Learn from me, dear friends, for I am an idiot.

[LeadMagnet]

This seemed an appropriate cautionary tale to serve as my first post after a long time of lurking...

 

It may forever remain a mystery as to how I somehow managed to get to my forties, having built multiple PCs in the past, having binged on LTT's fantastic videos for ages, and still somehow missed the now-bloody-obvious warning of how incredibly effective vacuum cleaners are in generating static electricity and should absolutely never be put anywhere near the internals of a tower for cleaning, to say nothing of being in direct contact with components, and to say even less about being in direct contact with components WITH A BRUSH HEAD....

 

But that's where we are, kids. I'm now the sheepish owner of a rather fetching full-tower paperweight. I'll tinker with it a bit more this evening to rule out any less catastrophic diagnoses, but it's not looking good.

 

All things told, it's fine in the grand scheme of things. The PC was absolutely ancient - but in that comfortably familiar sort of way - any sensitive data has been backed up to the cloud, etc. Given how old it was and the current state of parts availability and pricing, I think I'll limp along for at least the next season with our laptop until prices come back down again a bit (and I've paid an appropriate penance before trying my hand at this game again) instead of trying to breathe more life back into this one.

 

I'd love to blame 2020, but sadly I think this one is all me. 

[BornOrca]

That is awful, if 2020 wasn't already terrible enough lol.

Do you know if there's any components you can salvage?

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, LeadMagnet said:

This seemed an appropriate cautionary tale to serve as my first post after a long time of lurking...

 

It may forever remain a mystery as to how I somehow managed to get to my forties, having built multiple PCs in the past, having binged on LTT's fantastic videos for ages, and still somehow missed the now-bloody-obvious warning of how incredibly effective vacuum cleaners are in generating static electricity and should absolutely never be put anywhere near the internals of a tower for cleaning, to say nothing of being in direct contact with components, and to say even less about being in direct contact with components WITH A BRUSH HEAD....

 

But that's where we are, kids. I'm now the sheepish owner of a rather fetching full-tower paperweight. I'll tinker with it a bit more this evening to rule out any less catastrophic diagnoses, but it's not looking good.

 

All things told, it's fine in the grand scheme of things. The PC was absolutely ancient - but in that comfortably familiar sort of way - any sensitive data has been backed up to the cloud, etc. Given how old it was and the current state of parts availability and pricing, I think I'll limp along for at least the next season with our laptop until prices come back down again a bit (and I've paid an appropriate penance before trying my hand at this game again) instead of trying to breathe more life back into this one.

 

I'd love to blame 2020, but sadly I think this one is all me. 

Ha, fair play for being honest and taking full responsibility. I've never done this but I have done plenty similar. Eg. Printer making a weird noise? Take it apart and completely break it. Projector has a spot of dirt inside the lens? Attempt to disassemble it to clean it. Completely break it. The list goes on

[jones177]

Stuff happens.

I have killed a few computers in my time and may kill a few more. 

The fun part will be fixing them. It will make you feel a lot better as well.

[DoctorNick]

Welcome at last! And thank you for the story! 

Next time use a ED500 or similar, electric blower duster:

 

 

And I'm sorry for your loss 

[Moonzy]

That happens often, and I take them as valuable lessons, literally heh

[Tristerin]

I clean my PCs with a vacuum only, Ive never had static issues.  Use some straws to reduce down surface area to get into tight corners and suck up debris away. 

 

  

[unsorted]

You have a knack for writing.

 

One of many stupidities here:

========

I import a Brother label printer from the USA. It's about half the local price. Sweet. It runs at 110V. I go into it knowing full well the printer doesn't have a 'world voltage' power supply. I know all of this.

 

I'll just run it through my 240V-110V step-down transformer. No way I'm paying double for this printer! So I get it & it runs fine. I love it. It's compact. It's fun. I'm making all sorts of sticky stupid labels for everything.

 

One day...

Brother label printer is packed away. No worries: I'll unpack and get her running.

I noitice the power cable for the printer is missing. No worries. These are standard removable "figure 8" cables. I'll just plug one in that I already have. So I'm ready for another session of silly printer label printing when I plug her in to the 240V power supply and bang! Magic smoke.

 

Of course I have guests over and they laugh their heads off. Tech guy knows best!

Not the sharpest tool in the shed...

[LeadMagnet]

Thanks all for chiming in! It was cathartic to write out my frustrations, but an unexpected and wonderful bonus to see the replies flood in - hell, someone even DM'd me within hours of initial posting with an offer of spare parts if they could be of use. 

 

As a brief update - knowing full well I had left you on tenterhooks and you were surely losing sleep while awaiting further developments - I salvaged the video card, SSDs and RAM and have stowed them away, and for the time being have promoted one of our laptops to centre stage as our main PC. The transition was surprisingly easy given how much we stow in the cloud these days (and considering that I'm enough of a patient gamer that a potato could run most of my current distractions). I've taken recent developments as a sign from the fates that, once prices settle a bit, perhaps it's time for a proper upgrade.

 

In the meantime, I have a build I had been planning to do for my Dad keeping me busy. All of the aforementioned bullshit above actually occurred while I had a closet full of components for his new build awaiting assembly, and now that I've gotten over my nerves, general tech imposter syndrome, etc., I took some tentative steps tonight in setting up his case, swapping out some stock fans, making preparations for build, and it was a lot of fun.

 

If timing works out, I'll likely try to put everything together for him tomorrow. But not before locking the vacuum cleaner in the goddamn shed first.

[Roswell]

On 12/18/2020 at 6:16 AM, Tristerin said:

I clean my PCs with a vacuum only, Ive never had static issues.  Use some straws to reduce down surface area to get into tight corners and suck up debris away. 

 

  

You will eventually, anecdotal evidence =! fact. There’s a reason why speciality anti ESD shop vacs exist.

[Mark Kaine]

Actually I clean my pc a lot, with use of a vacuum cleaner, but not inside the case, but the back side of it, near the CPU even... as long you have wooden floor it shouldn't be an issue tbh... but the inside or any pcbs should definitely be a not go. 

 

I'm pretty convinced people knock out capacitors or other smds with their vacuum cleaners, because  those are small and not *that* strong that a bit of a stronger push with a vacuum cleaner nozzle couldn't knock them out... AND THE GREAT PART ANY EVIDENCE OF THIS HAPPENING WILL BE SUCKED AWAY right away, then people will be blaming "static" instead... but in my experience there is no static discharge at least when you have a none static floor using a vacuum cleaner ... 

 

23 minutes ago, LeadMagnet said:

Thanks all for chiming in! It was cathartic to write out my frustrations, but an unexpected and wonderful bonus to see the replies flood in - hell, someone even DM'd me within hours of initial posting with an offer of spare parts if they could be of use. 

 

As a brief update - knowing full well I had left you on tenterhooks and you were surely

losing sleep while awaiting further developments - I salvaged the video card, SSDs and RAM and have stowed them away, and for the time being have promoted one of our laptops to centre stage as our main PC. The transition was surprisingly easy given how much we stow in the cloud these days (and considering that I'm enough of a patient gamer that a potato could run most of my current distractions). I've taken recent developments as a sign from the fates that, once prices settle a bit, perhaps it's time for a proper upgrade.

 

In the meantime, I have a build I had been planning to do for my Dad keeping me busy. All of the aforementioned bullshit above actually occurred while I had a closet full of components for his new build awaiting assembly, and now that I've gotten over my nerves, general tech imposter syndrome, etc., I took some tentative steps tonight in setting up his case, swapping out some stock fans, making preparations for build, and it was a lot of fun.

 

If timing works out, I'll likely try to put everything together for him tomorrow. But not before locking the vacuum cleaner in the goddamn shed first.

Thanks for the update! 

 

Say, do you have a carpet on your floor...? 

[LeadMagnet]

I appreciate that this topic is essential now done and dusted, but can we all just take a moment to appreciate the cruel randomness that "Can static KILL your PC? (ft. Electroboom)" is the featured LTT video a mere FOUR DAYS after I successfully turn my PC into a sparking, silent monolith? (If @LinusTech used me as inspiration for educating the hopelessly misguided, I'm available to discuss my contractor fees. )

[Guest]

Haha. Reminds me the time I blew the chipset and VRM heatsink clean off on the first shot of shop air (165 psi). Young man learnt to regulate that day XD.

[Mling]

A brush/comb is the best way to generate static!

I usually clean with a tooth pick. It doesnt take very long. Think dental hygenist, not floor polisher!

[RejZoR]

Technically, if you're isolated and computer is isolated, the static won't jump around like it does if computer is grounded and you aren't. So, if computer is unplugged entirely and on a desk, even if you're charged, it's pretty much unlikely you'll kill anything.

 

Besides, it baffles me how people manage to kill anything with static electricity anyways. I've performed endless "surgeries" on a live system and never killed anything. Not to mention you'd discharge the moment you try opening the case as cases are grounded through PSU one way or another. What are you wearing to generate so much static from that point on?! Unless the case is plastic entirely or you have PSU mounted to the case using plastic screws encased in rubber anti vibration gasket at the mounting point without touching anything else.

[Mark Kaine]

well esd can kill components, it's why if you work in SMD they'll usually have a grounded floor and you have to wear some kind of esd strips in your shoes... but it is very... very unlikely... 

components I have destroyed while not wearing the strips : zero

 

smds like resistors / capacitors I knocked off with a brush or soldering iron : not many, maybe 10 (of hundreds of thousands, mind you)