invading varmints was Re: powering up older machines - is it safe?

[Chris M]

 I arguably my first vintage computer invaded by
apparently teeny tiny critters once! I had the box, a
TI PC, stuck in my parked van for a winter anyhow. I
fired it up one day, and nothing happened, and the fan
would only budge intermittently. I opened it up and
*something* doo doo doo doo, tore up all sort of paper
and insulation to make a really suave pad! Thing is
the opening were pretty small. I have trouble thinking
it was done by insects, but I cannot imagine a rodent
fitting through any of those openings. It was skeery!

--- schwepes at moog.netaxs.com wrote:

> I've had the issue twice.  The first time was a
> Heathkit stereo where
> a bad capacitor killed the transformer and the
> second one was an Acer
> 286 that had a mouse problem, biological kind.
> bs
> 
> 
> On Wed, 4 Jun 2008, Tony Duell wrote:
> 
> > > I can understand worrying about something that's
> not been used for
> > > a few years, but if you check everything that's
> not been used for
> > > just a few months, when do you have time to
> actually _do_ anything?
> >
> > Well, if I am using a machine every day, I don't
> check it every time
> > (there's no point, the PSU could fail in the time
> between checking it and
> > reconnectin it to the logic :-)). But if I get a
> machine out that I've
> > not used recently, then, yes, I do check it.
> >
> > It doesn't take me long. I've probably done it
> before, so I know what to
> > unplug, where to connect the dummy load (if
> needed) and the meter, and so
> > on. In come cases, I've built up test units, in
> which case it takes even
> > less time.
> >
> > And 10 minutes, or so, spent checking the PSU is
> easily a lot less than
> > the time it would take me to sort out the damage
> caused by a
> > malfunctioning PSU.
> >
> > -tony
> >
> >
>