Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

[Solrak]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

One of the other techs found this little present for him lodged in the itb.



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[KenB]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

Back in the late '80s, a friend of mine serviced big screen TVs.

Keep in mind that "big screen" TVs were projection TVs.

He had a call for thin "arcing" lines in the picture, sometimes they would actually move.

Once he got into it, he found that a fairly large spider was playing "Spider Man", or possibly "Tarzan" (not sure which), happily swinging around in the TV's innards.

Whichever end he was frolicking at would determine the magnification of the arc; sometimes big, sometimes small.

[Solrak]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet




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[atwageman]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

Different industry, but I saw what happened to a large rat that took a walk across 480 3-Phase terminals. Wish I had a pic of what was left of him.

[Iowatech]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

There was a 3M M537 copier at a grain storage facility that I got to work on years ago. The M537 was a moving platen machine, and it had a rotating encoder to ensure the speed of the platen was correct.
The call was for blurry copies. When I got there, I saw the platen was not moving at a regular speed, but speeding up and slowing down in a rather random fashion. When I took the back off the machine, I found that a mouse had got caught in the encoder, and had been skinned by it. The skin was covering some of the slots of the encoder, causing the irregular platen speed. Bits of the mouse had also been distributed throughout the back of the machine.
That was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in a copier.

[fixthecopier]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

Thought this belonged here also...









One might assume they came and went at the same time.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

My mouse experience was with a Brother word processing typewriter. It seems that the secretary had an open bowl of Hersey's Kisses on her desk, and the mouse was a bit reticent to eat right out in the middle of the desk, so instead he or she found a comfy warm spot in the Brother typewriter, right in the middle of the main PWB. He or she left a bunch of the foil wrappers on the PWB, shorting out some of the circuits. He or she also nibbled 5 or 6 of the wires. I was quite pleased when the typewriter started right up. I only needed to remove the wrappers and splice together a few wires.

The other non-mouse typewriter call was just as interesting. It was at a church office. The pastor had placed a 2 liter of Pepsi in the front sliding window for greeting guests. The rest of the office was locked up. When he had reached for the bottle he missed and tipped it into the Brother typewriter, and 2 liters of Pepsi drained into it. When I arrived the LEDs were still flashing randomly, and it was plugged in and On. These Brothers had a Main PWB the full size of the bottom of the typewriter, and this one was swimming in 13mm of Pepsi. With the pastors help we powered it down, and poured the Pepsi out through on of the corners of the housing into a waste basket. The current had boiled the Pepsi, and it was a sticky mess. I removed the PWB and stuck it in the toilet tank to soak while I was sopping up the remaining liquid. The PWB was still pretty sticky, so it took another 1/2 hour of scrubbing with a toothbrush to clean it up, and set it over the radiator to dry out. Once the frame and covers were clean, I installed the PWB, and to my great surprise it worked flawlessly. Of course there is no sort of a warranty in situations like this, but I never ended up working on that typewriter again. Pepsi has got to be corrosive to the electrical contacts.

=^..^=

[fixthecopier]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

My mouse experience was with a Brother word processing typewriter. It seems that the secretary had an open bowl of Hersey's Kisses on her desk, and the mouse was a bit reticent to eat right out in the middle of the desk, so instead he or she found a comfy warm spot in the Brother typewriter, right in the middle of the main PWB. He or she left a bunch of the foil wrappers on the PWB, shorting out some of the circuits. He or she also nibbled 5 or 6 of the wires. I was quite pleased when the typewriter started right up. I only needed to remove the wrappers and splice together a few wires.

The other non-mouse typewriter call was just as interesting. It was at a church office. The pastor had placed a 2 liter of Pepsi in the front sliding window for greeting guests. The rest of the office was locked up. When he had reached for the bottle he missed and tipped it into the Brother typewriter, and 2 liters of Pepsi drained into it. When I arrived the LEDs were still flashing randomly, and it was plugged in and On. These Brothers had a Main PWB the full size of the bottom of the typewriter, and this one was swimming in 13mm of Pepsi. With the pastors help we powered it down, and poured the Pepsi out through on of the corners of the housing into a waste basket. The current had boiled the Pepsi, and it was a sticky mess. I removed the PWB and stuck it in the toilet tank to soak while I was sopping up the remaining liquid. The PWB was still pretty sticky, so it took another 1/2 hour of scrubbing with a toothbrush to clean it up, and set it over the radiator to dry out. Once the frame and covers were clean, I installed the PWB, and to my great surprise it worked flawlessly. Of course there is no sort of a warranty in situations like this, but I never ended up working on that typewriter again. Pepsi has got to be corrosive to the electrical contacts.

=^..^=

I am sure that there would have been no problem if it were 7-UP. After all, 7-UP is known as....The uncola.

[slimslob]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

Had a call on a computer once. The complaint was that it would not turn on. One of the blank plates for option slots was missing. A mouse had gotten and urinated on the back of the video board. The urine had corroded a couple of traces.

A customer brought in some dot matrix printers that had been stored in a warehouse to be cleaned and serviced. Took the top covers off to visually inspect before turning on. Mice had been nesting inside them. Nesting material, bits of food, mouse poop and urine stains. Carried them outside and dumped all the loose matter directly into the dumpster. Used a pressure washer to clean out the inside before I was going to touch them. Amazing both of them worked. Replaced the platens and sent them back to the customer. They sent us two more.

[atwageman]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

Many, many, years ago had a customer with a cassette answering machine that wouldn't play, rewind or anything. I figured I was gonna find a broken belt. Nope a cockroach got wedged between two plastic gears.

[allan]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

Found a lizard burned to a fine white powder inside n heat roller and a perfect cockroach impression on every image. Rats loves Oce machines it is nice and spacious inside so you would get little rat paw marks on the opc belt left because of the feet being covered in urine, looks cute on the prints.

[HenryT2]

Re: Well, I haven't had this as a call ...yet

The other non-mouse typewriter call was just as interesting. It was at a church office. The pastor had placed a 2 liter of Pepsi in the front sliding window for greeting guests. The rest of the office was locked up. When he had reached for the bottle he missed and tipped it into the Brother typewriter, and 2 liters of Pepsi drained into it. When I arrived the LEDs were still flashing randomly, and it was plugged in and On. These Brothers had a Main PWB the full size of the bottom of the typewriter, and this one was swimming in 13mm of Pepsi. With the pastors help we powered it down, and poured the Pepsi out through on of the corners of the housing into a waste basket. The current had boiled the Pepsi, and it was a sticky mess. I removed the PWB and stuck it in the toilet tank to soak while I was sopping up the remaining liquid. The PWB was still pretty sticky, so it took another 1/2 hour of scrubbing with a toothbrush to clean it up, and set it over the radiator to dry out. Once the frame and covers were clean, I installed the PWB, and to my great surprise it worked flawlessly. Of course there is no sort of a warranty in situations like this, but I never ended up working on that typewriter again. Pepsi has got to be corrosive to the electrical contacts.

=^..^=

In a Previous Lifetime I worked for a company that not only had copiers / typewriters / printers / etc / we also had cash registers . Some of these were in lounges and bars. We would get calls that they would not work correctly ; and we would take a loaner , bring the defective unit back to the shop and check to see what was wrong. It is amazing how many alcoholic beverages can be spilled into one of these before it will give errors. We would strip it down to the main board , wash the board and keypads with soap and hot water, blow it off with the air hose , then set it in the window to dry for while .

Had an old Canon that we got a call about loud squeeking and a burning smell.
Mouse stuck tail first in fuser.
.

My experience was on a old Toshiba , ( mid 70's treated paper , chain drive , AH ! THE GOOD OLE DAYS ) the customer said it would squeak when making a copy . We got there and tried to do a test print , it did indeed squeak. We opened the rear cover and found a mouse had gotten it's tail stuck on the main drive gear. On each revolution, the chain would squeeze the mouse's tail and it would squeal .
We had to kill it so we could get it out of there.