dbarrow
04-01-2006, 01:10 PM
Just a reminder!
The change to Daylight Savings Time is a reminder that it's time to clean your computer if you have not done it since fall.
reprint from 2005:
Spring cleaning time is here again!
Time to tackle one chore you really need to get around to if you want your machine to continue to live.
Your computer is cooled by fans constantly moving a fairly large volume of air through the case. Think of it as a low speed Hoover vacuum or an air purifier with your case as the collection canister. More than that, using the same principles applied by many air purifiers, electrostatic charges condense and collect dust and pollutants … onto your sensitive electronic parts. Just as you have to clean out your room air purifier and change the filters, or empty the canister in your vacuum, doing the same with the inside of your computer is a mandatory chore at least twice a year if you wish it to survive.
My recent debacle with a failed PSU and a dead machine was more than proof positive that this is something you can’t put off or ignore. As soon as I prepared the machine for surgery and opened the case, I realized that chore #1 before I even started on the main problem was going to be a complete and thorough house cleaning. Looking more like an exotic deep ocean seascape, my first impression was there are life forms growing in there and they are not electronic or silicon based! Long wisps and strands of dust bunnies floated and hung like moss on a Magnolia tree. Coral reefs of accumulated grime had taken over surfaces of my circuit boards making them unrecognizable. Fans no longer pumping air had turned into blenders churning away at a soupy mixture of dust and dirt.
The dangers
Besides blocking vital air flow, growing dust bunnies pose a real risk of raising temperatures as a good layer of dust and dirt can become a great insulator. For sensitive electronic parts that need to dispel their heat to the air, this layer of insulation can quickly lead to premature failure. Worse yet, fire! A work partner and I were minding our own business one night when we suddenly notice flames blowing out of the back of a computer that resided under the desk for a few years. After getting it unplugged the flames receded and we opened it up. Nothing was visible inside except one gigantic dust bunny that completely filled the entire inside of the case, a completely solid block of dust and dirt! The power supply must have been the same as that is what went up in smoke and flame. Toasted, blackened and scorched, it still smoldered away. How the machine had managed to run at all is beyond belief. It ended up being consigned to the trash as unsalvageable.
Dust and moisture make a good conductor.
A healthy layer of dust and a humid summer day can spell disaster. You may as well throw a few wads of aluminum foil in the case and take your chances. Computers rely on a very delicate balance of electrical flow and even a few milliamps of current leaking off to someplace it shouldn’t go can ruin your day, and your machine. Delicate tracings on a circuit board are separated by fractions of millimeters and it does not require much of a dirt layer to build bridges between them. Slightly soggy dust can easily short circuit a multitude of parts.
There is really life inside your case!
In the microscopic world of mold, mildew, dust mites and other microscopic organisms you don’t really want to see up close, a healthy layer of dust can become the fertile breeding ground for all sorts of things. Subjected to laboratory analysis, your machine might be condemned as a dangerous bio-hazard! Let these things grow and multiply or migrate their way inside your functional parts, small wonder your cd burner no longer works.
The cleaning process
Rule #1:
Ground yourself and the case!
This often forgotten rule of working on computers can cost you.
There is a very good reason why computer parts come packaged in that foil coated anti-static bag with the warnings printed on it. This is a very real concern on those very dry cool winter days when you can pet the dog or cat and watch them leap when that static lightning bolt pops.
A very minor static discharge can zap a hard drive, CPU, circuit board!
“Gee, it worked before.” Famous last words after putting it all back together and something is dead as a door nail now for no visible reason. One little spark is all it takes!
You can purchase a wrist strap for about $3.00 at Radio Shack or a computer store. This is a worthwhile investment. Wear the strap and attach the alligator clip to the case whenever rooting around inside it. This assures that any electrical differential between your body, clothing, and the outside world is safely discharged to the case. I know of some people who go the extra mile and ground the case by connecting it to the ground wire of an extension cord.
Tools required:
Phillips head screw driver or nut driver suitable for the common size screws on the case.
Toothbrush (new or used)
Half inch wide soft long bristle artist brush
Half inch wide short bristle stiff artist brush,
Can of compressed air
Magnifying glass or reading glasses, for those of us who require them.
Pen and paper, for making notes of things you disconnect and where, for those of us with short term memory problems.
Plastic tray or tub for storing parts and screws in, otherwise, a set of knee pads for when you knock them off the table onto the floor and spend the next hour on your hands and knees looking for them.
Light, either a reading lamp or drop light, large flashlight, you will undoubtedly find a deep dark corner you can’t see and be looking for one of these at some point in time.
Vacuum cleaner with hose and wand
Now, if you want to invest $29.95 or so, there are some nice commercial hand held little vacs with attachments that can be found. I saw one I really should buy at Staples that has nice little soft rubber tips.
Otherwise, a plastic soda straw, the kind that bends, and a piece of duct tape to hold it on the end of the vacuum wand attachment. Note that this works very well and has a great deal of suction.
One tube of CPU thermal paste
Half inch wide masking tape
Step 1.
Start on the outside of the case. The soft bristle brush attachment for the vacuum hose is good for a quick once over around the outside of the case where you will undoubtedly find strands of dust hanging out. Work your way around the outside of the case scrubbing any openings. In particular, you may notice the cd tray or floppy door have what looks like moss hanging out of it. Clean well, we will get to the insides later.
When you get to the back, where all those little plugs are you connect things to, pay a little closer attention as you will likely find them surrounded by and packed full of dirt.
Use your brushes to loosen this grime as you suck it away with the wand. Scrub as necessary being careful not to bend any pins or connectors.
Step 2.
Pop open the case. Locate any screws that hold the cover on and remove. Put them in your tray so you are not on the kitchen floor feeling around for the ones that got away!
Take off the cover. More than likely, the inside of it will have a layer of who knows what growing on it. Take it over to the sink and use a damp sponge, even some soap to scrub it clean then sit aside to dry.
Work around the seams where the cover joins the case. You will probably find a thick film of dirt in these areas.
Step 3.
Fans come first.
Your case fans are usually the most polluted parts often gunked up with a thick layer of dust that can make the blades unrecognizable.
Remove the fans, they will require extra effort.
Now, if like me, you happen to have 6 case fans and an unfathomable tangle of wiring, remembering what plugs into what can become a jigsaw puzzle you really don’t want to tackle. As all wiring harnesses have numerous “spare” or unused plugs, you likely have a wide assortment to choose from. Use a piece of ˝ inch masking tape and number the connector and the fan ends of the plugs before you take them apart. Much easier matching #1 with #1 than trying to figure out which one of ten similar plugs this one came off of!
Plastic can become brittle!
Especially on older fans that have been in the case a long time, the blades are often surprisingly brittle and it takes very little pressure to snap one off!
Work gently with these things or be prepared for a run to the local shop or Staples to buy some new ones.
Fans can be washed!
Maybe not a factory recommended procedure, I find soap and hot water the most effective way to clean a fan using the toothbrush to lightly scrub. Even after being totally immersed in water, I have yet to ruin one by washing it. Do the final rinse with hot water so it evaporates and dries quicker and shake out any water in the hub or motor part.
Set aside to dry thoroughly. Once dry, a short squirt of WD40 into the motor will displace any remaining water and lubricate it for an extended life span.
Spin it!
The bearings go bad and wear out in these things. A noisy or sluggish fan can often be detected by simply spinning it with your finger as you hold it in your hand. It should feel smooth with no rough spots or vibration. You can also hold the vacuum hose near it and get it to spin rapidly. If there is any noise, vibration, or roughness you can feel,
THROW IT OUT.
Replacement fans can be purchased for less than $5.00 so “If in doubt, throw it out”.
As you already have things disassembled already, save yourself a lot of time and work later by replacing any suspect fan that may not have too many miles left in it.
The change to Daylight Savings Time is a reminder that it's time to clean your computer if you have not done it since fall.
reprint from 2005:
Spring cleaning time is here again!
Time to tackle one chore you really need to get around to if you want your machine to continue to live.
Your computer is cooled by fans constantly moving a fairly large volume of air through the case. Think of it as a low speed Hoover vacuum or an air purifier with your case as the collection canister. More than that, using the same principles applied by many air purifiers, electrostatic charges condense and collect dust and pollutants … onto your sensitive electronic parts. Just as you have to clean out your room air purifier and change the filters, or empty the canister in your vacuum, doing the same with the inside of your computer is a mandatory chore at least twice a year if you wish it to survive.
My recent debacle with a failed PSU and a dead machine was more than proof positive that this is something you can’t put off or ignore. As soon as I prepared the machine for surgery and opened the case, I realized that chore #1 before I even started on the main problem was going to be a complete and thorough house cleaning. Looking more like an exotic deep ocean seascape, my first impression was there are life forms growing in there and they are not electronic or silicon based! Long wisps and strands of dust bunnies floated and hung like moss on a Magnolia tree. Coral reefs of accumulated grime had taken over surfaces of my circuit boards making them unrecognizable. Fans no longer pumping air had turned into blenders churning away at a soupy mixture of dust and dirt.
The dangers
Besides blocking vital air flow, growing dust bunnies pose a real risk of raising temperatures as a good layer of dust and dirt can become a great insulator. For sensitive electronic parts that need to dispel their heat to the air, this layer of insulation can quickly lead to premature failure. Worse yet, fire! A work partner and I were minding our own business one night when we suddenly notice flames blowing out of the back of a computer that resided under the desk for a few years. After getting it unplugged the flames receded and we opened it up. Nothing was visible inside except one gigantic dust bunny that completely filled the entire inside of the case, a completely solid block of dust and dirt! The power supply must have been the same as that is what went up in smoke and flame. Toasted, blackened and scorched, it still smoldered away. How the machine had managed to run at all is beyond belief. It ended up being consigned to the trash as unsalvageable.
Dust and moisture make a good conductor.
A healthy layer of dust and a humid summer day can spell disaster. You may as well throw a few wads of aluminum foil in the case and take your chances. Computers rely on a very delicate balance of electrical flow and even a few milliamps of current leaking off to someplace it shouldn’t go can ruin your day, and your machine. Delicate tracings on a circuit board are separated by fractions of millimeters and it does not require much of a dirt layer to build bridges between them. Slightly soggy dust can easily short circuit a multitude of parts.
There is really life inside your case!
In the microscopic world of mold, mildew, dust mites and other microscopic organisms you don’t really want to see up close, a healthy layer of dust can become the fertile breeding ground for all sorts of things. Subjected to laboratory analysis, your machine might be condemned as a dangerous bio-hazard! Let these things grow and multiply or migrate their way inside your functional parts, small wonder your cd burner no longer works.
The cleaning process
Rule #1:
Ground yourself and the case!
This often forgotten rule of working on computers can cost you.
There is a very good reason why computer parts come packaged in that foil coated anti-static bag with the warnings printed on it. This is a very real concern on those very dry cool winter days when you can pet the dog or cat and watch them leap when that static lightning bolt pops.
A very minor static discharge can zap a hard drive, CPU, circuit board!
“Gee, it worked before.” Famous last words after putting it all back together and something is dead as a door nail now for no visible reason. One little spark is all it takes!
You can purchase a wrist strap for about $3.00 at Radio Shack or a computer store. This is a worthwhile investment. Wear the strap and attach the alligator clip to the case whenever rooting around inside it. This assures that any electrical differential between your body, clothing, and the outside world is safely discharged to the case. I know of some people who go the extra mile and ground the case by connecting it to the ground wire of an extension cord.
Tools required:
Phillips head screw driver or nut driver suitable for the common size screws on the case.
Toothbrush (new or used)
Half inch wide soft long bristle artist brush
Half inch wide short bristle stiff artist brush,
Can of compressed air
Magnifying glass or reading glasses, for those of us who require them.
Pen and paper, for making notes of things you disconnect and where, for those of us with short term memory problems.
Plastic tray or tub for storing parts and screws in, otherwise, a set of knee pads for when you knock them off the table onto the floor and spend the next hour on your hands and knees looking for them.
Light, either a reading lamp or drop light, large flashlight, you will undoubtedly find a deep dark corner you can’t see and be looking for one of these at some point in time.
Vacuum cleaner with hose and wand
Now, if you want to invest $29.95 or so, there are some nice commercial hand held little vacs with attachments that can be found. I saw one I really should buy at Staples that has nice little soft rubber tips.
Otherwise, a plastic soda straw, the kind that bends, and a piece of duct tape to hold it on the end of the vacuum wand attachment. Note that this works very well and has a great deal of suction.
One tube of CPU thermal paste
Half inch wide masking tape
Step 1.
Start on the outside of the case. The soft bristle brush attachment for the vacuum hose is good for a quick once over around the outside of the case where you will undoubtedly find strands of dust hanging out. Work your way around the outside of the case scrubbing any openings. In particular, you may notice the cd tray or floppy door have what looks like moss hanging out of it. Clean well, we will get to the insides later.
When you get to the back, where all those little plugs are you connect things to, pay a little closer attention as you will likely find them surrounded by and packed full of dirt.
Use your brushes to loosen this grime as you suck it away with the wand. Scrub as necessary being careful not to bend any pins or connectors.
Step 2.
Pop open the case. Locate any screws that hold the cover on and remove. Put them in your tray so you are not on the kitchen floor feeling around for the ones that got away!
Take off the cover. More than likely, the inside of it will have a layer of who knows what growing on it. Take it over to the sink and use a damp sponge, even some soap to scrub it clean then sit aside to dry.
Work around the seams where the cover joins the case. You will probably find a thick film of dirt in these areas.
Step 3.
Fans come first.
Your case fans are usually the most polluted parts often gunked up with a thick layer of dust that can make the blades unrecognizable.
Remove the fans, they will require extra effort.
Now, if like me, you happen to have 6 case fans and an unfathomable tangle of wiring, remembering what plugs into what can become a jigsaw puzzle you really don’t want to tackle. As all wiring harnesses have numerous “spare” or unused plugs, you likely have a wide assortment to choose from. Use a piece of ˝ inch masking tape and number the connector and the fan ends of the plugs before you take them apart. Much easier matching #1 with #1 than trying to figure out which one of ten similar plugs this one came off of!
Plastic can become brittle!
Especially on older fans that have been in the case a long time, the blades are often surprisingly brittle and it takes very little pressure to snap one off!
Work gently with these things or be prepared for a run to the local shop or Staples to buy some new ones.
Fans can be washed!
Maybe not a factory recommended procedure, I find soap and hot water the most effective way to clean a fan using the toothbrush to lightly scrub. Even after being totally immersed in water, I have yet to ruin one by washing it. Do the final rinse with hot water so it evaporates and dries quicker and shake out any water in the hub or motor part.
Set aside to dry thoroughly. Once dry, a short squirt of WD40 into the motor will displace any remaining water and lubricate it for an extended life span.
Spin it!
The bearings go bad and wear out in these things. A noisy or sluggish fan can often be detected by simply spinning it with your finger as you hold it in your hand. It should feel smooth with no rough spots or vibration. You can also hold the vacuum hose near it and get it to spin rapidly. If there is any noise, vibration, or roughness you can feel,
THROW IT OUT.
Replacement fans can be purchased for less than $5.00 so “If in doubt, throw it out”.
As you already have things disassembled already, save yourself a lot of time and work later by replacing any suspect fan that may not have too many miles left in it.