Experiences with non-techies

[German_John]

Luck, luck, luck everywhere.

I don't know, 3 times and nothing has happened, maybe too much luck?(2 times the PK-400 and 1- daewoo's 150w AT)

You know that one time I had to slam the brakes while going 200kph because a cyclist switched into my lane directly in front of me and immediately slowed down. I didn't die, so I guess it's not dangerous. 

 

Or, less dramatically:

I've dropped my (old) phone numerous times, it never took damage, so I can drop it all I want. 

 

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[German_John]

Well, technically any insulàtor holds a static charge, and because air is flowing through the filters, and they are most likely paper, they will build a static charge.

But seriously, vacuuming wont hurt. If your vace did have any metal on it it should be grounded anyways, removing any static.

Look, the vacuum's plastic tube will build up static. Since you're basically touching your components that WILL fry them. Sure, if you were touching your case with the tube that should be fine, but you're not just hoovering your side panel...

[Speedbird]

You guys are gonna kill all your rigs. You can laugh it off now. Maybe you guys have gotten lucky a few times with the vacuum, but eventually your lucks gonna run out. You will try to power it on one day and wonder why everything's dead. I'm guessing you will probably try to blame one of us for bad tech advice, but we will know. We will all know what really happened. Its just a matter of time.

Has a PC ever been killed by a vacuum cleaner?

[German_John]

Has a PC ever been killed by a vacuum cleaner?

Haven't heard of any. Yes, I've done it myself before and got lucky. I guess it also depends on just how much dust you have in your system.

However we do know about static building up in hoover tubes and we all know that static electricity is a big no-no for sensitive components.

Also, you can (I guess?) just get a largish plastic bag, cut a small hole in a corner and use it as an improvised compressor/DIY canned air.

[ShiftHitTheFan]

Haven't heard of any. Yes, I've done it myself before and got lucky. I guess it also depends on just how much dust you have in your system.

However we do know about static building up in hoover tubes and we all know that static electricity is a big no-no for sensitive components.

Also, you can (I guess?) just get a largish plastic bag, cut a small hole in a corner and use it as an improvised compressor/DIY canned air.

Plastic bag (insulator) with moving particles aginst it, causes static. Nothing is safe from the power of electricity!

[Speedbird]

Haven't heard of any. Yes, I've done it myself before and got lucky. I guess it also depends on just how much dust you have in your system.

However we do know about static building up in hoover tubes and we all know that static electricity is a big no-no for sensitive components.

Also, you can (I guess?) just get a largish plastic bag, cut a small hole in a corner and use it as an improvised compressor/DIY canned air.

I assume the static builds up on the tubes and doesn't just magically charge the electronics....

[I need a better name]

i feel an HDD weight-like argument rising

[Aleksbgbg]

This thread is still going? Was just reading the first few pages from 2013, this is very exciting a topic.

 

My step-dad:

He has two laptops, and constantly complains how slow they are and how they don't work

He has Kaspersky, AVG and Norton on both of them and a shit ton of pop-ups and bloatware, malware what not

 

I asked him for his laptop and did a quick fix of some files

 

He now claims that he has 1 million viruses and that I am responsible for the downfall of his laptop

 

I keep asking him to take them both in and do a clean install of windows so he has NO problems as this is the quickest fix, but he says he doesn't want it to get any worse ...

 

Edit: How do I explain to him that he has not got 1 million viruses? Any technical terms to put him in his place? I'm sure you can't count viruses, e.g. you can't just say I've got 5 viruses ... 

[Tsuki]

This thread is still going? Was just reading the first few pages from 2013, this is very exciting a topic.

 

My step-dad:

He has two laptops, and constantly complains how slow they are and how they don't work

He has Kaspersky, AVG and Norton on both of them and a shit ton of pop-ups and bloatware, malware what not

 

I asked him for his laptop and did a quick fix of some files

 

He now claims that he has 1 million viruses and that I am responsible for the downfall of his laptop

 

I keep asking him to take them both in and do a clean install of windows so he has NO problems as this is the quickest fix, but he says he doesn't want it to get any worse ...

 

Edit: How do I explain to him that he has not got 1 million viruses? Any technical terms to put him in his place? I'm sure you can't count viruses, e.g. you can't just say I've got 5 viruses ... 

remove all of his anti-viruses, then run malwarebytes and combofix.  all fixed

[German_John]

I assume the static builds up on the tubes and doesn't just magically charge the electronics....

It builds up on the tubes of the hoover, yes, but consider how close the tube is to e.g. your mobo. If you've ever left a car and touched (or barely touched) the door you'll know what happens then...

 

 

Plastic bag (insulator) with moving particles aginst it, causes static. Nothing is safe from the power of electricity!

 

Not really. 

1. The dust doesn't brush across the plastic as it's scattered and not sucked in

2. The bag has signifiantly higher reach than the vacuum would, so you're not at risk of zapping anything.

[ShiftHitTheFan]

 

It builds up on the tubes of the hoover, yes, but consider how close the tube is to e.g. your mobo. If you've ever left a car and touched (or barely touched) the door you'll know what happens then...

 

 

 

Not really. 

1. The dust doesn't brush across the plastic as it's scattered and not sucked in

2. The bag has signifiantly higher reach than the vacuum would, so you're not at risk of zapping anything.

 

Any moving particle creates a static charge, influencing the particles around it. Technically, that air that you just compressed out of the bag would be charged. So there is a possibility of the air itself releasing it's charge on your computer components.Any time any particles move past an insulator they create an static charge. In fact, using a plastic bag means that it may brush against your hair, dividing by zero and ending the world as we know it. So remember, rule 34 corrupts all, the answer to everything is 42, jet fuel cant melt steel beam, and the moon landing was faked.

[Aleksbgbg]

remove all of his anti-viruses, then run malwarebytes and combofix.  all fixed

 

How do I unlock his win 7 computer without typing in the password?

I'm sure there was a way through running safe mode

[Tsuki]

How do I unlock his password lock thingie?

I'm sure there was a way through running safe mode

theres plenty of ways to get passed a login password. dont need to though, get hirens boot disk, boot to either linux or mini xp, and run the scans from there.

[Aleksbgbg]

Another experience that I have had,

 

recently my school had a new building built considered state-of-the-art and they bought about 500 computers all worth about £2000

 

they are all-in-ones, expensive Haswell i7s using the integrated graphics

 

I don't know about the rest of the specs, I will check with speccy next time I get to use them but it is such a waste of money

[Guest acdcman200]

-facepalm- Filters catch dust/particles, not static electricity. Do you even science bro?

its not vacuuming, that goes on the vacuum end. im using an exhast of the vaccum (since its filtered) to blow out the computer

[Guest acdcman200]

Another experience that I have had,

 

recently my school had a new building built considered state-of-the-art and they bought about 500 computers all worth about £2000

 

they are all-in-ones, expensive Haswell i7s using the integrated graphics

 

I don't know about the rest of the specs, I will check with speccy next time I get to use them but it is such a waste of money

well yeah, but then there going to be running off a main server thats proubably 10 years old. thats how most schools log in systems work. As well as the whole connection is ran off one local server in my old schools case. (then agian this was MANY years ago, so times could have changed

[Fgtfv567]

Another experience that I have had,

 

recently my school had a new building built considered state-of-the-art and they bought about 500 computers all worth about £2000

 

they are all-in-ones, expensive Haswell i7s using the integrated graphics

 

I don't know about the rest of the specs, I will check with speccy next time I get to use them but it is such a waste of money

What do they even use the AIOs for? Video editing? Because that's a legitimate reason

 

i feel an HDD weight-like argument rising

You're damn straight this is going to turn into a data-turns-into-weight-on-an-HDD argument!

[BURNINGJUNK]

Sorry Sort Of Off Topic But.... I hate it when companies think it is ok to take advantage of non-techies by selling them $100 USB hubs. This disgusts me, selling something so cheap for so much money to unsuspecting people. Companies like ChargeHub make money off of the ignorance of others. 

 

Links:

 

Walmart $90

ChargeHub Website

 

For Hahas an equivalent product from Monoprice for $14.36 

 

In Conclusion: A crummy product at a stupid price.

[SansVarnic]

Has a PC ever been killed by a vacuum cleaner?

 

Happened to me once....I wasn't techy yet at the time and wanted to help my dad clean out the pc (386sx) I wasn't thinking about static charge and the tube touch the mobo and that did it. Boy was I in trouble but not to much as dad was considering upgrading to the 486dx any how. At least I didn't kill the HDD. 

[WereCat]

well yeah, but then there going to be running off a main server thats proubably 10 years old. thats how most schools log in systems work. As well as the whole connection is ran off one local server in my old schools case. (then agian this was MANY years ago, so times could have changed

When I was going to school we had all PCs run W7 under Linux in Virtual machine.

PCs were old Celerons with 256MB of DDR2 RAM and integrated graphics.

To say the computers were slow as F is big understatement.

Edit

Correction. PCs were 512MB RAM but 256MB was allocated for W7.

[vanished]

When I was going to school we had all PCs run W7 under Linux in Virtual machine.

PCs were old Celerons with 256MB of DDR2 RAM and integrated graphics.

To say the computers were slow as F is big understatement.

Edit

Correction. PCs were 512MB RAM but 256MB was allocated for W7.

That sounds like a sketchy cost cutting move; why buy a windows license for every computer when you can buy one, make a VM, and put that on a bunch of free Linux installs for free? lol

[Ivelin__]

Look, the vacuum's plastic tube will build up static. Since you're basically touching your components that WILL fry them. Sure, if you were touching your case with the tube that should be fine, but you're not just hoovering your side panel...

Mine has a metal tube, Philips smth,smth with those filters(Hepa and whatnot)

[Speedbird]

Happened to me once....I wasn't techy yet at the time and wanted to help my dad clean out the pc (386sx) I wasn't thinking about static charge and the tube touch the mobo and that did it. Boy was I in trouble but not to much as dad was considering upgrading to the 486dx any how. At least I didn't kill the HDD. 

Indeed, if it touches the motherboard, yes. But since vacumm cleaners can suck up dust from several metres away, you can keep it at a safe distance to avoid static discharge.

[TheMcSame]

Sorry Sort Of Off Topic But.... I hate it when companies think it is ok to take advantage of non-techies by selling them $100 USB hubs. This disgusts me, selling something so cheap for so much money to unsuspecting people. Companies like ChargeHub make money off of the ignorance of others. 

 

Links:

 

Walmart $90

ChargeHub Website

 

For Hahas an equivalent product from Monoprice for $14.36 

 

In Conclusion: A crummy product at a stupid price.

Welcome to capitalism, exploitation is the name of the game.

[Ivelin__]

Welcome to capitalism, exploitation is the name of the game.

It's a way to make stupid people learn