[RESOLVED] A dirty tale

[Snommis69]

Sucked you in with the title, didn't I?

Anyway, I just wanted to throw this one out there. I work as a field tech for an engineering software company. Our software gets installed in some pretty rough places, like manufacturing plants, power plants, ships, ect. So I get a trouble call from a client who says his computer is AFU. I go to the site, and the "cup holder" has been snapped off. The (clueless) on site tech tried to replace it, but it is a SCSI drive, and he has no idea about this whole ID number thing.

OK, no problem. I show up and start tearing this monster ruggedized POS apart, and one of the guys at the plant goes on a rant to me about how I should take the damn thing with me, the hardware sucks, the software sucks, everything sucks. I, like a fool, ask why he feels this way. He tells me the computer crashed at least once a day, and that his guys are always doing something to fix it. His last statement was "If my computer at home ran like this, I'd chuck it out the f**king window".

OK, whatever. I finally get this monster open, and find TWO INCHES of dirt and crap all over the inside of the case, mobo, everywhere! I pull knucklehead over, and show him this, and I said "If your computer at home was maintained like this, it would run like this, too." You know what he tells me? "You need to make a computer that does not get dirty." GRRRRR!

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Hey, this really is therapudic!

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Is the damn thing plugged in, is the damn thing turned on?

[This message has been edited by Snommis69 (edited December 19, 2000).]

[SavagePenguin]

We have a time clock/job tracking program that resides on PC's. A local factory uses our product, and we told them that we wouldn't warranty the computers if they became encrusted with their typical grime. (Lots of metal filaments, dust, oil, etc.) They ended up buying steel cabinets, cutting holes, adding fans, filters, plexi-glass windows, etc. to the cabinets. The modified cabinets look real cool, and keep the computers pretty clean.

We liked the cabinets a lot, and asked what'd it cost for them to produce similiar cabinets that we could sell with other systems. It ended up being $4,000 apiece. We sell the computer systems for less than $1000 apiece, so we passed on getting cabinets.

[TheoneDKS]

I work for a company that uses PCs in a very dusty inviroment, fiberglass dust. We put the macines in cabenets that we had specialy built for us. Ruber seals, compressed air lines for positive preasure inside the case. Becouse of this I only have to vacume out the units every two months!

[GirlGeek]

As a small mobile tech repair type person..places like this are heaven! I whip out my little maintanence contract and we discuss how many monthly visits they would like and everybody is happy!
But then again..lately it hasn't taken much to make me happy. lol

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Now...if I could only defrag my brain...

[LORE]

The nastiest thing, outside of computers used in a factory, are the "trailor trash", sorry if that offends, that bring in their E-machine that doesn't work and they can't figure out why. When I open up the machine, if it doesn't have cocroaches in it, it has food, and TONES of cigarett smoke yellow residue. I think that is the key to being traior trash, smoking like 6 packs a day, while blowing all the smoke into the fan of the machine. Those things smell SO bad, I could only imagine the house they came from, OH GOD VISUAL! MUST PUKE NOW!

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We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us.

[Snommis69]

The kicker here is, the guy chewing me is in charge of the guys who are supposed to clean/maintain these machines! Oh well. We will just charge them a few more grand for site support...

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Is the damn thing plugged in, is the damn thing turned on?

[Auric]

I have but one thing to say

Ever see a PC filled with parrot poop?

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[Mouse has moved please restart computer for changes to take effect]

[SavagePenguin]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by LORE:
The nastiest thing... are the "trailor trash</font>

Ha ha! I've worked on several of those. For some reason EMachines seem to be collect the most cigarette tar. I guess buying a cheap computer allows you to spend more money on cigarettes.

The machines are fine on the shelf, but when you turn them on the fans spew out rancid cancerous gas, able to stink up an entire work room in mere seconds. I feel sorry for the cockroaches that call these machines home.

[underfunded]

My how soon we forget. Packard Bell hasn't even been out of business a year and we forget that the primary purpose of them was to filter all the nicotene out of the air so the the rats didn't have to breath it in! Seriously I had one come in once that I had trouble taking the case off because of the buildup of tar. Not to mention the animal hair and dust that they filter out of the air and store for us to clean out.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Geneva, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by SavagePenguin:
Ha ha! I've worked on several of those. For some reason EMachines seem to be collect the most cigarette tar. ... I feel sorry for the cockroaches that call these machines home.

</font>

[archangel]

I have a cat that likes to sit in front of the Computer. I have to open the case every month or so to blow out the cat hair. In school I let people use my computer, but I never let anyone smoke or eat while they were using it. I did have a girlfriend that used to burn incense in the room. That smell stayed with the computer even after I left school. I would turn the computer on, the room would start to smell of vanilla. A lot better then nicotine smell.

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www.el-mono.com

[iamtheman]

Oh I absolutely love working on machines that have been sitting in warehouses and factories for years. I love the way my hands look after being at the keyboard. I especially look forward to the various blood and skin diseases I will get after scraping my arm or hand on the POS case. Isn't it fun when you have to reinstall Windows or just boot to a floppy and you can't because the years of filth have destroyed those highly important devices.

Wow I've become very sarcastic.

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Born to Network

[carrienscott]

Sorry I got to post this one...

I recently worked for a call center for a major computer manufacturer and did the corporate laptop tech support. Well one day doing my usual routine I get a call from an irrate user. He wanted to know how to emergency eject the cd rom drive... Right away I knew something was wrong. After calming him down I told him to hold the power button for 10 seconds to turn the laptop off since the regular eject button didn't seem to work... after it was off he set the phone down and got a paper clip. Bent it out and tried that - no go! Still can't get it open. So I said I appologize if you want to wait for a couple hours I can get a tech out to fix it onsite. As soon as he heard that he said "NO, NO, NO! I don't want anyone here... ." A long pause then I asked why.

Well to censor this a bit he had manage to get --- how do the young one say it now?? --- he managed to get his "junk" caught in the cd rom drive door and jammed it shut.

Not only scary but I didn't want to know how or why... However I felt extremely bad for the onsite tech who had to solve that problem.

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It's a dog eat dog world out there and I'm wearing milk bone underwear.

[carrienscott]

One more for ya

I also had a guy call in and say that he was glad he recieved the laptop back from repair before his wife. I asked him why that was a concern later to find that the technician who had worked on it at our depot left a 700MB cdr FULL of porn in the drive.

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It's a dog eat dog world out there and I'm wearing milk bone underwear.

[ledrichard]

what do you mean "junk" I am sorry but I dont get it.

[behemoth1]

oh man.....the images of the nicotene machines is just waaaaay too strong.

had a machine from a wood shop...pulled the case off and inside was 5 inches of sawdust...still kinda standin there like jello out of a mold...the socket 7 fan still chuggin away ...my buddy wound up changing the fan and said that the dust had marks in it from where one of our competitors had removed the previous fan and not cleaned out the dust....so i bit the bullet and cleaned the machine only to find the old fan in the sawdust....ps the machine had a case fan too...it was still spinning under 2 inches of dust...it had worked a little pathway through.....clean the machine and bam...reliable again....

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hear that sound? thats me shakin the pillars of heaven baby.