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Cleansing Hardware Of Dead Pig Odors?
Posted by
timothy
on Sat Sep 11, 2004 05:19 PM
from the try-telecommuting dept.
from the try-telecommuting dept.
Chagatai writes "My company is one of America's largest beef and pork producers. Recently I took a trip to see a new computer room that had been built at one of our abbatoirs. While the new environment is nice and sanitary, the old computer room had air intakes that were adjacent to the rendering portion of the plant, and everything smells in an almost unholy way. Management is curious if there are any cleaning agents or means of deodorizing this equipment before moving it into the nice, new office. The only products I could find would clean the outside of the hardware, but the internals would still possess the lovely aroma of boiled dead pig parts. Of course, this is a race against time, as I am sure someone will inevitably squirt Pine-Sol into the system to try to make things better. Does anyone have any recommendations to remove the effluvium of post-mortem porcine matter from our machines?"
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Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in the early 90s, my dad bought me My First Computer. It was an Macintosh IIcx which was a big, beige rectangle box. Had neat stuff like NuBus and about 12 SIMM slots. I lived in Europe at the time, and the computer was purchased from a graphic design house where *EVERYONE* chain-smoked at their desks. The machine had the most disgusting tar-like filth on *EVERYTHING* inside the chassis. The upstairs of my house reeked of cigarettes.
I literally chipped away tar, vacuumed it, put Bounce sheets over the power supply fan, to no avail. The machine still sits in my closet to this day, and having given it my best efforts over 10 years ago- it still smells of stale cigarettes.
Because of the small nooks and openings in your average computer, I honestly don't think you'll be able to do much about the smell. Unless there are some new commercial/industrial agents that can do the job, you might be SOL. Guess it's time for 3M to create a solvent version of Fluorinert [google.com].
Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, you've got a great (albeit expensive) single-machine solution right there: run the machine in a tub of Fluorinert. Presto, no smell is going to escape that liquid.
Wouldn't work for a data center, unless of course you wanted to run it inside a pool and send your techs in with scuba gear. And at that point, you might as well just run the data center in a normal room - but send the techs in with scuba gear, and they won't smell the funky servers because they'll be wearing scuba gear.
Parent
Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Informative)
I worked in a large surface mount production facility. In the final stage of assembly, they would in fact go through a fancy dishwasher. Early on we didn't even use deionized water. They did switch to deionized water not so much for the fear of conductivity, but to not leave spots behind.
You want to put tape (waterproof - packing tape might work) over any speakers, piezo devices, potentiometers, dip/pushbutton switches. Remove any batteries and button cells.
Then stick it in the diswasher, I'd use electrasol. Also, skip the "drying" cycle and let it air dry. Where I live (Utah) the air is quite dry. It would be ideal to let it sit for a day in the summer sun. Then you are good to go.
If you are not blessed with dry air but humid air, it may take more than a day to safely dry before you can plug it in.
Under no conditions would I do this to vintage equipment, esp. tube equipment or even vintage transistor equipment. Old equipment will tend to crumble under the stress as old capacitors like to die (if they haven't already - google/get an ESR meter) and plastic will tend to crack. I would only do this for equipment from the mid eighties on. Before this time I would be judicious with the cleaning process. Like maybe not using hot water.
Modern components however are made to face a dishwasher, and can withstand it nicely, unless the components are defective to begin with (like some bad electrolytics on motherboards).
Parent
Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Informative)
Contrary to any widespread notion, almost every electronics component can survive being completely immersed/soaked in water. (It can even be beneficial, like when washing off acidic flux residues, or perhaps interesting smells.)
What electronics cannot survive is being -powered- while wet, as the shorts could cause currents that could burn out semiconductors. So, make sure there are no batteries, or even charged capacitors, anywhere on the hardware.
Parent
Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Informative)
Chances are that not much has actually penetrated the plastics. If it has, then use a shellac based sealer (e.g. http://www.zinsser.com/product_detail.asp?Product
You'll probably have to replace the fans -- the lubricating oil holds the smells and there isn't much you can do about it, except to try and flush it away with more oil.
Beyond that... you could try adding a charcoal filter to the cooling system to deal with the remaining odours, but I've never done it.
Parent
Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Informative)
Just remember to seal off the area during the process, and ventilate it well before re-entering as pure ozone can be just as deadly as carbon monoxide.
Parent
Re:Not pigs, but cigarettes (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, this will be a great article for the trolls. You're sure to see a lot of ridiculous posts here. . . . I was working with the FBI, on a special mission in Russia . . .
LOL. Okay, that was ridiculous. Nice troll - the guy that modded it insightful is probably out waxing his Yugo now.
Let me try. There is no way you're going to rid the equipment of the stench unless you sacrifice a PETA member and cremate the remains in the room with the equipment. The smoky holiness will counteract the "unholy" residue mentioned. It works doubly well if the PETA member is a virgin. The only side-effect is that all subsequent users of the equipment will become politicized vegetarians (well, that and the ashes all over everything).
Parent
One word: Ebay (Score:5, Funny)
One word: Ebay.
Put it all up for auction simultaneously, and watch the fun as people get their newly won purchases. I'd love to read that feedback. "Great PowerEdge, but I've never had computer equipment smell unholy before." And then, watch mass psychology at work as people read each other's feedback from the same vendor and start to put two and two together.
The only thing funnier would be to work at Paypal and hear people squirm as they try to justify asking for a refund. "You gotta believe me, this disk array smells bad. Really bad. Like dead meat bad."
To suggest this is almost criminally stupid (Score:5, Informative)
Power down all your machines and unplug them. Set up adequate ventilation (I use several cheap desk fans). Wipe down your hardware with rubbing alcohol using a lint-free cloth or a few old t-shirts; don't worry about your own, buy a big bag of them at Goodwill.
When you get tired of that, or you pass out from the fumes, just pour it in. Yes, I'm serious, you'll want to trickle it over the green hardware and get everything generally soaking. (Not the power supply or hard drive, just PCBs and the like. This is already a dumbass idea, so you don't want to be much more stupid about it.) Then leave, otherwise you'll probably pass out.
I discovered this trick while given the task of cleaning a friend's laptop. He smokes, a lot, and had quit and didn't want the smell. He also had sticky keys from God knows what, so I honestly just said "fuck it" and turned the laptop on its side, open, and poured rubbing alcohol into the ports, taking care not to let it get near the screen, which rubbing alcohol can damage. Using a lot of it allows the liquid to remove dust as it flows by. The excess flowed out the other side and into a few paper towels.
Rubbing alcohol is a great solvent and evaporates quickly, so the ventilation is more for the computers, not you. Make sure the insides are aired out before powering up, or you may find yourself battling a quick-burning alcohol fire.
Have fun!
Re:To suggest this is almost criminally stupid (Score:5, Funny)
Hmmmm...
*scratches chin*
Parent
Re:To suggest this is almost criminally stupid (Score:5, Informative)
I second Capt Nitro here, rubbing alcohol is one of the safest and most effective things you can clean electronics and computers with (Relatively speaking, like he said, there's obviously risks of damage to certain types of components, especially if it manages to pool somewhere where it can't evaporate away realitvely quickly - pull cases open everywhere you can, rotate the equipment around to get excess out, and use lots of fans).
Be *very* careful about the fire hazards. If you manage to somehow ignite the alcohol, things can get ugly quick, as the flames are often almost completely clear with the pure stuff, and you figure it out by burning yourself. Things get really nasty when there is a fire quickly spreading around the room and through the fumes in the air around you, and you don't even realize it and can't see how far it has already spread. If, at some point in this comical adventure, you find yourself sitting in the middle of a room full of fans, computers dripping in alcohol, and heavy fumes, and you even *suspect* that some of the alcohol has just ignited - GET OUT, and call the fire department or hose the room down or something.
Parent
Re:To suggest this is almost criminally stupid (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously.. read up on stills.
Parent
Re:To suggest this is almost criminally stupid (Score:5, Informative)
Look for bottles labeled "99% Isopropyl alcohol", it's the pure stuff.
I shouldn't need to mention it here, but will anyway:
Dont't drink this stuff, it's pure poison!
Parent
Re:To suggest this is almost criminally stupid (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:To suggest this is almost criminally stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
The second type is the rubbing alcohol used in some countries other than the U.S. It's 70% ethanol, and the rest is water and another substance that I can't recall. The third substance is added to give the mixture a horrible taste so drunkards won't consume it. This rubbing alcohol isn't more toxic than 70% ethanol, and some alcoholics actually drink it mixing it with sweet juices/sodas! (Yuck!)
The third type is isopropyl alcohol, used in many other countries, including the U.S. In moderate amounts it is not toxic (of course if drink a lot it will harm you, but also too much ethanol will kill you). It is used because it has the same disinfectant properties as Ethanol, but it smells and tastes nasty so people don't feel compelled to drink it. If I'm not wrong, it doesn't get you drunk so there is no point on trying it (and that is the reason it is favored over the ethanol rubbing alcohol).
My point is that is isopropyl alcohol was poisonous it wouldn't be used to disinfect wounds, or even as rubbing alcohol.
Parent
May I point you to... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's all I'm going to say. I've worked with all the solvents you've mentioned, in larger quantities than any human being should rightly come in contact with (chemicals plant) and I've got to tell you: They All Suck.
I lost a gf because I was so irritatable after being exposed to IPA (Iso Propyl Alcohol) that I simply couldn't stand to see her. I'd come home, she'd be on the couch, have dinner ready, wearing something provocative... and the only thing that would pop into my head was "God damnit she's here again".
CNS symptoms are nasty for solvent exposure to IPA. I can't even imagine what would have happend if, as you suggest, I had drunk it.
Once I got laid off from that job and no longer was exposed to the fumes, my personality came back to normal. The ex-gf and I are still friends, but she's still doesn't believe me entirely that it was the fumes (tho she's comin around now and then).
Stay away from that crap and remember: Even Alcohols good, Odd Alcohols Kill.
Parent
Steam cleaning (Score:5, Informative)
This is one of the best ways to remove stuff down to the molecular level, and involves no chemicals.
It truly is "the hot setup" ( pun intended ).
Google "vapor cleaning" for more info.
Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
Bravo.
Re:Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
But if he hadn't misspelled something, the editors never would have approved his submission.
Parent
Re:Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
Clicking links? Please...
Parent
Ozone generator (Score:5, Insightful)
Odor absorbtion (Score:5, Informative)
I suggest cleaning up the equippement as best you can and then placing a few of these in or around the offending hardware.
Baking soda (Score:5, Informative)
The smell of a rendering plant will be hard to remove, but this is how I remove the "beef scent" from tallow when I'm making soap.
Interesting... (Score:5, Funny)
I think we need to swap recipes. I've got some other things you might be interested in.
E-mail me a tylerdurden@aol.com
Hope to hear from you soon.
Parent
Febreze!! (Score:5, Interesting)
It really works on dead things.
I got this tip from a ratcatcher called Sid, who cleaned out a dead raccoon from our crawl space. It worked.
I just used it to nullify the odour of a deer mouse that crawled into my truck's AC and helpfully died.
Go Febreze!
Re:Febreze!! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Rendered with Pride (Score:5, Funny)
ozone (Score:5, Insightful)
WARNING: Ozone is a _very_ bad idea (Score:5, Informative)
A friend of mine was having CD-ROM drives die every two or three _months_. Seems that his consumer ionizer was putting out enough ozone to eat the belts away. He stopped using the ionizer, and the problem went away.
My guess is that ozone would also kill off hard drive gasket seals and even certain types of insulation material.
Bad idea. Don't go here.
Parent
Re:ozone (Score:5, Informative)
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Ozone! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ozone! (Score:5, Informative)
Obligatory nitpicking: the word you probably want is "odiferous", not "aromatic". "Aromatic" has the specific connotation of containing benzene-style aromatic rings, which not all odiferous compounds contain.
Parent
A real render farm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A real render farm (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
How about CHANGING the smell? (Score:5, Funny)
Why not indeed.
Finally... (Score:5, Insightful)
Truly a worthy "Ask Slashdot".
Ultrasonic Cleaning (Score:5, Interesting)
Two things will help (Score:5, Insightful)
The first thing I did was to pull the systems apart and to lay each interface card separate from eachother. I then used denatured alcohol to clean each card. I did the same thing for the motherboard and the rest of the components that would be harmed by more invasive cleaning methods.
The cases themselves(sans power supplys) were cleaned using pinesol, then alcohol to make sure all the residue of the pinesol would be removed.
Once I was done, I layed everything out on an anti-static mat and aimed a high powered fan at them to air everything out for any further odor that could be detected.
This wasn't a perfect solution, but it cut the smell down by at least 95% and prevented the parts from being at high risk for damage.
Do what I do (Score:5, Funny)
Whenever I encounter a system that smells of dead meat I just wipe it & install linux.
-- MarkusQ
P.S. for the humour impared: this is a joke.
Re:Do what I do (Score:5, Funny)
"As fresh as a summer ham"
Parent
Mythbusters (Score:5, Interesting)
Ever seen the TV show mythbusters [discovery.com]? It's like snopes [snopes.com] for TV. Anyway, they took the myth about the Corvette that smelled so bad that no one could clean it or sell it. They took two dead pigs and sealed them up in a Vette and sealed the whole thing up in a shipping container for a few weeks. Then tried to clean it.
They got a professional crew in, guys that clean out ambulances, crime scenes, etc. The car still reeked at the end of the show, and wound up getting sold for the engine & transmission.
You may be stuck with the stench. OK, random bad jokes : give them to PETA/ADL/vegan society. Give them to Cowboy Neal, no one will notice them over his stench.
Re:Mythbusters (Score:5, Interesting)
Just a clarification. The professionals gave them some tips and some training on how to clean a vehicle but the professionals weren't the ones cleaning the car. The boss of the professional cleaning company mostly seemed to stand fairly far back, say that he's smelled worse smells, and chuckle at the Mythbusters. The hosts of the show later said that the professional guy said that his crew would take a few days taking the thing apart and cleaning every crevice, then put it back together. I got the feeling that this would not be cheap to do.
Parent
Burn down the building, build a new one (Score:5, Funny)
Double check any advice you get here!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Isopropyl Alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol): This attacks some plastics. Figure out what kind of plastic the Socket for the CPU is made of, and then look up the chemical compatibility of that plastic with Isopropyl Alcohol. Repeat for all the other plastics which are in the computer. Don't forget, we are talking about immersion of all the parts into a giant VAT of Alcohol. You are not going to get anywhere trying to wipe the system with Q-tips or wipes.
Ozone. O3. This is harmfull to humans, causes respiratory problems. It is used to salvage expensive items which smell of smoke. The "ITEM" is put into a sealed chamber and Ozone is put in at high concentrations. Find out if Ozone will Oxidize the electical connections in the PC (you know, like where the RAM plugs in :)
The Solution: In the good old days, you would take the pc apart, and have the pieces vapor degreased using one of the CFCs that are now banned.
Nowdays, you are going to have to use some sort of water based wash, which is how computer parts in the USA are now cleaned. I'm sure if you ship them to Russia or India they are still using CFCs for this kind of work.
If you are serious about making this work, you are going to have to strip down the system completely, take out the ram, cpu, every connection which is going to trap water and not dry out properly before the corrosion starts on the contacts. Get some of the correct detergent for washing PC boards after soldering to remove flux, dip and agitate the parts in the (heated) detergent solution, rinse with clear water, dry in an oven, (or your attic in the summer for a week), reassemble, etc.
Whatever you do, don't just go slatering on rubbing alcohol, or other stuff which has not been tested and used on PC boards.
Don't immerse the disk drives, either, just wipe them down.
Here is a Google Link [google.com] to get you started .
This is a serious amount of work, so I hope these systems are worth the labor that you are going to put into it.
Removing odiferous organics from computers... (Score:5, Informative)
If you can replace the cases, do so. If not, dissasemble, remove power supplies, remove encrustations, and wash with bleach and hot water, then surgical soap and water.
Standard floppy drives are replaceable. Too much of a hassle to clean.
Harddrives are basically going to have to be removed, wiped with alcohol wipes, and then wiped down with some odor-neutralizing spray. Replace the drives after you get complete backups if any have errors.
Powersupplies, if not replaceable, should be discharged (those caps can kill), blown out with compressed air, and then wiped down with alcohol wipes.
CRT Monitors are going to be a bitch to clean. Replace if you can. If you can't replace, discharge all the capacitors, coils and the tube. Blow out with compressed air. Wipe down any sealed board level components and sealed surfaces with alcohol wipes. Don't get anything on any coils. Allow everything to air for 24 hrs before reassembly.
LCD monitors should be disassembled, their cases washed with alcohol. Spritz down the electronics with coating-safe board cleaner. Use monitor-wipes on the LCD itself.
Cables can either washed by hand, in a dishwasher (NOT HOT WATER! Max temp about 80F) or replaced. Replacement is easier.
Keyboards, if replacements are not available, should have all batteries removed, large encrustatios removed by hand (use gloves!), blown out with compressed air, and be run through a dishwasher, again with no hot water, or washed with large amounts of alcohol. Allow to drain for at least 24 hrs (alcohol) or 48 hrs (water) under a fan before reusing.
Boards: Remove any major encrustations of hardened tiss.. err.. organic matter by shaking, scraping, or chiseling. Soak in ethyl alcohol to loosen clotted material (in my case, literally.. again, don't ask) enough to brush/wipe most of it off. Immerse in electronics cleaner in ultrasonic bath on low. Board comes looking almost brand new. Allow to dry under a fan for several ours. Test, and reinstall.
Replace all fans and filters if possible (easier than cleaning the damn things). Reassemble. Before closing the case, hang a couple of those pine-tree shaped air fresheners in the case.
There are also a lot of forensic clean-up information websites out there.. Google is your friend. Hope this helps..
ACL Staticide (Score:5, Informative)
And it's even cheap!
Ozone (Score:5, Interesting)
Things you can't clean by washing can be put in a tent with an ozone (O3) generator. Ozone is what you smell after a lightning storm: the clean rain smell. Concentrated, it smells sort of like bleach, but sharper.
It's both toxic and cleaning because (as I recall) Ozone happily oxidizes anything it contacts, preferring to be regular O2 + a free radical oxygen atom. The free Oxygen can bond with a molecule of stank and modify it to something less stanky, or it can, say, attach to a molecule in a cell wall and kill the cell.
It's like an efficiently burning fire in slow motion. I think oxidation is part of what makes your skin age; as you age, the damage created by environmental oxidation is repaired less and less by your body, until you just wither away. That's the idea behind taking certain vitamins that are supposed to block the damaging effects of free radicals in your body.
Of course, when you have something that stinks, you'd prefer it be destroyed by oxidation.
Unfortunately, plastics are among the hardest things to clean because they can absorb odors and its very hard to suck the stink back out. Stink isn't just something on the surface you can wipe off in most cases.
Spraying perfume just adds a new smell on top, which might not outlast the stink itself. I think Fabreze is a corn based chemical that works along the same principle as ozone. However, it leaves a residue on hard surfaces; it's designed for fabrics.
Sometimes when you have, say, a guy who dies alone in a house and his body fluids drain through the floor, or, in a moment of anguish, someone decides to end it all using a shotgun, you have a situation where you just need to throw things away.
Gnarly.