Keep Your Electronics Clean, People!

I have seen a dramatic, complete failure to function caused by DUST this past week.

We have for sale a LeCroy WaveRunner 6100 oscilloscope that worked fine when I first listed it for sale. Several weeks later, a customer called and asked us to perform a specific functional check. We pulled it in from the inventory room, and the stupid thing wouldn't load the oscilloscope software! It's a Windows PC with a touchscreen, and oh by the way has a bit of LeCroy kit on it that is worth more than my car. When Windows went to load the LeCroy stuff, it couldn't find the hardware. It wouldn't load the 'scope, because it couldn't find the hardware. LeCroy was contacted, and they sait it was stuffed, and quoted us a large number of dollars to effect a repair.

As a last-ditch effort, I opened the case and hit it with our shop's compressed air. An entire ranch of dust bunnies was evicted. I applied power and the stupid thing loaded right up! I put the case back on and switched on again, and the scope seemed to be working fine.

Because of dust.

Hit your computer's vents and the cracks in the case with some compressed air and you will be astonished at the dust that comes out. Open the case and you'll see something you weren't expecting at all. Blow it all clean. It'll work better and use less power.

Nota Bene: What's the difference between a VanDeGraaff generator and a vacuum cleaner, as far as your computer is concerned? NOTHING. Either will probably kill your computer with several thousand volts of static electricity. Do NOT vacuum out electronics. Blow them off either with an air compressor or purpose-made spray-cans of "dust-off" spray (or similar).