well LB, there are some colleagues who ask for help. I am working with computers, building and repairing, planning and setting up, maintaining and developing networks, software and all kind of additional peripherie since about 1976. A time when the floppy was 8.5" in diameter, the harddrive was a 5MB - 20kg unit for about $7500 (at todays rate). The Z80 was the processor and the screen had a proud 12"diagonal.
Bill Gates did not even dream about MS-DOS these days.
Gone through all the guarantee advises, followed most of the strongly recommended procedures, very often there was no solution available.
Having learned the hard way (no, not with damaging parts....) how to look inside problems, find alternatives and solutions, in 1983 I started the first own business. These days the first 80286 was born.
We introduced in 1984 a so called Saturday screwing club (hey, not what you mean...) and after some time more and more interested people came and joined. Building and repairing, upgrading and tuning of PC was the task.
All my ideas here are based on the experience and knowledge gathered over the years.
There is no need to discharge any statics...while you open the cabinet you have to touch the frame and thus you discharge anyway. Ahh, the motherboard is not connected to the frame? wrong, it is still connected through the cables to the power supply and thus no discharge will happen by touching only the motherboard.
A brush will destroy too much? wrong, more damage is done by packing and unpacking and wrong handling while building the machine. A soft brush (as I recommended) will remove all the dust and whatever has accumulated there over the time.
Ever checked the fans of a 1 year old PC???? You will improve performance by keeping them clean.
There is more reason to be grounded when touching a keyboard, and I am very sure that out there are some people who have experienced the unpleasant situation of feeling a discharge while starting typing. (Also there are solutions available)
I have never ever given any advise where dangerous work is involved. Destroying valuable parts is the last I am interested in. My hints and suggestions are intended to give an idea of what to do and how to approach a problem before expensive replacements etc are considered or necessary.
If someone feels that the given info is too sensitive or beyond ones capabilities, he/she does not have to follow, as simple as that. There is a shop around the corner which will take care about your machine (of course there is one here as well
)
Don't you think it is better to give people an idea about what to do than leaving them in the dark and have them damaging their MIG (most important gadget)?
Waiting for replies, there is no problem for me to stop all this and offer it only to these who are interested....
