Crazy things you can do to fix your computer

[lightgigantic]

Recently I had the experience that my laptop just stopped working - it would whir and make a half hearted attempt to find the hard drive and nothing would come up on the screen.

I took it to a local computer repairer and $35 later they told me it was a write off.

Luckily I happened to encounter a person who used to run a computer repair business and he suggested that I just give it a good solid whack.

After three attempts it works like new

:D

He also told me other things he used to do (and charge an arm and a leg for).
One was take the computer apart and spray it with a garden hose to clean out all the dust, silverfish and cockroaches. (You just have to make sure it is completely dry before you use it - he cleans his television out in the same way)
Another was to take some part of the virus ridden hardrive out and place it in a glass of water in the freezer (apparently it shocks the chip into reverting back to its factory settings)

Just wondering if anyone has anything more to add

(BTW his computer business was very successful and he ended up selling it and getting into training and education since the hours are better than sole business ownership - just in case you thought he might have bailed out for some issues of litigation or something)

[Creeptology]

There are better alternatives to fixing computers and just because they might have worked doesn't mean there isn't a better safer alternative. I would much rather work out the problem and fix it in the proper conventional manner.

Dust cleaning for example you can get antistatic brushes and vacuum the dust or compressed air spray especially for component cleaning. I use antistatic brushes on my rigs with normal vacuum cleaner on very low. I have cleaned my sink with safe solvent if mechanical methods don't shift dust but that's rare.

[Stryder]

Nothing beats a good solid whack... IT doesn't necessarily fix the problem but it's great anger management. Serious the reason why hard drive's sometimes recover is sometimes the heads can either get stuck or they jump out of place from it sticking, giving it a trauma sometimes gets them back into place (And is far easier than taking them apart).

Obviously it's not the best business practice but if it works you can't fault it.

[MacGyver1968]

Another was to take some part of the virus ridden hardrive out and place it in a glass of water in the freezer (apparently it shocks the chip into reverting back to its factory settings)



The only part of a hard drive that is virus ridden are the platters, and I definitely wouldn't want to dunk them in water. Now I have heard of people putting hard drives in the freezer, and the cold will temporarily cause contraction of broken solder joints, and allow them to make contact long enough to get a few things off the drive.

[amark317]

A couple of years before we got our new computer, ours was just open, the actual computer stuff sitting on the floor, out of the "shell" (don't ask why)

the computer was about 5 years old, and was very slow, so when my brother and I were waiting for a game to load, we would move our hands as if "pulling the slowness" out of the computer. We may have looked stupid doing it, BUT DAMNIT IT WORKED (or at least it was a placebo:))

[Steve100]

A good thump can help a lot of the time.

[MacGyver1968]

I call that a "Fonzie Fix" :)

[kevinalm]

Sometimes just pulling and repluging cards, connectors, chips etc. can solve a problem. Contacts get dirty and/or oxidized over time and also things can partially unseat.

[vslayer]

i find industrial strength air compressors work well on computer than are overheating, i just blast the fuck out of every little crevice on the motherboard until it looks like new.

[amark317]

ah, the old pull-out-the-cord,-blow-both-sides,-put-it-back-in trick:)

[amark317]

Around the same time that my first post in this thread happened, my uncle was working at a computer repair place, and the first thing they would do is what vslayer said, and he took ours out back behind the store, opened it up, blew into it, and this HUGE cloud of dust flew out!

It really didn't work much better after that, but oh well.

[Steve100]

Sometimes licking the connector helps too.

[Stryder]

It is possible to fix cracked circuit boards to work with a Pencil. The graphite can be penciled into the cracks to induce conductivity (this is why it amused me when they started designing Graphite microchips)

Admittedly I've not used it in a computer situation where the currents are potentially stronger, but for a remote control that gets crushed in a reclining chair it can help to get it working again, although you do have to keep the cracked components straight for it to work.