My dad called me up to tell me his "girlfriend"'s computer was having problems, and being the defacto computer guy in the family, of course it now becomes my problem. The problem described to me on the phone was that she just got DSL installed and it takes 25 minutes for the DSL to connect - her computer is unresponsive while its trying to connect. She called tech support and they told her she had too many programs running and thats why it was taking so long. I didn't really see how too many programs would make DSL take 25 minutes to connect, but whatever. So I get the computer the other night.
First, the case smelled like smoke, which was kind of gross. First time I turned it on, it was like there was a lit cigarette still in there or something, as the stench was just pouring out the back. I once left the room and came back and my whole room smelled like smoke then. Anyways, the problem was really that she had an old computer with 128MB of ram and was running windows xp. The 25 minute thing was how long the computer was taking to boot up, had nothing to do with DSL. It booted into windows in about 10 minutes, then it sat there loading other crap for another 15, all the time making it impossible to actually use it.
So I tell my dad that she needs more memory. Of course, he tells me to go out and buy it and he'll pay me. So I went to open it up to see what it had it in. At that point I became physically ill. The entire inside of the computer was coated in brown sludge. I mean, it was literally covered in sludge. I'm surprised it even ran as the fans, cables, motherboard, everything, was just coated. The memory just looked like a hershey bar or something, covered in a brown waxy substance. I couldn't even bring myself to touch it to remove it. It stunk horribly too. So I sealed it back up and told him she needs to do it herself.
I managed to speed it up a bit by getting rid of stuff (especially the oodles of spyware on it), but it still runs like a dog and takes forever to boot up. Just opening IE takes close to a minute.
Out of curiosity I was checking out the geek squad prices at best buy, since thats most likely what he'll end up having her do since I doubt either of them will attempt to install it themsevles. $90 to install hardware, including memory. Are they on crack? Interestingly, they also have computer cleaning listed and its only $20. I'd have her take it in and get them to just clean it, then I'll put the memory in. I'd love to get a picture of the guys face that opens that up and sees the sludge he's gonna have to clean out, that would be priceless!
Oh well, just felt like sharing my story. I still feel kind of ill just thinking about it. I really wish I would have taken a picture in hindsight, it was pretty scary/hilarious and I'm not exaggerating. However, I just wanted to seal that thing up as quickly as possible so taking a picture didn't even cross my mind.
Cliffs:
Smoking + old computer = massive amounts of brown sludge covering all components
First, the case smelled like smoke, which was kind of gross. First time I turned it on, it was like there was a lit cigarette still in there or something, as the stench was just pouring out the back. I once left the room and came back and my whole room smelled like smoke then. Anyways, the problem was really that she had an old computer with 128MB of ram and was running windows xp. The 25 minute thing was how long the computer was taking to boot up, had nothing to do with DSL. It booted into windows in about 10 minutes, then it sat there loading other crap for another 15, all the time making it impossible to actually use it.
So I tell my dad that she needs more memory. Of course, he tells me to go out and buy it and he'll pay me. So I went to open it up to see what it had it in. At that point I became physically ill. The entire inside of the computer was coated in brown sludge. I mean, it was literally covered in sludge. I'm surprised it even ran as the fans, cables, motherboard, everything, was just coated. The memory just looked like a hershey bar or something, covered in a brown waxy substance. I couldn't even bring myself to touch it to remove it. It stunk horribly too. So I sealed it back up and told him she needs to do it herself.
I managed to speed it up a bit by getting rid of stuff (especially the oodles of spyware on it), but it still runs like a dog and takes forever to boot up. Just opening IE takes close to a minute.
Out of curiosity I was checking out the geek squad prices at best buy, since thats most likely what he'll end up having her do since I doubt either of them will attempt to install it themsevles. $90 to install hardware, including memory. Are they on crack? Interestingly, they also have computer cleaning listed and its only $20. I'd have her take it in and get them to just clean it, then I'll put the memory in. I'd love to get a picture of the guys face that opens that up and sees the sludge he's gonna have to clean out, that would be priceless!
Oh well, just felt like sharing my story. I still feel kind of ill just thinking about it. I really wish I would have taken a picture in hindsight, it was pretty scary/hilarious and I'm not exaggerating. However, I just wanted to seal that thing up as quickly as possible so taking a picture didn't even cross my mind.
Cliffs:
Smoking + old computer = massive amounts of brown sludge covering all components
I feel bad for the person that has to clean that computer.
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