Hi readers. Thanks for the visit. I’ve got the side-panel back onto the comp and the dust is settling, so I suppose I’ve cheated computer-death once more.
I’ve neglected the redneck repairs side of blog entries for a while, so I’m offering this up for the poor, the hungry, the huddled masses without air conditioning or filtered air in their homes.
Texas is determined to find its way into my computer. I read blogs and websites offering reminders to “spring clean that comp!” and I just shake my head in wonder. Every computer I’ve owned during the past 20 years I’ve been living without air conditioning would have needed a jackhammer and backhoe to get the dirt out if I cleaned it once a year.
Probably the never, never, never school of 21st Century certainties will find the following inadvisable. I suggest you believe them if it resonates with you.
But if you’re a person who’s not confident buying cans of compressed air at $7 US per whack to blow dirt out of your computer presents an unacceptable level of risk, you might try this.
These are air pumps. They’re designed to take air out of the sky and blow it in a fine stream under pressure at a target of opportunity. Maybe an air mattress. Maybe a bicycle tire. Or perhaps, the inside of a computer.
Each of these was purchased from a thrift store at a cost of less than $3 US.
They have the disadvantage of allowing themselves to be used for years, repeatedly doing the same thing without going empty. They have a second disadvantage of not providing the user with a stack of empty cans to dispose of. And they have a third disadvantage of not costing $7 anytime during their lifetimes.
The people who sell compressed air for $7 per can will tell you the reason a person shouldn’t do this involves the risk of humidity, compressed in the pump, condensing on the computer parts when it decompresses, venturi-like. You should be able to test the premise by directing the nozzle of your pump onto the surface of a mirror and observing whether any moisture condenses there.
The other risk they’ve thought up involves static electricity being created by the friction of the pump damaging something inside the computer.
The people who believe them will verify for you that the reasons the the expensive canned-air bidness folks have dreamed up to justify the need for their product are valid.
If you prefer to believe them you’d be well advised to just buy air at the going price. And if you have some extra money lying around, invest in air futures. It’s already a lot higher than gasoline at the pump, and the air-manufacturing brothers-in-spirit of the folks selling you gas are learning from them.
I suppose I’m just old fashioned. I drink water out of a well, mostly, instead of buying bottled water.
Old Jules
A few previous Redneck Repairs posts here:
White Trash Repairs and Fixes – Owls and Rock ‘n Roll
Artful Communications – White Trash Repairs 3
Fire Ants, Dishwashing and Drought
