John Mitchell Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Just realized that it has been over a year since I cleaned the inside of my PC. It has dust screens installed, so hopefully things aren't too bad in there. How often do you clean yours? What do you usually do once the innards have been laid bare? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 18 minutes ago, John Mitchell said: Just realized that it has been over a year since I cleaned the inside of my PC. It has dust screens installed, so hopefully things aren't too bad in there. How often do you clean yours? What do you usually do once the innards have been laid bare? I probably clean my desktop workstation no more than once a year, usually when I have hod to do some maintenance or when I have had a 'blue screen of death' - I have sometimes had them caused by dust presumably allowing signal leakage or timing issues due to induction/capacitance changes or even low level short circuit. I give it a blow out and a vacuum but not much else; I'm just careful about not too much suction or blow! You could give it a brush (clean 1" paint brush) out to make sure all dust is loose, especially between the fins of any heatsinks especially on CPU. Make sure all plugs and cards are properly seated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 18, 2018 Author Share Posted July 18, 2018 17 minutes ago, Martin P Wilson said: I probably clean my desktop workstation no more than once a year, usually when I have hod to do some maintenance or when I have had a 'blue screen of death' - I have sometimes had them caused by dust presumably allowing signal leakage or timing issues due to induction/capacitance changes or even low level short circuit. I give it a blow out and a vacuum but not much else; I'm just careful about not too much suction or blow! You could give it a brush (clean 1" paint brush) out to make sure all dust is loose, especially between the fins of any heatsinks especially on CPU. Make sure all plugs and cards are properly seated. I don't dare use a vacuum cleaner, just a can of compressed air to blow away the dust. I once had the CPU on a computer overheat and fry due to dust and grease buildup. I had the tower placed only about an inch above the floor, which was obviously not a good idea as it sucked up a lot of dust. My current PC tower sits on my desk. Do you ever use isopropyl alcohol to clean the processor and heat sink (I think it's called)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 11 hours ago, John Mitchell said: I don't dare use a vacuum cleaner, just a can of compressed air to blow away the dust. I once had the CPU on a computer overheat and fry due to dust and grease buildup. I had the tower placed only about an inch above the floor, which was obviously not a good idea as it sucked up a lot of dust. My current PC tower sits on my desk. Do you ever use isopropyl alcohol to clean the processor and heat sink (I think it's called)? Never use alcohol as I try not disturb anything so I don't remove and clean connectors or cards, just give them a press to make sure they are seated. I clean dust out of the fins of any heat sinks but definitely do not take it off as there is thermal paste to make sure there is a good thermal bridge between processor and heat sink - if it is working leave it otherwise you could make matters worse. I blow or brush most of the dust off; I sometimes clean up some of the dust especially from the case (rather than the boards) with a vacuum, but very carefully. My PC used to sit on floor it now sits about 20cm off the floor on a grill shelf under my desk, so air can get all round. In recent heat wave I had problems with overheating (probably as much due to dust) so I cleaned it and raised it up to get more airflow. No room on my desk with two big monitors, and it is noisy enough from underneath (extra big cpu/ case fans)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Carlsson Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 About every or every other month. Using common sense, using a brush to loosen up dust/dirt and then hoovering with two fingers in front of the nozzle. Also using the hoover to really speed up the fans and get all the dust off them. Going on 8 years now without a hitch except upgrading HDDs (Dell Inspiron 580, Quadcore i5 2.67Ghz, 16gb, HD5450, 3x WD HDDs totalling 5Tb internally), even editing 4K footage with it (using proxies). Wouldn't mind a new one, but the future is not available in Sweden yet (although I've been promised it will be), but in the UK it is already available. https://shadow.tech/gben/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 Thanks everyone for the helpful hints. I'll have to get my cleaning gear out before everything goes up in a cloud of dust and smoke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Time for a look probably. I'll just wait till Handel finishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 2 minutes ago, spacecadet said: Time for a look probably. I'll just wait till Handel finishes. Water Music? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted July 20, 2018 Share Posted July 20, 2018 Oboe concerto no. 1, HWV.301. Only dusty on the fan blades BTW. It's an HP all-in-one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 5 minutes ago, spacecadet said: Oboe concerto no. 1, HWV.301. Only dusty on the fan blades BTW. It's an HP all-in-one. You're lucky. My last HP overheated and fried due to neglect. When I opened the coffin, the inside looked like a haunted house. There were probably new lifeforms evolving in there. My current box (used but custom-built) has dust filters/screens. They make a big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 A tad off topic, but related. Quite some time ago our TV ceased to function. I decided to take a look at the innards in the forlorn hope that I might be able to spot a frizzled component that I could recognise and replace. In order to expedite this I vacuumed the circuit board. Of course I couldn't find the fault, but on reassembly the TV worked, and continued to work for several years. Must do the same for our box and laptop, thanks for the reminder! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 21, 2018 Author Share Posted July 21, 2018 2 hours ago, Bryan said: A tad off topic, but related. Quite some time ago our TV ceased to function. I decided to take a look at the innards in the forlorn hope that I might be able to spot a frizzled component that I could recognise and replace. In order to expedite this I vacuumed the circuit board. Of course I couldn't find the fault, but on reassembly the TV worked, and continued to work for several years. Must do the same for our box and laptop, thanks for the reminder! I experienced the same thing with a stereo tuner/amplifier that I thought had died after decades of use. I took the back off, cleaned the dust and gunk off the circuit boards and it miraculously came back to life. It also continued to function for a number of years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 'Clean the computer' - that's an interesting idea. I may try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Carlsson Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Just use the compressor. I usually do not go beyond 4atm/60psi. If necessary use Windex on the ventilators. wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvin McAbee Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 Some time ago I worked for a communications company that maintained 911 centers and we had a anti-static vacuum cleaner to use on their computers. I am sure that these are not readily available but you might use a regular vac with caution. We also had to wear a grounding strap when working on their equipment. Marvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 I finally got around to cleaning out the cobwebs. There was surprisingly little dust in there thanks to the filters, so a can of compressed air sufficed. Even so I notice a definite improvement in performance. I guess it's worth keeping all those electrons happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted July 22, 2018 Author Share Posted July 22, 2018 On 7/21/2018 at 03:13, Martin Carlsson said: Inspirational. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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