mm radiator shrank in the washing machine, and now it has less surface area than a 92mm tower cooler!

lexluthermiester · Apr 26, 2020

Mussels said:
Gave my dad my old 4770k system a few years ago, it came back for maintenance - CPU fan was loud

Might be time to take the opportunity to teach him about canned air and/or a vacuum!

micropage7 · May 27, 2020

silentbogo said:
Quarantine is in full intensity, but the nasty work hasn't stopped...
This is my collection from this week. Nothing dirty, no dead bugs, but the content may not be appropriate for the faint-heated PC enthusiasts

1) Got a laptop from a friend of mine. I can describe him with one word, and that word is definitely "stupid".
Him: "My neighbor's laptop is broken... one speaker gave out. I tried to take a look and now both speakers are not working and mic has no sound..."
Here's what the broken speaker sounds like

And the second one along with mic did not work cause he mixed up sockets that were clearly marked SPK_R and MIC.

2) A little consequence of quarantine. Came in mail last week from a co-worker. One of our engineers from my second work decided to get a humidifier to soften his in-home isolation. He put it on the desk right next to his Thinkpad and decided to add some sea salt to create at least an illusion of a vacation. The result is visible after just one week (that's after IPA bath)
View attachment 150559
Lappy stopped booting. I forgot to snap the insides of his laptop, which looked like a fairy tale crystal forest.
Lots of precious IPA, lots of scrubbing, and now it's back in service. Also got a nice RAM/SSD upgrade at the end.

3) Got an X99 board (another mail-in) which suddenly "stopped working".
Me: "did you do anything out of ordinary with your PC, or did you take out the board at any point"
Customer: "No"
Me: "Was it used, or did you buy it new"
Customer: "New"

To my surprise a chipset heatsink fell off right away after undoing all 4 screws... That was a bad sign...
After further investigation I found out that for some reason he tried to change TIM on this chipset after NVME drive started to act up. NVME slot was damaged on its own, but worst of all was this:
View attachment 150561

4) One of my friends is a local ISP. He is experiencing an overload on his network, which is mostly bottlenecked by his servers and switches.
We've maxed out his main server, and decided to add another SFP switch. He found his spare Dell PowerConnect 6024F, which from his words had one non-working PSU and a jammed fan.
He said he dropped it once off the rack. Just once.
Here's the fan:
View attachment 150562
Frame is bent and jammed one of the wires, sometimes it gets stuck inside too and starts screaming for help )))
PSU issue was pretty similar, so I managed to fix it in approximately 30min. Didn't bother to straighten SFP ports, cause from his words "they work just fine as is"
View attachment 150560

that's why i don't believe if they say i don't do anything or the stuff works pretty good then suddenly off

Frick · May 27, 2020

Mussels said:
2 cats and 15 years of chain smoking (the PC was on XP, it was old)

the tar was thick and sticky, nothing would clean it off. every single fan had seized... they thought the PC was fine because 'all the bad noises stopped on their own'

Done that but with addes beer and cat piss inside the case.

@silentbogo is our best poster btw.

silentbogo · May 27, 2020

Frick said:
@silentbogo is our best poster btw.

I have an advantage of living in a country where every idiot with a $2 soldering iron thinks he is an electronics repair technician :kookoo:

About 99% of the weird or infuriating stuff I get in a workshop is usually a "re-repair" or fixing mistakes of others...
Yet, somehow this month was too soft on adventures: mostly spotless laptops and PCs with real non-human-induced issues.
The only thing that got close to "nasty" was a Keysight FSR1 scanner with an exploded fuse, but I forgot to took some pics of melted goo and plastic shrapnel...

Right now I'm a little busy recuperating from recent office break-in and re-prioritizing some work before quarantine ends, but I'm sure we'll get some more disgusting stuff soon.

System Name	Hotbox
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 110/95/110, PBO +150Mhz, CO -7,-7,-20(x6),
Motherboard	ASRock Phantom Gaming B550 ITX/ax
Cooling	LOBO + Laing DDC 1T Plus PWM + Corsair XR5 280mm + 2x Arctic P14
Memory	32GB G.Skill FlareX 3200c14 @3800c15
Video Card(s)	PowerColor Radeon 6900XT Liquid Devil Ultimate, UC@2250MHz max @~200W
Storage	2TB Adata SX8200 Pro
Display(s)	Dell U2711 main, AOC 24P2C secondary
Case	SSUPD Meshlicious
Audio Device(s)	Optoma Nuforce μDAC 3
Power Supply	Corsair SF750 Platinum
Mouse	Logitech G603
Keyboard	Keychron K3/Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro M w/DSA profile caps
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Hotbox
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 110/95/110, PBO +150Mhz, CO -7,-7,-20(x6),
Motherboard	ASRock Phantom Gaming B550 ITX/ax
Cooling	LOBO + Laing DDC 1T Plus PWM + Corsair XR5 280mm + 2x Arctic P14
Memory	32GB G.Skill FlareX 3200c14 @3800c15
Video Card(s)	PowerColor Radeon 6900XT Liquid Devil Ultimate, UC@2250MHz max @~200W
Storage	2TB Adata SX8200 Pro
Display(s)	Dell U2711 main, AOC 24P2C secondary
Case	SSUPD Meshlicious
Audio Device(s)	Optoma Nuforce μDAC 3
Power Supply	Corsair SF750 Platinum
Mouse	Logitech G603
Keyboard	Keychron K3/Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro M w/DSA profile caps
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	The Captain (2.0)
Processor	Ryzen 7 7700X
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X670E-A
Cooling	280mm Arctic Liquid Freezer II, 4x Be Quiet! 140mm Silent Wings 4 (1x exhaust 3x intake)
Memory	32GB (2x16) Kingston Fury Beast CL30 6000MT/s
Video Card(s)	MSI GeForce RTX 3070 SUPRIM X
Storage	1x Crucial MX500 500GB SSD; 1x Crucial MX500 500GB M.2 SSD; 1x WD Blue HDD, 1x Crucial P5 Plus
Display(s)	Aorus CV27F 27" 1080p 165Hz
Case	Phanteks Evolv X (Anthracite Gray)
Power Supply	Corsair RMx (2021) 1000W 80-Plus Gold
Mouse	Varies based on mood/task; is currently Razer Basilisk V3 Pro or Razer Cobra Pro
Keyboard	Varies based on mood; currently Razer Blackwidow V4 75% and Hyper X Alloy 65

System Name	HP Pavilion a6552f
Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
Motherboard	Asus IPIBL-LB / HP Benicia-GL8E
Cooling	DeepCool Gammaxx 200
Memory	8gigs Kingston 4x2gigs DDR2-800
Video Card(s)	Zotac GT630 "Fermi" 2gb DDR3 128bits Synergy Edition
Storage	Western Digital Green 7200rpm 1tb
Display(s)	LG Flatron EW234 Super LED
Case	HP Pavilion
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Thermaltake TR2 430w
Mouse	Razer Abyssus Mirror Special Edition Blue LED
Keyboard	Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Commander Red LED Backlighting Mechanical Keycaps Membrane Gaming Keyboard
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64bits

System Name	BorgX79
Processor	i7-3930k 6/12cores@4.4GHz
Motherboard	Sabertoothx79
Cooling	Capitan 360
Memory	Muhskin DDR3-1866
Video Card(s)	Sapphire R480 8GB
Storage	Chronos SSD
Display(s)	3x VW266H
Case	Ching Mien 600
Audio Device(s)	Realtek
Power Supply	Cooler Master 1000W Silent Pro
Mouse	Logitech G900
Keyboard	Rosewill RK-1000
Software	Win7x64

The Filthy, Rotten, Nasty, Helpdesk-Nightmare picture clubhouse

lexluthermiester

Valantar

lexluthermiester

Valantar

Gmr_Chick

E-Bear

Grog6

lexluthermiester

Gmr_Chick

Regeneration

NGOHQ.COM

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Gmr_Chick

lexluthermiester

Regeneration

NGOHQ.COM

silentbogo

Moderator

silentbogo

Moderator

lexluthermiester

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

biffzinker

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Chrispy_

lexluthermiester

micropage7

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

silentbogo

Moderator

System Name	Rainbow Sparkles (Power efficient, <350W gaming load)
Processor	Ryzen R7 5800x3D (Undervolted, 4.45GHz all core)
Motherboard	Asus x570-F (BIOS Modded)
Cooling	Alphacool Apex UV - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora + EK Quantum ARGB 3090 w/ active backplate
Memory	2x32GB DDR4 3600 Corsair Vengeance RGB @3866 C18-22-22-22-42 TRFC704 (1.4V Hynix MJR - SoC 1.15V)
Video Card(s)	Galax RTX 3090 SG 24GB: Underclocked to 1700Mhz 0.750v (375W down to 250W))
Storage	2TB WD SN850 NVME + 1TB Sasmsung 970 Pro NVME + 1TB Intel 6000P NVME USB 3.2
Display(s)	Phillips 32 32M1N5800A (4k144), LG 32" (4K60) \| Gigabyte G32QC (2k165) \| Phillips 328m6fjrmb (2K144)
Case	Fractal Design R6
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G560 \| Corsair Void pro RGB \|Blue Yeti mic
Power Supply	Fractal Ion+ 2 860W (Platinum) (This thing is God-tier. Silent and TINY)
Mouse	Logitech G Pro wireless + Steelseries Prisma XL
Keyboard	Razer Huntsman TE ( Sexy white keycaps)
VR HMD	Oculus Rift S + Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 pro x64 (Yes, it's genuinely a good OS) OpenRGB - ditch the branded bloatware!
Benchmark Scores	Nyooom.

System Name	WS#1337
Processor	Ryzen 7 5700X3D
Motherboard	ASUS X570-PLUS TUF Gaming
Cooling	Xigmatek Scylla 240mm AIO
Memory	4x8GB Samsung DDR4 ECC UDIMM
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio
Storage	ADATA Legend 2TB + ADATA SX8200 Pro 1TB
Display(s)	Samsung U24E590D (4K/UHD)
Case	ghetto CM Cosmos RC-1000
Audio Device(s)	ALC1220
Power Supply	SeaSonic SSR-550FX (80+ GOLD)
Mouse	Logitech G603
Keyboard	Modecom Volcano Blade (Kailh choc LP)
VR HMD	Google dreamview headset(aka fancy cardboard)
Software	Windows 11, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Processor	Core i7-13700
Motherboard	MSI Z790 Gaming Plus WiFi
Cooling	Cooler Master RGB something
Memory	Corsair DDR5-6000 small OC to 6200
Video Card(s)	XFX Speedster SWFT309 AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT CORE Gaming
Storage	970 EVO NVMe M.2 500GB,,WD850N 2TB
Display(s)	Samsung 28” 4K monitor
Case	Phantek Eclipse P400S
Audio Device(s)	EVGA NU Audio
Power Supply	EVGA 850 BQ
Mouse	Logitech G502 Hero
Keyboard	Logitech G G413 Silver
Software	Windows 11 Professional v23H2

System Name	Bragging Rights
Processor	Atom Z3735F 1.33GHz
Motherboard	It has no markings but it's green
Cooling	No, it's a 2.2W processor
Memory	2GB DDR3L-1333
Video Card(s)	Gen7 Intel HD (4EU @ 311MHz)
Storage	32GB eMMC and 128GB Sandisk Extreme U3
Display(s)	10" IPS 1280x800 60Hz
Case	Veddha T2
Audio Device(s)	Apparently, yes
Power Supply	Samsung 18W 5V fast-charger
Mouse	MX Anywhere 2
Keyboard	Logitech MX Keys (not Cherry MX at all)
VR HMD	Samsung Oddyssey, not that I'd plug it into this though....
Software	W10 21H1, barely
Benchmark Scores	I once clocked a Celeron-300A to 564MHz on an Abit BE6 and it scored over 9000.

System Name	White DJ in Detroit
Processor	Ryzen 5 5600
Motherboard	Asrock B450M-HDV
Cooling	Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory	2 x 16GB Kingston Fury 3400mhz
Video Card(s)	XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage	Kingston A400 240GB \| WD Black SN750 2TB \|WD Blue 1TB x 2 \| Toshiba P300 2TB \| Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s)	Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case	Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Plantronics 5220, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Cherry MX Board 1.0 TKL Brown
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Rimworld 4K ready!

System Name	micropage7
Processor	Intel Xeon X3470
Motherboard	Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. P55A-UD3R (Socket 1156)
Cooling	Enermax ETS-T40F
Memory	Samsung 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Video Card(s)	NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800
Storage	V-GEN03AS18EU120GB, Seagate 2 x 1TB and Seagate 4TB
Display(s)	Samsung 21 inch LCD Wide Screen
Case	Icute Super 18
Audio Device(s)	Auzentech X-Fi Forte
Power Supply	Silverstone 600 Watt
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Sades Excalibur + Taihao keycaps
Software	Win 7 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Classified