The Effects of Smoking on Your Computer?

cencini asks: "Over the past few years, I've ended up fixing computers for a lot of different people, some of whom are smokers. One thing I've noticed about the smokers' computers (particularly those who smoke near their machine) is that they are absolutely disgusting inside. Is there anything that has linked smoking to computer damage (since we know the other types of damage it does), and has anybody else observed this phenomenon?" I too have looked into the insides of the boxen of heavy smokers, and I must confirm that it is not a pretty site. But aside from the asthetics (the yellowing plastic, the tar imbued dust, and that nasty residue) are there other, more subtle problems that can occur that can be connected to smoke damage?

Comments

Re:Historically, yes.

[zaf]

(refrains from bad tape drive/tar puns)

Sad but true

[Xunker]

My girlf's parents smoke -- not a lot, but enought to impact her PC. She usually has to replace the fans in her case (only two, though), because they get clogged with sticky dust, and i works it's way into the motor or causes the bearings to impact or any number of things. I can't attest to the yellowed plastic, but the blackend dust is terrible.

In a attepts to remedy this, we put cheesecloth filters over the sites of heavy air intake -- it helps immensly, and I would suggest you try it if you need to. Alternatly, many 'server' cases have washable filters that snap over the air intake ports, but those cases are in the 100+ USD range.

I don't mean to beat up on any smokers, but thats just the way it is. One way to compare is to compare the dust inside a PC in a smoke-filled house with one that isn't -- the one sans smoke will still be covvered with dust, eys, but in this case it will be fine white dust which is, interestingly enough, skin cells. The key here is that it doesn't have the adhesive properties that tar-laden dust does.

Re:Sad but true

[Guppy]

"In a attepts to remedy this, we put cheesecloth filters over the sites of heavy air intake -- it helps immensly, and I would suggest you try it if you need to. Alternatly, many 'server' cases have washable filters that snap over the air intake ports, but those cases are in the 100+ USD range."

Plycon sells computer fan filters, although I don't know if they'd help with cigarette smoke. I believe Radioshack has a few in their catalogue too.

A used fabric softner sheet also seems to work well, as the loose weave doesn't hinder air flow too much. It doesn't keep the smaller particles of dust out, but I can attest to its ability to stop cat hair.

Smoking gums up computers

[Llama Keeper]

We have a client that has the most digusting smoky office ever. I swear everyone in this office lights a cigarette every 15 seconds or so. There is literally a cigarette burning on almost every desk all the time. In the last six months I have replaced 3 flopy drives, 4 hard drives, 2 CD-ROMS, and about 12 fans. The smoke seems to muck up the cheap Quantum IDE harddrives that we use in our white boxes, but we have yet to lose a SCSI drive.... curious.

The other huge pblm with this office is I always go there before lunch so I can change my clothes at luch so i don't smell like an ashtray thats been sitting in a bar for 3 days, its just plain nasty, WTF are people thinking smoking in the office.

Fine dust problems.

[Christopher Thomas]

I've heard that the particles in smoke will cause problems with keyboards, and also with things like floppy drives that are sensitive to dust.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't directly observed any smoking-related computer problems.

Re:Dead CD

[sharkey]

How often do you purchase smokers? It wasn't a cheap drive. I think it was a Yamaha 12x, but it may have been a Mitsumi. I have never had trouble with either brand. Either way, it's a paperweight now.

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Dead CD

[sharkey]

We had an employee who has since been told to take it outside, who is a chain smoker. It didn't do much to the PC itself (6 yrs. old), but the CD-ROM drive died within a year. It made wonderful grinding noises, IIRC.

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Not sure

[gmhowell]

I am not sure where all of the problems are coming from. I smoke, as do my brother, mother, and sister. I've never seen a failure on any computers that could be remotely attributed to smoking. Some examples:

My Mac Classic. Two years in a dorm (only one while I was smoking). Hell, I had a plant on top of it that got overwatered, and even that didn't kill it. Only problem was the notorious power supply that kicked off before I went to college.

My Mac Performa. Had it, used it, smoked near it for four years. Never had a problem with any drives, any peripherals (keyboard, mouse, printer, etc.)

My current (two) pc's: one is about four years old. Only original parts are... Hmm. None. Oldest part is the keyboard. It's about 3.5 years old. The moboard and hda are a little over two years old. Machine two is about 15 months old. On both machines: both floppy drives work. All three cd drives work. Have only had the tape drive for about two months, so any commentary would be even more irrelevant than the rest of this post.

Okay, big whoop. My brother and sister both have three year old machines that are chugging along fine. My brother's modem/sound card went south. Not sure why. Drives good, ditto mouse and keyboard. Sister had to replace the case and power supply when her apartment got flooded. Drives all working still.

The killer: my mother had a Pentium 60. Old machine. Used it from about 1994 until 1999. It's still up and running as an office workstation. One hard drive went bad. Could be smoke. But more likely, some cat hair got sucked in somewhere (there was much more cat hair than anything blocking up the cooling passages) or else the drive hit the 50,000 MTBF wall (or whatever it was on that drive.)

As a note: three of the smokers smoke avg. of 1 pack a day. One smokes 1.5-2 packs per day. All smoke 'light' or 'ultra-light' cigarettes. Sorry I don't have tar/nicotine levels available for perusal.

But perhaps the most important point: all users mentioned use ashtrays and the computers are on the floor!!! (Except in the case of my Mac Classic and Mac Performa 476).

So, while anecdotal, so are all of the other posts so far in this thread. It's probably not a good idea to smoke in front of the computer. But then again, accidentally dumping a cool beverage into one is probably worse.

BTW, I had a roommate who tried to get my computer stoned. Didn't work. (Hey, there's an idea: turn that old Mac Classic into a bong.)

Re:Hard Drives

[Tackhead]

MEM>> My old IBM XT hard drive had a little paper filter that allowed pressure equalization between the inside of the drive and the outside air.

I can vouch for the same technology used on current (well, 1997-era) drives. The hotter the drive runs, in fact, the more likely it is that such tech is required.

I don't know if the filters are impermeable to the particles in cigarette smoke, though.

That said, I've seen smoke and tar inside PCs. It's not pretty, and the heat buildup on the components must be pretty foul. I've seen flyback transformers on televisions that are positively furry.

...a variation on the Monty Python line...

[babbage]

...which I'm sure you've heard before...

"I'm sick of all this smoking on the PC -- I mean, I keep falling off!"

Nyuk nyuk nyuk...

A different problem

[biglig2]

In a previous job, I was once called to a Mac that's keyboard was giving grief. It was used by a bunch of people, one of the main users rolled his own cigarettes.

When I opened the keyboard up, it had enough tobacco in it to make a pack.... obviously he'd been making cigs while he sat there working...

Re:Computer Death - Aticdotal Evidence

[OmegaDan]

I have a few "stoner" friends left from HS [somehow darwin hasn't killed them yet], and they asked me to fix their computer a few years back ... Now, you have to immagine these guys, they are always smoking ... from the time they get up to the time they go to bed, its just one bowl after another. I remember one day I had to drop off something to their house (I don't recall what) on my way to work, 7:30 am these guys were already sucking on their bongs :) ... back to the story, I took their computer home, plugged it in, turned it on, and it started belchin out pot smell! In a few minutes my computer smelled completley like pot smoke ...

I ended up opening a window and stacking enough books under the computer so that the exhaust shot out my window ... simply amazing.

Re:Computer Death

[BluedemonX]

I'm glad you quoted that - I was the person who posted that story.

Thanks for saving me retyping it.

She later came back and wanted a computer that could withstand being in a smoky environment. I told her that she'd be buying it from some industrial computer supplier and that it'd cost her. A lot.

Not only.

[ooze]

Seldomly opened computer cases are always disgusting inside. Smoking just adds to it. DustPuppy is real, you know.

Speaking as a smoker

[Solkan]

Speaking as one of the many vile smokers (who happens to know several other technically oriented smokers) I'd have to say that the failure rate on floppy drives does increase noticably. On the yellow dust or smell issue, either I don't know any really heavy smokers, or our normal equipment replacement cycle is short enough not to notice.

Historically, yes.

[jd]

Tape drives, floppy drives - indeed, =ANY= drive that has mechanical components that are subject to dust and other air-borne hazards - can be affected by smoking.

This was particularly true with very old computers. Reel-to-reel tape drives don't work so well, when everything gums up. And don't expect a drum hard drive to do anything but maul your platters if the drive heads are covered in dirt.

As one other poster noted (though in a slightly inflamatory way), it doesn't matter so much as to the source, as to the dirt. Dirt's dirt, and coke will wreck a tape drive as readily as tar.

HOWEVER, not all dirt is equal. Air-borne hazards are much more dangerous to machinary inside of a raised case than a liquid, merely because gasses and smoke tend to spread in all directions, ALL the time, whereas liquids usually stay put.

Ok, having said all that, is smoking hazardous to a =MODERN= computer? The answer is considerably simpler. You probably don't want to breath smoke into an open tape drive or CD-ROM drive, and you should probably check that the fans are operating smoothly, from time to time. Beyond that, there's very few mechanical components exposed enough to the air to really worry about.

Last, but not least, I =CAN= tell you, from my own experience, that nitric acid fumes will dissolve a computer, from the inside, and that if you're working in a chemistry lab, you really do need to check that the room's extraction fans are working correctly.

Amendment

[babbage]

So now along with the Surgeon General's warning, it seems that a Technologist General's warning is also required on every pack of cigarettes:

"These things won't just fuck up your lungs, they'll fuck up your hard drive too. For God's sake man, QUIT SMOKING!"

With all the typographic tools used machine-gun style to drive home the point... :)

Hard drive

[Lish]

I remember one day in our intro computer class, where they showed a slide comparing the size of various airborne contaminants (dust, smoke, hair, etc.) to the distance between the hard drive platter and read head. Since a smoke particle is much bigger than the gap, it could cause a disk crash by striking the head. Here is a link to an article that mentions the phenomenon: HDD Page. It's under "How Drives Work." This assumes, of course, that the particle got through the seal on the hard drive, of course, which is improbable but not unheardof.

You can also do a search for "microcontamination and hard drives" to find more.

Computer Death

[Alien54]

The following two stories were found on the Computer Stupidities Webpage. Look under Hardware Abuse.

Note: These may be Urban Legends. But given my experience both in Tech Support, and Repair, I doubt it.

Story One

A friend of mine asked me to take a look at her computer. She said the computer was unusually "quiet" and would reboot itself on occasion. I surmised correctly that the fan on her power supply was faulty. She was a chain smoker and apparently smoked a lot while working on the computer; not only was the power supply fan gummed up with revolting tar and nicotine, but the CPU's cooling fan was clogged beyond use, and the cdrom drive drawer would not open. This is the only computer I have ever worked on that died from smoking.

Story Two

In reply to the above anecdote of stupidity, a reader sent in the following:

I've seen a computer die from smoking, too.

A customer came in with a dead computer, claimed it was under warranty, and asked if we could fix it. We had look at it, and before we even laid eyes on it, we could smell it. Imagine the stench of an overused ashtray times ten.

We looked at the yellow case (it was supposed to be beige) and the date of purchase (3-4 months previous) and goggled in disbelief that she actually had any lungs left.

"What are you doing with this computer?" I asked in total disbelief.

It was at a taxi service. She smoked, the cabbies smoked, and the room was apparently only about eight by twelve. Smoking took place 24/7 in this place, and her fingers and the computer bore witness. We opened the case, and there were visible deposits of brown tar everywhere. The whole thing was gummy and slimy inside.

We had to tell her she was on her own. Naturally, she countered with the "it's under warranty" argument, but the computer was well beyond that. She left quite mad. We insisted she take her computer with her when she left.

Final Note: Computers are not designed to be an airfilter for the entire smoking room. But they'll do, for a while.

Yes

[Beowulf_Boy]

Severly, I put a modem in for a woman who was a heavy smoker. It was terrible, and her husband actually had enough nerve to ask me to clean it out for them (I wanted to take it out back and use the hose on it!).
Everything was gummy, and it made my clothes stink so bad I actually changed them in the middle of the day.
It seemed like they lit cigarettes, and just for the fun of it, taped em' on the front of the intake fan or something.

Warning.....

[ndfa]

News Flash..

Smoking amongst gamers reduced by almost 50% as the Powers that be released a study claiming that Smoking near computer may reduce FPS!