What Everybody Ought to Know About Dust Inside Their PCs
Just imagine, you’re are about to finish a spreadsheet that you must have for work tomorrow to show your boss, or you have a school assignment that you have been working on for the last hour or two when suddenly your PC shuts down, and all your hard work is lost.
You then get a sinking feeling and do a little or a lot of screaming and shouting at the PC, and get the urge to throw it out of the window, but stop yourself in time before you do some real damage. I know as I have been there myself.
You check the socket and find the power light is on, power cords are plugged in correctly, and you know you have run a virus check this week (I hope you have). So what could possibly have shut the computer down? DUST!
If the PC is over 12 months old and you have never cleaned the inside of it you will be amazed at just how much dust is in there. But how does this affect your PC?
When dust gets into the computer fans, around the processor, components and blocks the vents this overheats the PC which can cause it to constantly shut down, and as it works harder to keep itself cool it slowly degrades hardware performance which shortens the life of the PC. You will also find your PC slows down when using applications especially processor intensive ones.
So what can you do about it? Easy, give it a good clean out, and I am going to show you how to do this.
I must admit I quite enjoy doing this, as I love taking things to bits, but don’t worry as its very easy to do.
All you will need are few basic tools to do the job.
1. Either a star shaped (phillips) or a flat headed screw driver depending on the screws to get the panel of your computer case.
2. Antistatic wrist band you can pick one up from your local computer shop (this is not a necessity).
3. A vacuum cleaner (some IT technicians disagree with me on this one however I was taught it at college and have used it for over 6 years and never had any problems with it as long as you are careful.
4. A can of compressed air, these can be bought at most photography or electrical stores.
And that’s the only tools that you need.
To clean inside your PC:
1. Make sure the pc is switched off and the mains plug is out of the wall socket.
2. Take all of the cables out of the back of the PC, for example, USB, monitor, keyboard etc, make sure you take a note of where they came out of. Normally most connecters are colour coded.
3. At this point the PC is free from any connections and you can either take it outside, into your garage or clean it in the same room its up to you.
4. Take off the panel from the side of the PCs case so that you can get to the inside of it, all PC cases are different some of them need a screwdriver to get the screws out, some you can unscrew them by hand, and others side panels just clip off. Make sure you don’t try to take off the side with the Motherboard on.
5. Now that the panel is off you will be able to see all the PCs components, motherboard and fans. Don’t touch anything as static from you can damage these parts. If you have a wrist band put it on and clip it onto the case or some metal to ground yourself, if not touch the case with both hands to try and get rid of the static and equalise you and the case.
6. With the vacuum I want you to suck up any dust that is on the outside vents on the front and back of the case and anywhere else on the outside of the case that is covered in dust. Next if you are very careful vacuum the dust from the bottom inside of the case, around the fans but do not touch the motherboard or anywhere else. This should get rid of the thickest dust.
7. Using the compressed air on and around anything else that you didn’t pick up with the vacuum, like the motherboard around the hard drives etc. You can spray the fans again to make sure that all the dust is out.
8. Replace the panel, cables and switch on the PC and there you have it all done and dusted.
This should be done twice a year to keep your computer running in tip top condition.
If you feel that I have missed anything out or you have any other tips to clean your PC then let me know. Happy cleaning.
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October 4th, 2007 at 10:05 am
My pc is nearly two years old and has never been cleaned, when I opened the case it was caked in dust, your tips came in handy thanks. Keep up the good work.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Hi,
You can buy small USB vacuum cleaners that do the job nicely. Mine cost me about 4 ponds sterling.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
When you use a vacuum cleaner you have defeated the anti static precautions you have taken. Air rushing through the tube can build up a static charge. However, I still use a vacuum on the case and power supply, but avoid using it directly on the electronic boards. You should especially avoid using it on the CPU and memory. Also you take a chance that you might suck a jumper off your motherboard, possibly leaving it inoperative until you figure out what happened. It is very difficult to notice a missing jumper, and even after you realize it, may require intensive research to figure out where it goes.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Heh…. I did a service call once to replace a cd-rom in a Dell, and the inside was one solid dust ball. I took it outside and used over 4 cans of air on it, after reaching in and physically removing handfuls of dust bunnies.
The lady was highly embarrassed, too.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Good article, and you are right about disagreeing with the vacuum thing. I prefer using an air compressor that can be found in a typical garage. The up side to using a air compressor in a garage is that all the dust is left pretty far away from your computer.
As a side note, you can use a small flat head for the star type screws that are commonly found in HP and Compaq computers, also if you smoke near your computer you should check your case for dust elephants more often.
(COMPUTER DUST, it is a strange beast, no one knows how it gets there, or why it doesn’t look like any other dust in the world)
October 4th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Oh god… That picture you put up is nothing to some of the stuff I’ve seen…
I do all of what you suggest when cleaning computers for friends or family. The vacuum is something I tend to have on and used the compressed air to push the dust towards. (case open, vacuum hose on floor, dust blown toward hose and sucked up) That tends to work well for me and I don’t have to worry about the dust floating around.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Another item you better use… a face mask to prevent inhaling fine dust…
October 4th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I feel so.. Informed!!
October 4th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I don’t think that you should be unplugging the power supply. This is the ground for the chassis right? As long as you keep it plugged it (power off) and one hand on the case, you eliminate most chances of static discharge. Just my two cents…
Ciao,
The Almighty SpongeLord
October 4th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I was repairing a computer for someone and when i opened it there was a carpet over everything… about an inch thick… i think the companies should give instructions on how to clean the componenets in the instructions
Joe
October 4th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Frank: I have heard of a case in which using a vacuum cleaner completely destroyed the power supply (not destroyed, perhaps broke is a more suiting word)
I have always used the vacuum cleaner and have heard that If you use a plastic mouthpiece (is this the proper word for it?), then your safe. I have also heard the opposite. I guess that bad luck and lack of cautiousness may result in broken components.
I liked that tip about canned air !! is it possible to refill them?? I have also filters installed to key airflow-places, but if you do that, you’d better keep an eye on cpu thermometers and perhaps other thermometers as well. some fans comes with it. I wonder if there is any computer fans which ships with filters?!
and that face mask thing is really a great idea because small dust particles are not healthy.
A final thought about all this is about all other gadgets, TV:s, Radios and such. Many of them gets filled with dust too, but they are often not as easy to clean, and cleaning it often violates the warranty, which by the way, also is the case for some laptops! Thats bad
October 4th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Just a bit of advice… the cans of compressed air will put moisture on your components due to condensation (won’t get into the whole decompressing/moisture topic here) so it is important that you remove all power from the PC as well as give it a few minutes before applying power again… just in case… moisture is a bigger problem to the PC that any dust will be. Actually dust does not cause a problem, it is the moisture that can build up in the existing dust that destroys things.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Regarding the vacuum…. here’s what I have been doing for years:
1) Buy a small vacuum cleaner. I bought a “Little Stinger” for around $30 at Home Depot.
2) On the vacuum cleaner, install the hose so that air is blowing out, NOT sucking in. In other words, I use a vacuum instead of cans of compressed air.
3) Blast the dust out using the vacuum cleaner (I do it outdoors). Be careful on the fans - they’ll spin incredibly fast. I use a small dowel to hold the fan from spinning while blowing it out. On the power supply. I blow air both in (from the outside of the case) and out (from within the case).
4) Dedicate that vacuum to blowing out PCs only. Never use it for anything else. That way you’ll always be blasting clean air into the PC.
Those cans of compressed air cost $5.00+. The vacuum serves the same purpose and saves a lot of money. I have three PCs to maintain and there’s now way I’m going to drop $30 every time I do the job (2 cans per PC). I can buy a small vacuum for the price of one cleaning. This works like a charm.
Regarding wrist straps… pfft. I’ve repaired PCs for 15 years and have never used one. I’m careful to discharge static before touching internal components, but I don’t use wrist straps and don’t know anyone who does.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
To the person who stated to leave the computer plugged in to the wall so that the computer is grounded. This will work as a ground but is dangerous. There is the potential of getting shocked. You simply need to touch the chassis of the computer to equalize the potential difference in static charge between you and the computer. If there is no difference in charge, there is no chance of static discharge.
October 5th, 2007 at 5:44 am
If you leave the power cord plugged in, depending on the pc, there will still be power going through the components. Most PCs will have a switch on the back to turn it off, but not all. Its better to just unplug the thing. If power remains in the system, then the moisture from the compressed air, or even if you bump into one of the circut boards can cause a short. In some power supplies, even if the switch is off power will be still circulating in the supply itself even if it cuts off the rest of the system. This was found out by an unlucky co-worker, he wound up shorting the power supply and in turn frying the hard drive and cpu.
October 5th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Thank you to all of you for your comments.
October 7th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Some weeks ago, the cpu temperature of my notebook reached 100°C when I did some cpu-hungry things. So it shut down.
While just surfing the inet or doing some Word, Excel, Access, etc. the notebook used to be absolutely quiet when it was new, no fans on. But they where always on lately.
I disassembled the notebook (which is super tricky) and cleaned some heat-pipes and two fans, using the compressed air in a can.
It’s even more quiet than the brand-new. Temperatures are also at normal levels.
Even small amounts of dust can do great harm in a laptop, because of its compact inner structure.
October 8th, 2007 at 5:45 am
You don’t have to ground the case to earth (the grounding wire in the power cord)
All you’re trying to do is ensure that there is no chance for a static discharge from you to an electronic component in the computer. As long as you and the machine are at the same voltage potential, you satisfy this criteria. Simply resting your forearm on the edge of the case while you are working on the internals is plenty sufficient to “ground” yourself to the computer.
You DO NOT want to leave the cord plugged in. ALL modern motherboards receive power any time the power supply is turned on. Many have a small LED to warn you that the mainboard is energized. Features like wake-on-lan and wake-on-alarm rely on the ability for the motherboard to switch itself on and off.
As far as compressed air - using air from a large compressor isn’t a great idea - humidity in the air can condense in the air hose and spit out at random on your computer parts. If you intend to use a compressor, do what painters do, and install a condensation filter in th line. Aside from that, the little compressed air cans have a tiny little nozzle - a typical “spray” nozzle on a compressor allows a LOT more air to pass - enough to damage your system if you aren’t careful in using it.
October 8th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
When I open up a case either here at work, or at home I take the pc outside and use a compressor to blow out the system. As a previous poster stated canned air has a tendency to leave a bit of moisture on the components, and a vacuum also is a bad idea because of the possibility of static or sucking a jumper. It has not failed me yet and I have had some pretty bad ones.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Yeah using a vacuum to suck up dust seems risky to me. I worked in a local computer repair shop for a few years and we had a big bottle of nitrogen. The advantage of the nitrogen is you don’t get little bits of condensation or bits of oil like with air compressors, and you don’t get extreme temperatures like with the canned air. I hate canned air because I think it’s a rip off, its expensive, it looses pressure after extended use, and gets very cold causing condensation. If you have access to a bottle of nitrogen, that’s the best way to go. As for preventing dust from entering the computer, its good to have a nice case, and then put air filters on all the fan ports. Smoking around computers is the worst, especially for the tech that has to work on the innards. If you smoke, keep your computer in a separate room or something, your tech will thank you. Smoke destroys the plastics in a case over time, and the smell just gets imbeded in the components.
November 12th, 2007 at 4:31 am
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article What Everybody Ought to Know About Dust Inside Their PCs, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Makes me want to check all the computers here at the office. The compressed air cans are handy, easily available and you can take them anywhere, and generally get the job done quickly (although 5 bucks a can is hardly a bargain). I like Bob Smith’s idea of getting a small vacuum and setting it to blow.