Most disgusting things you have found in a console/accessories ?

I've seen tons in my PS3. I tried as best as I could to dust it out without removing anything. It seems fine for the most part.

 

Usually, I just find lots of dust, sometimes hair, and very rarely, cobwebs and maybe a tiny dead spider or something. It's not usually a big deal, and I have a couple of old brushes (one is a big paint brush and one is some thick makeup brush that my mum didn't want several years ago), so I can usually clean out the crap without touching it (either into a plastic bag or box that I'm chucking rubbish into at the time, or if it's just dust, onto the floor to be cleaned up with the vacuum cleaner).

However, I've had a few not-so-nice surprises. Granted, if I ever found cockroaches, I'd probably die (we get enough in the house, let alone inside my friggin' electronics, although they're also not the King Kong-sized ones that some of you Americans get, and I still hate them to hell and back).

I got a Mega CD 2 and Mega Drive 2 together from someone for real low cheap. Seriously, it was a few dollars or something. Sounds like a great deal, especially since the Mega CD 2 I'd previously got came from a real ass of a guy that did a botched repair job (you do NOT solder a wire where the fuse goes. That is asking for trouble) and didn't even put the screws back in nor supply me with any of the metal parts for it (including the shielding). Anyway, THIS Mega CD 2 actually worked, but it had FEATHERS in it. I popped open the lid to put a game in, and found two white(ish) feathers, so I eventually brushed those out, put 'em in the bin, and pretended that never happened so I didn't throw up (disclaimer: I haven't thrown up since I was a kid).

However, until a few weeks ago (I've now had this thing for about two years, maybe three), I had not opened the entire thing up. And so I finally did. What I found baffled me. It's pretty standard stuff, but there was some plastic... thing that looked like part of a sword from an action figure, there were bits of what looked like cardboard from a box of playing cards, and some dead bugs and what not. After scraping all the crap out and piling on as much hot water and soap as I could muster, it's much better... except for all the rust stains, the ridiculously rusty metal shielding (one of the screws was rusted in place and I had to use CRC to get it out).

So I just put all the guts into the casing of the non-working one and most everything is better now. Except for the part where I have yet to open the Mega Drive 2 that came with it. All I know is that it doesn't work, and those things are pretty resilient, so I can probably get it working again pretty easily, at the risk of losing what's left of my sanity.

Long-winded "horror" story, but there you go. The only other thing that I've had is crap on controllers. Not... literal crap, but controllers tend to collect a LOT of gunk in the gaps between the two main shell pieces (I've noticed this especially with the Dualshock 4). It's always nice to clean that. Whenever I do some extensive work on a console now, I always give it a good wash with soap and warm water, then let it dry for a day (sometimes longer), and it always makes me happier about that console in the end.

By the way, as a special treat, here are a couple of photos I half-assedly took before I cleaned out the mess in my Mega CD 2. I'm so sorry that you have to see this.

If you don't want it, send it my way. I'll um... dispose of it securely for you.

 

How does bugs get inside a controller? One time I bought a PS2 and I opened it and there was like so much dust or dirt and it was like pouring out the back it was weird.

 

Jesus! Looks like its been submerged in water. Amazed it still works.

 

Given that the actual game can easily be had as World Class Track Meet (there's a multicart Nintendo released with it, Duck Hunt, and Super Mario Bros), no, no I would not.

 

Back in 2006 when XBOX360 has major issue with Red ring of death, so Microsoft customer service asked me to send the broken XBOX360 to them to get it fixed. I actually took one big epic dump In the XBOX360 case and send it back to them and now it is call a Shitbox360. Surely got their surprise with my stank360.

I was a immature teenager back then.

 

i once found live cockroaches in a gamecube i bought off of ebay that came from japan and when i got it didn't work so i took it apart outside my house and at least 30 cockroaches came out but now the gamecube works

 

Damn! One was probably in the power button/fan connector daughterboard and was screwing around with it or something else.

 

No you didn't.

 

Seriously I did.Did not regret it at all. They lied to me about repair fees, long story.

 

I was once given an old N64 - it had a ... copy of Superman 64 in the cart slot.

 

Truly terrifying indeed!

 

Last summer I bought 2 NES consoles and an SNES. One NES and the one SNES motherboards were covered in what must a been an inch of dry dirt. Two of the hardest to clean consoles I ever worked with. Out of curiosity is it possible to safely wash a motherboard, possibly submerge it in something? I basically went over it gently with some isopropyl alcohol and scrubbed with a toothbrush. They are still ditry, mostly around the pins on the chips but they do work.

 

You could put it in the dish washer I've heard. It may sound crazy (prepares flame shield) but one guy by the name of uxwbill on youtube uses this method a lot. Here's the vid showing how he did it with a Dell Dimension V350 from late 90s-early 2000's https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahhSDEgkqQ8

 

Lemon juice and then oil will stop future rust

 

Huh. Might try that sometime...

 

I seriously hope the roaches are just a result of living in a warmer country lol. Heard so many horror stories about it over the years that i'm kinda scared to look inside most of my consoles lol. Especially something like the PS3 which is almost never off these days ha

 

You can get special PCB cleaner. I know pretty much nothing about it since I've never bought nor used any, but people always talk about using it to clean boards. I personally have yet to need it, so isopropyl alcohol (100%, baby) is good enough for me. That being said, that Mega CD 2 could have used some. Cleaning that motherboard was disgusting. I could probably spend many more hours cleaning it, even though I already spent about three or four on it.

Considering we have a decent amount of the little bastards here but we're not in a tropic zone, I'd assume you're probably right. I've yet to come across cockroaches inside things, but there's always a first. Although that being said, I saw one go INSIDE our microwave about a year ago. The microwave eventually died. Hopefully that hellspawn went with it.

 

I can't see any problem with that - most electronics factories use water based wash systems now. The only real difference is that they rinse the boards in deionized water rather than tap water - but you would need really high levels of ionic contamination before the residues became a problem. About the only time you have to be careful is with things like fine-pitch BGA parts, since it's very hard to get the water out from underneath them unless you use a rinsing agent.

 

Not a console but I was given a computer to look at as it wasn't working. I opened it up and it was full of cigarette dust, it smelt like they were next to me smoking it was that bad a quick clean up of the heatsink, fan and case got it going again.

My Community Service Announcement to serve as advice for anyone that didn't know that stuff from heavy smoker's houses may be nasty on the inside.


EDIT - Console wise I got a Mega Cd and the seller left a Hanson CD in there.