First post, by obcbeatle
Hello ... hopefully this week I'm going to pick-up a few older computers from a former colleague of mine. I don't know anything about them yet but she said they've been stored in their closet for quite awhile.
My questions are:
1) What cleaning process do you use before firing up a computer that has been in storage for a number of years? For some of my older computers that I recently took out of storage I checked/replaced the CMOS battery, gently blew out the case with an air compressor and then did a visual inspection of motherboard CPU, RAM, PSU, etc. Do you do anything special to the PSU before firing it up after being dormant for so long?
2) I've noticed in many threads within the Vogons forums that some of you mention giving the motherboard a "bath". Can you share what specific processes/chemicals you use to bathe a motherboard? Also ... I assume you just do the motherboard bath on boards that are very grungy? I ask because a couple of my older PC's were stored in a nice dry environment ... but were very dusty from years of heavy use... and even after blowing air through everything there was still a lot dust in the crevices. So I gently used an old dry toothbrush to try to get what I could ... but man ... I still find dust in places!
3) What thermal paste are you using these days when you have to remove the CPU fan? I've seen reference to Arctic Silver. I currently have an old Cyrix, AMD and Intel CPU's.
Any advice appreciated. Thank you.