Remember kids, dust is bad.

[LethalWolfe]

So my 5 year old dual gig Quicksilver was having some odd problems recently (apps quitting randomly, kernel panics, etc.,) and I spent a few weekends trying to diagnose the problem and always came up empty. I tested the RAM (even shuffled around what slots each each DIMM was in), ran Disk Warrior, and eventually started preparing to do an archive and install. I had had similar problems whenever the machine became too hot, but the weather hasn't been too warm, and since I made some changes shortly after I got my Mac (switched to rounded IDE cables, removed the front speaker and left a rear PCI slot open to help w/air flow) I never had any problems unless it was a hot day in my then non-A/Ced dwelling. But the air in Los Angeles is pretty dirty and it had been a while since I'd blown the case out so I decided to give that a shot. I carried the tower out onto the balcony, pumped almost a whole can of compressed air into it, and *bam* she's as stable as ever.

So, the moral of the story is a clean Mac is a happy Mac.

I am going to make a couple more changes though. I think I have a spare 60mm or 80mm fan laying around and a fan filter so I am going to mount those where the internal speaker used to be and that should help keep the temps down and the dust out.


Lethal

 

[djstarrock]

I always love a happy ending, I might try that my mac is acting funny a bit.

 

[BoyBach]

I saw the title and thought this was about Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy.

Oh well...

 

[dcv]

Dust is low in fat though

 

[synth3tik]

I usually go through every 2 months and blow out the computers and just gernerally clean them.

A clean mac is a happy mac
A fanboy with a clean mac is a happy fanboy

 

[jadekitty24]

I had this happen with a PC once. It just wasn't running right and the first thing I was going to do was check the memory. After opening the case and getting attacked by what were, to this day, the LARGEST dust bunnies ever, I decided a simple cleaning would be my first troubleshooting step. It worked! Keep 'em clean. They just don't run right when they are smothered.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I've been having the same issues - I'm off to buy a couple cans (my wife started to use them to get the dust out of hard to reach places so I don't have anymore )

D

 

[princealfie]

Dust isn't so bad, guys.

Just burn your old Mac and have your new Mac snort it up.

"

Tue Apr 3, 3:53 PM ET

Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all.

In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine.

"The strangest thing I've tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father," Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

"He was cremated and I couldn't resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn't have cared," he said. "... It went down pretty well, and I'm still alive."

Richards' father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.

Richards, one of rock's legendary wild men, told the magazine that his survival was the result of luck, and advised young musicians against trying to emulate him.

"I did it because that was the way I did it. Now people think it's a way of life," he was quoted as saying.

"I've no pretensions about immortality," he added. "I'm the same as everyone ... just kind of lucky.

"I was No. 1 on the `who's likely to die' list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list," Richards said."

 

[SC68Cal]

I saw the title and thought this was about Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy.

Oh well...

SPOILER
I laughed when they killed god

 

[jdechko]

...I decided a simple cleaning would be my first troubleshooting step. It worked! Keep 'em clean. They just don't run right when they are smothered.

Yeah, electronic components are picky that way. I spent one evening disassembling, cleaning and reassembling my sister's computer because she spilled apple juice all over it. Luckily it didn't do any major damage, and after using a ton of rubbing alcohol, things worked great.

So remember kiddies, apple juice has not been Microsoft approved for use in your XP boxes.