Ask Lemmy

As a former smoker of 20 years and nearing 2 packs a day by the time I quit. Please do yourself a favor and try to quit. You will thank yourself.

Vaping got me off of cigarettes, it was the only thing that was going to be able to as I was hopelessly addicted. I always smoked regular cigarettes, but I found that I preferred menthol fruit flavors. The coolnes feeling made it feel more like a real cigarette.

I can get you off cigarettes in one to two week. All you need is a pen vape and a couple flavors of about .5 nic salt. Buy one pack of cigarettes.

First two days start vaping as much as possible whenever you have a cigarette cravig, but allow yourself a cigarette if you need one. After this try to skip one cigarette, by end of week you should still have a few cigarettes left. I kept two 9 years ago and I still have them in my truck dash kard. But seriously keep two on hand by end of week or second week. Keep them in vehicle house. I found that helped loosen my anxiety of not having cigarettes around physically. And now those two cigarettes are a memento that I won.

Bonus after a month or two of being strictly vaping. Quitting vaping cold turkey is much easier than normal cigarettes. I didn't even have a problem quitting cold turkey. The only issue I had remaining is the physical mouth throat hit. So I got some zero nicotine menhol flavor. And would just take a light puff of that whenever that urge arrived and one would usually get me through the entire day.

Wow at this point id more seriously consider to quit smoking or at least stop doing it inside.

Extreme case story here..

I had a fella bring his computer into our shop for diagnostics and hopefully repair after a house fire. The case was originally light grey, but it was covered outside and even inside with nasty stinking black soot and the front panel was mostly melted.

We checked it out though, the PSU had failed. So we pulled out our test PSU and tried that, and the nasty stinking computer actually booted up!

Well, the boss didn't want to be responsible for this mess, so he told me I could take it as a side job if the customer really wanted it fixed. He already knew that I've successfully salvaged flood damage computers, so why not?

Anyways, I took the motherboard and expansion cards out and took them to our local car wash. I soaked the boards with tire/engine cleaner, then pressure washed the crud away with plain water. Then I used an air compressor to dry it as best as I could, and then left it on the roof of my car in the hot sun for like 4 hours.

Everything worked fine after all that, so I hooked him up with a spare computer case I had laying around to replace his nasty half melted case.

You can actually pressure wash the circuit boards as long as there's no power (do NOT pressure wash the PSU at all!), as long as the boards are completely dry and clean before reassembling and powering it back up. Just, be careful around any sensitive parts, and do not pressure wash the CPU socket, unless you like all your precious pins bent. Also, don't pressure wash the fans or mechanical drives or such.

This technique isn't for the faint of heart though, and I usually only reserve such drastic measures for boards that have already failed due to spill damage, corrosion, or other extremes where the board would otherwise end up in the scrap pile.

When I worked at an eltronics recycling center (we repaired and resold PCs and printers) we used isopropyl alcohol in spray bottles to clean pc parts. It worked really well. Don't dunk anything! Just carefully disassemble, spray the part (let the run off fall onto a collection pad), and let it completely dry before reassembly. It may take a few rounds depending on how dirty the part is, resist any temptation to scrub off build up on electrical components. If contaminates absolutely will not come off use a circuit board cleaning "paint brush" with circuit board pcb cleaner to gently clear it or better yet, leave it be. The enemy of good is perfect.

WARNINGS: Wear gloves, eye protection, and a mask. Follow all ESD safety protocols to protect computer parts. If you disassemble the cpu add more thermal paste. DON'T SPRAY THE PSU, if necessary use alcohol on a wash cloth for the PSU exterior. You can speed up dry time by air blowing excess liquid off but be aware this may splatter dirty droplets around the space. Only clean your PC like this in a well ventilated space. Only attempt this if you are comfortable disassembling and reassembling your pc. However long YOU think your computer needs to be fully dry, double that time to be safe.

Also as a bonus. You can put non electric components in the dishwasher. No soap, no heat, as long as they fit and won't get dinged up by moving dishwasher parts. SERIOUSLY DO NOT HEAT DRY OR WASH ON HIGH HEAT.

I also throw my mechanical keyboards in there but there's always a chance they won't work after - so far tho it's been a success (obviously I make sure they are fully dry before I use them . If you attempt this - at your own risk.

Isopropyl alcohol damages certain plastics.

Absolutely no way.

It is dangerous to have a flammable, volatile chemical pooled up like that. It's a fire hazard, not to mention the fumes from it.

Just don't

Not to jump on the smoking hate train - I get it, smoking is very pleasurable and insanely addictive - but have you thought about just smoking outside?

I would never smoke in a room I spend any time in. It's a funny mindset, as I used to smoke inside in my 20s, but when the ban in bars came along it just sort of became second nature.

These days I rarely smoke, but vape more than I should. The vaping is starting to give me a dry tongue that feels like a fading pizza burn. I plan to stop... Soon....

Isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush. Turn off power to the PC. Hold power button for a minute. Unplug and disassemble. Get one of those chemistry squirt bottles (google lab wash bottle) to put the alcohol in, squirt it on the place to clean, brush with the toothbrush. Repeat until at desired cleanliness. Then take canned air and spray out under all the parts. Allow to dry. It's dry when you can spray under the big components and not get any alcohol out.

I used to assemble, test, repair, and clean PCBs of all shapes and sizes. That's what we did when we had to spot clean a board after a repair.

The jankiest way I've cleaned a PCB was to run it through the dishwasher without detergent, then wash it down with RODI water to demineralize, then alcohol to displace the water. It works, but you gotta be damn sure that you've washed away any mineral deposits and given it plenty of time to dry.