• Mango@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    This is exactly how I got good at maintaining/using computers! I had this old Dell Optiplex gxb with just a Pentium 2 or 3 and 4gb of memory. We lived out in the country and this computer was my only real connection to the rest of the world, so I had to make damn sure not to break it! In fact, I had to fix it several times! I can’t tell you how nervous I got putting the mobo in the oven, but it worked! HDD in the freezer? Welp, it worked! I wondered if I might have to put the mouse in a toaster at that point.

    Anywho, I think it’s the mentality that gets us more than the reality of the conditions. When you gotta be careful, you’re gonna be.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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      12 days ago

      That’s hilarious because I was the same. I was never able to afford the latest computers, laptops or electronics… so I spent a lot of time maxing out every device, learning to download software, massive (10 MB) updates on a dialup connection, learning to use cracked software, then graduating to Linux and open source software … I’ve tried the freezing hard drives to rescue them but never tried baking my mainboard!

      • Mango@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Yeah, the baking is specifically to fix cold solders without needing to see them or have a soldering iron or whatever. If you look up wave soldering on YouTube, you’ll see that PCB can stand up to ridiculous temps!