The A2A Simulations Community

If you find your computer fan is louder than it used to be, it is likely due to dust collecting or even caking up inside on critical components, like your CPU fan heat sink.

To properly clean a computer takes a professional sometimes about 30 minutes, as you do need to remove some items, sometimes the video card to reach hard areas. If you are a 'do-it-yourself' person, be warned, you can easily short things out.

Static can blow circuits. When working on a PC,

1. Make sure everything is unplugged from your computer (carry it somewhere where there is a lot of light)
2. Keep your left hand on the metal case, like the power supply (to discharge your body of static electricity).
3. Be aware, you will likely get a lung full of dust if you are not careful. Anything you move will send dust into the air.
4. Don't go near or touch any metal on circuit boards.
5. Keep the vacuum cleaner away from these parts too, as this can carry static. Don't let the vacuum touch anything.
6. Suck in the opposite direction the airflow usually goes with the vacuum, to pull the most dust out
7. Don't use a magnetic tip screwdriver unless you know exactly what to keep that tip away from
8. Dropping a screw on the motherboard can blow something when you power it back up
9. Take your time, expect 30-60 minutes

Also, if you blow anything, don't blame me - proceed at your own risk. If you have any concerns, let a professional do it.

I find this has to be done at minimum, once a year on computers like ours that run real-time simulations.

Scott.

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A2A Simulations Inc.

Theres a story behind this post no doubt. What have you managed to find stuck in your PC scott?

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In addition to that I often use soft brush

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Chris Oleksy

I take mine with me in the shower once a week

FinnJ

Yup, did that three weeks ago and the system temperatures went down considerably. Every little dust particle on the fan blades reduces the amount of fresh air that the fan can move through the system. Not to mention all the heat getting trapped in the radiator by the insulating properties of the dust layer that might have accumulated on the cooling fins.

Oh, one more thing to add: if you use a vacuum to clean the fans don't let them spin freely in the airflow, because they might induce a current that could damage the hardware.

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Happy Landings
- Patrick

I've had some really good luck running mine through the car wash... just don't upgrade to the wax option and you're good.

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Buddy Morgan



i5 2500k - Asus P8P67 Pro - G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB - EVGA GTX 570 Fermi

ohh man.... vacum cleaner?????



in the "U. aS xxxing A" you don't have a simple air compressor....

i taught that we are the most cheapest country in the hole world (the darker side..)





[i meant it in general way, i hope it's not.... rude or]

One thing to be mindful of, using a compressor can be detrimental to your system. Often when air is condensed water can form at the nozzle due to the venturi effect. You don't want to be spraying water in your system. If you utilize a compressor, let your computer sit for a while so any water has a chance to evaporate. Canned air is preferable, but expensive and rarely powerful enough to clean the hard to get stuff.

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it's true

,but not as serious as you want it to "painted down"

i definitaly go for the compressor, surely due to the fact that most people before point their vacum cleaner's sucking portion, most of them using their own lung with their full of bacterial mouth to blow the dust...

sorry english is not my first........

anyway

condensed water or heated up mouth swab

I agree to most points.

1. It's even more important that the computer itself is unplugged from the power outlet.
2. Recommended. It's also better to repeat it ofter during cleaning process in case you build static electricity while cleaning.
4. If power is off from the computer, and I mean truly off and unplugged (not just shut down from power button which leaves many parts of motherboard energized in power saving state), metal does very little damage to PCBs... unless that piece of metal carries voltage of it's own (either from some power source or static), or unless that piece of metal is pressed with enough force to break things or have enough kinetic energy to it... or has heat enough to de-solder solder joints... or...
5. I don't even use vacuum cleaners. Except maybe by placing them next to the computer case while I use canned, pressurized air to blow dust out. Then the vacuum cleaner is there only to such the dust out before I inhale it myself. The reason I don't use vacuum is not only static electricity but also because vacuum cleaners are very heavy. Even if you move them slow, you can break things with it. You can suck air by not touching things but I've found you hardly get any dust removed by vacuum alone. You need something to detach the dirt from surfaces. Vacuum cannot do that from a distance. Canned air, brushes, complement a vacuum cleaner nicely.
6. Same applies to canned air: try pushing air from the exhaust side (or both sides).
7. Everything so far has been very sound advice (even though they can be supplemented with stuff like: canned air, grounding wristband, anti-static gloves, proper clothing does does not contain any wool, etc.) but this is something I'd call bullshit on. Magnetic screwdrivers don't do any more harm than non-magnetized metallic screwdrivers. They can short circuit (not possible if computer and peripherals unplugged), they can conduct static from your body, and they can scratch or knock off things if you're not careful. But magnetization itself does no harm. You need a very strong magnetic field to cause damage to HDDs for example. Either very strong magnetic source, or very close. But you can't get a magnetic screwdriver close enough to hard drive platters to erase data: the platters are encased. The only other components that could react to magnetic field are coils on motherboard, PSU, GPU, etc. If you have a strong alternating magnetic field, you can induce voltage into these coils. This is also the case with magnetic screwdriver tip in movement... but the voltages induced are just way too low to even be measured.
8. Sound advice. To minimize the risk I also recommend that after you think you're finished, you count the screws, see if there's any missing. Is a component that was removed and later replaced attached with less screws than it has holes in it? Did you run out of screws while reassembling it? Don't just take a spare screw and think "what the hell, screws are cheap". Even cheap screws are not capable of disappearing. It's somewhere. Motherboards are more expensive to replace...

So, the only point I do strongly disagree with is that warning about magnetic screwdriver tip. It's as harmless as any screwdriver tip is, meaning there's risks or static shock, there's risk of mechanical shock, etc. But magnetic induction? With a screwdriver tip?



Those magnets are from inside a hard drive. Now, how much damage can you do with a magnetic screwdriver tip? (Btw, those magnets are quite handy in restoring magnetization of old magnetic screwdrivers but not the other way around, so it's quite obvious which magnet is stronger.)

I recommend using magnetic screwdrivers because they reduce the risk of fallen screws. Of course if you pay adequate attention, a fallen screw is no disaster... the most it can do is that you have to take the entire motherboard away because the screw got lodged in some tight space and refuses to come out no matter how the computer case is tilted and turned upside down.

I tend to upgrade my main PC every 1-2 years, and I don't go with a fire-breather, usually a med-high version I can get a really nice price-point on. I have a one year old i7 now, and Jake has my previous quad core. The quad core was silent in my office, but have noticed that fan whining when Jake plays his games. After opening his PC, it didn't look that bad, BUT, when I removed the fan from the CPU heat sink (just 4 small screws), I peeled off a solid, moist layer from the bottom. It was 90% blocked and we're lucky we didn't fry the CPU. He had a BSOD (blue screen of death) that I haven't seen in a long time, and I realized action had to be taken asap.

When I remove cards, like the video card, I take them outside and blow off the dust so we don't get a dust storm inside (remember to always hold cards on the edges where there are no contacts). I have no problem with vacuum cleaners - in fact, I prefer a very strong one that just sucks everything out without touching anything. I've built probably over 1000 computers in my life and I just wanted to share some things I learned from that experience.

His PC is now absolutely silent now - very pleased with it but I owe my old buddy an apology.

Scott.

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A2A Simulations Inc.

What's wrong with that? Unlike a compressor or canned air the vacuum cleaner actually extracts the dust from the innards of the PC instead of pushing the dust deeper into all those nooks, crannies and fan bearings. I use the vacuum to clean my PCs for almost 20 years now and never had any problems with that.

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Happy Landings
- Patrick

I'm personally against a compressor since I blew heatsink off the North Bridge on one of computers at work. I have actually one computer to clean per week, and vacuum cleaner, plus soft brush is the way to go. Fast and efficient.

The canned "compressed air" (it's actually propan-butan mixture) is barely 'ok' for dusting off keyboards - I prefer to unscrew them and run the keys assembly with medium pressure water stream.

The fan bearings are a PITA, as all of the computers at work were acquired through the lowest bidder. I'm running them on aviation lithium grease now (next to my building is the helicopters maintenance hangar ).

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Chris Oleksy

I always use a compressor (the kind you would attach some power tools to, or pump your car tires), and I recomend that over the vacuum cleaner, but for people who don't have them, vacuum cleaner will do. Also try spinning your cpu cooler fan the oposite direction it would normally turn, and then, while it is slowly turning put the vacuum hose next to it so it keeps turning. It usually suckks all the dust from the cpu cooler.

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Владимир Левков/Vladimir Levkov

Aviation is proof that,given the will,we have the capacity to achieve the impossible

I use a compressor. The water in the air is insufficient to damage anything (especially if the system is still warm). By the time you have it put back and powered up, unless you live in an ice box and cleaned it in the Amazon, there is no problem.

A big problem with water vapor is corrosion, but the water should not be around long enough to be any more of an issue than natural atmospheric humidity.

I've yet to kill anything because I cleared it out with a compressor. I'm more concerned about static as a result of the air being blown over components, and damp dust.

Best regards,
Robin.

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A2A/AccuSim. 'nuff said!