Unusual stuff inside computers

[Tothwolf]

On Sat, 1 Aug 2015, Vlad Stamate wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl 
> Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive of 
> the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating noise. 
> After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is wrong with 
> it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself: 
> http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).
>
> After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm and 
> I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the drive 
> head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the time. I 
> am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in by 
> mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles sewn 
> together by hand it seem.
>
> What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic 
> computers?

I once removed several ~1/2" diameter magnets from inside the 3.5" floppy 
drive of a tower-style IBM PS/2. They had apparently placed there by a 
disgruntled employee before he quick-formatted the hard drive. 
Fortunately, the magnets didn't seem to harm the boot disk I attempted to 
insert, but just jammed the drive.