Post B1Um2SyGOLTsjQaIBk by projectgus@aus.social
 (DIR) More posts by projectgus@aus.social
 (DIR) Post #B1Um2SyGOLTsjQaIBk by projectgus@aus.social
       2025-12-21T04:15:37Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Suddenly reminded of an e-waste story: about 13 years ago I spotted a high end gaming PC at the tip. Less than two years old, pretty expensive component choices for the era.Took home, powered up. The CPU fan immediately ran 100%, and it froze mid-boot. OK, we know why it was treated as e-waste...Opened the case: Packed with thick dense lint and dust, especially in the CPU cooler fins. I can't imagine where it lived to ingest this much dust in only a couple of years, it looked like a clothes dryer filter in there.Carefully vacuumed it out, and it immediately worked. Literally nothing else wrong with it.#repair
       
 (DIR) Post #B1Um2UiNuLy48lAdiS by Anne_Delong@musician.social
       2025-12-22T02:55:59Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @projectgus I operated a lab of IBM DOS computers in a school library. To keep little fingers away, the server was on the carpet under a table.  Each day about 120 children traipsed in to use the computers.  One day the server shut down, so I called the technician.  He set the server on some newspaper, removed the side panel, took a large spatula from his bag and scraped wads of carpet fluff from the panel.  The server booted up fine.  After that I did it myself every few months.#computers
       
 (DIR) Post #B1UmAte96397mUC6wS by isol@mastodon.au
       2025-12-21T08:02:30Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @projectgus I'll add my clothes dryer to these stories:my neighbour asked me to help carry his dryer to his trailer to go to the dump, as it had suddenly stopped.I asked if he wanted me to take a look, but he'd already bought another one. He let me have it though.The internals were packed with lint, and a thermal fuse had blown.I vacuumed out the lint, replaced the 17c part, and have used it for the last 40 years.