Worked on an old computer

[thecoolnessrune]

My aunt called 2 days ago asking if I could work on their Emachinces (their computer illiterate btw). Thinking the comp is theirs, im willing to help out so I go pick it up. They said it is acting wierd.... Ok.. great place to start. Then they told me it was a friend's computer... Grreat.. :roll: Now I'm being whored out.. I haven't booted it yet. When I opened the side panel I was appalled by the 1 in. thick layer of dust on everything. Worst of all the dust was BURNT on the processor and around it! It had seriously gotten hot in there. Its an Athlon XP 2000+. And no wonder, that little fan on there was completely blocked with dust and the heatsink had almost a paperlike film of dust under that fan.. There was absolutely no air getting through that heatsink.

So I take it all apart and dust it out and start putting it back together when I notice something else... ALL the caps in the VRM area are blown and leaking with a few more in other areas are leaking as well. I still haven't started the thing up yet to see exactly what she means by wierd.

The two things I wanted to ask was:

1. Is it safe to turn on?

2. Just how long does this have left after the caps start leaking? Should I advise her its time for her to look into a new computer?

 

[DivideBYZero]

Sounds like the mobo is cooked.

 

[gerwen]

Blow out all the dust and fire it up.
If it still boots and works, then the 'weird' behavior is likely instability caused by the blown caps on the motherboard. Replacing the motherboard should sort it all out. Checking the power supply for blown or swelling caps is a good idea too.

 

[AMCRambler]

Sure it's safe to turn on. Worst case something else blows or burns up on it and you trip a circuit breaker in your house. With all the dust out of it, you've pretty much removed the risk of any fire happening inside the case and even if a fire were to happen inside the case you'd smell it and be able to put it out quick. I would NOT leave the thing running unattended though once you start it up.

 

[HannibalX]

Junk it.

Tell them you aren't anyone's bitch! :Q

 

[jackschmittusa]

Chances are both the mb and the cpu are gone. Major rebuild or scrap.

 

[networkman]

Had it been me, I'd've taken pictures of the conditions found first, then do the work, and take some "after" shots so the customer can see the difference.

 

[Lemon law]

You got whored and now its some honesty time---you can safely try to turn it on--if it booted before it should boot now---verify it still works---and return---with the explanation its got leaking caps, a possibly damaged cpu, and its gonna take a new mobo and maybe another processor to fix---and if the mobo can't be matched a new OS as well.---in short its shot--and its cheaper to get a new computer.

Maybe they will luck out and the computer will run better---but its days are numbered. And run it until it drops.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I gave them my aunt a call and told her the story. I'll be told the conclusion this evening. More then likely they'll just say to junk it. In which case it will just be data migration in which I'll remove the old information and give it back to her on a disk. I'll then pull the CPU if it works along with the PSU (looks fine, no blown or swollen caps) and the 60GB HD (can never have enough storage). Say... would anyone have a free Socket A mobo?