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Got a Computer full of Spiders

Chuckster_in_Jax

Chuckster_in_Jax

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
1,362
Location
Jacksonville, Florida
I recently won an old Interec/Compustar Model 30 off of ebay. It was listed in rough shape but I bought it with the slim chance I may get it working. When I received it I took it out of the box and set it in my dining room until I could check it out. 2 days later I took it into work to disassembled and clean the unit. I opened the case and found it was LOADED with cobwebs. When I took the main board out a black spider that looked suspiciously like a black widow came crawling out. I immediately smashed it. When I dissasembled one of the floppy drives I hit an eggsack full of baby spiders. I (hopefully) was able to kill all of them before they got away. I should have been more careful with this unit. I now have a bad feeling that some of these spiders got into my house and will be taking up residence.

I had a similar problem about three months ago. Got an old DMC Commfile computer. The listing showed it to be in good shape cosmetically. When I unboxed it there were dead insect parts falling out of the vent holes. When I opened the case up, it was full of cobwebs and dead insects but nothing alive. I was able to clean the unit up OK.

At what point should the seller be responsible for making sure they are not shipping something that contains a pestilence that will infest your home? What's next? Open a computer and find a snake? I wonder where in the hell these computers have been stored!

Has anyone else had these problems?
 
I myself havent, but I know someone who found a mouse in their IBM full height drive. Sounds like a disaster! You know, paper bags are stored in warehouses and ocassionally some beetle eggs are laid in them... Buy some groceries and you may just get more than you bargained for!

Usually those computers with bugs are stored outside, in a garage, in the basement, in the attic, in the garbage, etc. Generally, they are stored n harsh uncontrolled mediums.

--Ryan
 
Over the course of working at various places I've heard of or seen the following inside computers:

Snakes
mice of the non-computer type
screw drivers that the owner swears they didn't put there and never opened the case (riiight)
Spiders and various other bugs that did not like me at all
Kleenex (gross)
Blown capacitor bits
 
Mostly I have to deal with dust (and one was full of wood shavings), but you do see the ocasional dead insect.

My collection consists of smaller machines from the mid 80's and newer, so they are usually stored inside out of the elements. larger and older machines might have been stored outdoors or in barns. If you are unsure about what is inside then take it apart in the garage. I strip everything I get and vacuum it and wash all the plastics, never know whats inside and I don't want to turn a fan on and blast it all over the place.

What I realy dread is somebody shipping me a machine with cockroaches in it.
 
I did find a few small dead moths and some moth coccons inside the SX-64 I acquired from a relative. They were nothing serious. Otherwise other machines I've got have been pretty clean.

Tez
 
I cleaned out quite a bit of fungus and rat's poop from one broken CBM 700, but fortunately nothing alive. The motherboard was all rusted, but as a miracle the monitor and power supply still were 100% OK so I was able to replace the motherboard with a fresh part to get the computer working.

The black widow spider sounds frightening. All the pictures of animals stuck inside a computer I believe they were dead. Opening a computer and e.g. see a snake crawl inside would scare the sh*t out of me, and most other people I assume.
 
Thinking about it, I guess a computer case left out in the elements, or near elements (shed, garage etc.) would be an attractive shelter for all sorts of small and even not so small creatures. It's dark, comfortable and safe, with plenty of internal bits to build a nest between. The air vents in the power supply would make ideal exit/entry holes.

It's no wonder they get colonised.

Tez
 
Heh, I get bugs even when my computer is in active use ON MY DESK!

My IBM 25 wouldn't turn on a week ago, and was making a "popping" sound. The CRT would flash too. But nothing, not even a glimmer of hope.

So, I took it all apart, to find a couple cockroaches decided it'd be a good spot to nest near the flyback. Damn roaches.

Compressed air'ed them out, cleaned up, replaced a couple caps that were damaged from this incident, and viola, back online.
 
Yeah I have black widows in the garage (they moved in before I did) which sucks. Honestly scares me a little to play with the collection sometimes or move boxes often. I'll genocide them once and a while and probably will pull a new trick soon.

One of the interesting ones was that foam dampener in hard drives is evidentally sugary. My friend had ants severa times to into his computer and he found they were eating that styrofoam stuff (not sure if it was for shock absorbtion or sound dampening or what). They were older IDE drives.
 
What I am starting to deal with, with all these dang boxes, is silverfish.

My Altos Series-5 somehow in less than 90 days, started rusting on the outside, right on the first serial connector. Going to drag it out, and see what naval jelly and some rust inhibitor can do. That one works fine, and boots up just great! I'd like to save it, as the 580 motherboard is still up in the air.

T
 
I guess the time is apropriate to tell the story of the gothic PS/2.........that thing was chock full of bugs!

Sitting beneath a tree in the woods of Park street in Opelika Alabama, layed an IBM PS/2 Model 70 386, and it sat there for 3 years, with a smashed up monitor. Every day the bus passed this machine, just sitting there and begging to be picked up by me for some reason...so finally the summer of 2002, me and a friend were talking down Park street, and we decided to go for it...as he wanted a cheap junky computer to play with.

So we came up close to the computer, not knowing what kind it was going to be. The top had a burn mark right around the rear of the power supply, the backplane was totally crushed to the point that there was only half the plastic left and nothing holding the top on the computer. We immediately went back to get my truck, chucked the old clunker in the back, and quickly took off to my house.

The computer was dismantled in a large cardboard box for cat food cans, and as we popped every UV yellowed rivet, and turned every rusty screw...little bits of pine straw would fall out of the machine, and leaves, and then rolly pollies, some spiders, a millipede, and even a moth came out of the friggin computer as we pulled it apart. We cleaned it up, and plugged it in, and lo and behold, the darned thing actually had survived being in the elements for 3 years....including rain, and even a snowstorm. Now there is a testament to IBM's durability!

Had a similar scenario a couple years later with a Compaq Deskpro 286 out of some guy's garage on e-bay. The first day I had it, I powered it up, and let it run for the "burn in" test....however, not more than 5 minutes later I was looking in the direction of the computer (which was running with the case off), and suddenly BZZZZZZZT, the computer shuts off, and a flaming spider shot out of the power supply! It was the most random, weird, and somewhat funny thing I've seen a computer do (aside from my current 286 throwing a flaming filter cap off the motherboard and rebooting itself of course).

Want a true test of durability, just power up a literally buggy computer.
 
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