Interestingly my last computer blew its processor (it was quite a pop) – related, perhaps? I’ve still got it (though its dead – I just cannot bring myself to get rid of it) so I’m going to take a look at its internals…

The tar in the cigarette smoke mixes with the normal dust in the air which is blown through the heatsinks in the system. The tar/dust mixture collects in the heatsinks and around the fan blades causing the air flow to become blocked and the fans to be clogged.

Overheating can cause severe damage to the components and the tar mixture will also cause the fan motor to blow out.

At the company I worked for, we’d require a system cleaning prior to servicing these cigarette smoke clogged systems regardless of the nature of the repair. And if the fan was burned out we’d require a hardware diagnosis and repair charge to replace the fan. The cleaning charge was around $30 and the hardware diag/repair charge was around $100.

And this doesn’t take into account the horrible smells we’d deal with cleaning these dirty boxes. But because we weren’t bound by warranty in any way in these services, and if it was a warranty repair such damage easily fell under a standard physical damage clause, I never had a qualm about the extra charges for service.

Let’s just say I can understand why Apple does this, but if I were making the decision at Apple, I’d call it physical damage rather than an environmental hazard.