I didn't even know a computer could do that.

[Acolyte]

Got a computer in today-an old Dell Optiplex. As soon as the front people brought it in, I knew it'd be trouble-the computer had scorch marks around the power supply, for starters. It was dirty, smelled faintly of burning plastic and dusty. Complaint was that he couldn't burn CDs.

Now, I know what you're thinking-poor Acolyte is going to have to open up the computer, discover the dusty equivelent of The African Lion Safari*, and write it off.

Well, you're half-right. I opened it up, took it over to the air compresser, blew it out and also removed a shattered CD from a DVD drive (Yes, CD in a DVD drive).
I took it over to a bench, booted it up...and was greeted with, quite possibly, the best running Optiplex of it's age I've ever seen**.

I was stunned-by all rights, it should have been a doorstop. Nope, ran wonderfully. The power supply tested fine (On later inspection, it was revealed to be newer then the rest and, thus, probably hadn't caused the scorching around it-I just couldn't tell at first because of the dirt and dust.) The CD and DVD drives both worked fine-I tested both several times. Everything else checked out.

I'm not sure this was an amazingly lucky SC, or a really good practical joke.

*You know-the dust bunnies had evolved to dust elephants, dust lions, roaming herds of dust gazelles...

**And, when I was on helpdesk, had to turn 13 similar Optiplexes into firewalls and small servers. This one ran better then any of them, and the 13 had been reasonably-well kept.

[LostMyMind]

I rarely clean out my computers for dust bunnies. I don't even want to open it up.

If the computer don't move much and the motherboard is vertical, dust bunnies usually just cause CD/DVD issues (dust on lens). But that shattered CD gives me pause, I hope the CD was shattered when it was put in

I would say, the computer componets was one of the lucky few well built ones that would still work with bullets holes.

[smellystudent]

Yes, CD in a DVD drive.

Nothing wrong with that, surely? Could it have been t'other way round?

I've got a few clients in the farming industry. Part of my regular maintenance schedule is to take their computers outside with a can of compressed air and a face-mask. You don't want to know what it's like running cable round those places....

[Acolyte]

Nothing wrong with that, surely? Could it have been t'other way round?

Nah, it wasn't a DVD-ROM. You don't see a lot of DVD-only drives, what with every computer coming standard with a Combo Drive now, but they are out there...
(They've made me look very, very stupid a few times.)

[Jet]

We had to take a computer back to the compressor to clean it out once. We kept on seeing this thing we thought was a dust bunny thumping around in there. Turns out it was a dead mouse.

[Seanette]

Oh, EEEWWW!!!
Do I *want* to know how it got in there in the first place?

[cpux]

Oh, all sorts of small animals are known to crawl into computers. Bugs especially.

Now I'm the nut who goes and empties a can of air into every little crevice of his computer (and PS2) every week. Contrarily, my brother smokes in his little room with his computer in it. I fear what dust and grime beasts may lurk inside there.

[LostMyMind]

I had to open up my PS2. Damn laser len shifted, got to tune that in. Going to take me forever. But I was surprise (in my house, dust bunnies lives and reproduce quickly), there wasn't any dust inside other than that thin layer start of the tray. It sat on the floor for many years.

[chryso]

Nah, it wasn't a DVD-ROM. You don't see a lot of DVD-only drives, what with every computer coming standard with a Combo Drive now, but they are out there...
(They've made me look very, very stupid a few times.)

I didn't even know that those existed.

[LostMyMind]

I didn't even know that those existed.

Yeah they're about as rare as an 8inch floppy.

[Acolyte]

I didn't even know that those existed.

Dell puts them in their mid-range desktops sometimes.

[SongsOfDragons]

8 inch floppy...glorious.

We still have an old Amstrad computer in our loft. It has a (regular) floppy drive and Windows 3.1. It harks from the days before USB and CDs. We also own an Atari 2600.

[LostMyMind]

I still have my TI 99/4a (with the voice emulator device add-on). If any of you remember the pains of audio "tape" transfer.

[Tanasi]

I still have my Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 (I got it for Chirstmas in either 77 or 78). As far as I know it still works, it came with a whopping 16k and a cassette drive, it was putting out so much RF that you couldn't watch TV on the lower channels. I was later able to upgrade to 48K with 2 yes 2 single sided single density 5.25 disk drives. I still have a PC with a 5.25 drive. I remember when RS-232 was new technology.
Until about 16 months ago we still had a customer running his 124 room hotels on a 486-66 machine including a bar/rest and all the usual back office software. That old machine was a hoss-cat.
I've used punch card punchers and readers, reel-2-reel tape back-up. 160mb disk-packs that were so heavy I could barely lift them.
When I speak of ancient iron I'm not kidding.

[Crosshair]

My TRS-80 is my nightstand now.