Pooter hygiene help please

[ladybird64]

Otherwise translated as "how the heck do I clean a computer tower?"

Have got a pooter tower that is approx 7 years old and has never been cleaned inside..not once I'm afraid that other things in life have taken preference and it's only recently I have been giving any thought to the state it must be in inside..it must be full of dust and dirt and the odd deceased inky-winky.

Coupled with the fact that there are smokers in the house so it must be a sticky mess inside..help.

In the absence of the irritating Kim and Aggie, I thought the obviously highly intelligent folks of the foum could help me out and tell me what to do. Clever people that you are. And no doubt all amazingly beautiful/handsome.

Right is that enough crawling to get me a good answer?

Ta muchly.

 

[SweetHeart]

I have been known to slip a stocking over the end of the vacuum cleaner and hoover up all the dirt and dust bunnies and dead incy wincies (eewwww!) The stocking stops any important bits disappearing up the vacuum nozzle. That's as far as I go, apart from loosening dirt/dust with a shaver cleaning brush. This is a job I like to delegate, then I can blame someone else if my puter goes awry :wink:

Julia

 

[IanD]

I thought you meant a pooter for collecting small insects alive not a tower full of dead ones.

 

[xyzzy]

Yes, just unplug it take the side off and do it with the spout of the hoover. Make sure you suck between any blades of any fans you can see. On the back of the PC near where the mains leads attach you'll normally spy another fan so give that a good suck as well.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

OK, heres what I do.

Disconnect everything that is plugged in the back including the power supply (most important). on the right hand side looking at the front look at the back panel and see if there are two large screws holding the side panel on? Some towers will have a trigger type mechanism to release the side panel but most have screws. Undo the top and bottom screws and slide the side panel back and away from the tower, again some towers have different fittings but most slide back and off, some may have an attached fan, if it does either disconnect it or just place the panel on top of the tower if the fan cable allows.

Touch and hold the inner chassis of the tower with your hand this will discharge any static electricity from you. Any static even very small amounts can cook your mother board/hard drive etc so dont miss this stage. With a vacuum cleaner with a crevice tool attached to its hose carefully pass it over the motherboard and other bits, but not the fan at this point, try not to touch anything but get the nozzle as close as possible., it should suck up all the dust, dont forget the bottom tray there will be lots of dust there.

Now for the fan in the middle of the motherboard, it is important to remove the dust from the fan and the heat sink it is attached to but dont put the fan in front of the fan as it can spin it too fast and damage the fan. Place a pen or pencil or similar wooded or plastic stick type thing into the fan blades to stop it moving and then and only then move the nozzle over it and remove as much dust as you can see.

I would remove the fan and clean the heat sink properly but if your not sure what your doing and dont have the necessary thermal compound/conductive paste to replace the heatsink just leave it well alone.

There will be another fan at the top (usually) of the case at the back, this will be the power supply (PSU). Again lock the fan with a pencil etc before sucking out the dust, if this fan is spun too fast it can cause damage and it may burn out and blow the power supply then you will have to replace the whole PSU.
Try not to disturb any thing too much

Replace the side panel and replace the retaining screws and then reconnect all the wires in the back, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc. Know cross your fingers and turn it on - Job done, your PC should now run cooler :thumbup:

I take no responsibility for any damage that may occur to your PC etc etc etc and will wait with baited breath to see if you come back on line

if you are at all unsure it may be best if you take it to your local PC shop - Not PC World if you value your wallet.

 

[xyzzy]

OK, heres what I do.

Disconnect everything that is plugged in the back including the power supply (most important). on the right hand side looking at the front look at the back panel and see if there are two large screws holding the side panel on? Some towers will have a trigger type mechanism to release the side panel but most have screws. Undo the top and bottom screws and slide the side panel back and away from the tower, again some towers have different fittings but most slide back and off, some may have an attached fan, if it does either disconnect it or just place the panel on top of the tower if the fan cable allows.

Touch and hold the inner chassis of the tower with your hand this will discharge any static electricity from you. Any static even very small amounts can cook your mother board/hard drive etc so dont miss this stage. With a vacuum cleaner with a crevice tool attached to its hose carefully pass it over the motherboard and other bits, but not the fan at this point, try not to touch anything but get the nozzle as close as possible., it should suck up all the dust, dont forget the bottom tray there will be lots of dust there.

Now for the fan in the middle of the motherboard, it is important to remove the dust from the fan and the heat sink it is attached to but dont put the fan in front of the fan as it can spin it too fast and damage the fan. Place a pen or pencil or similar wooded or plastic stick type thing into the fan blades to stop it moving and then and only then move the nozzle over it and remove as much dust as you can see.

I would remove the fan and clean the heat sink properly but if your not sure what your doing and dont have the necessary thermal compound/conductive paste to replace the heatsink just leave it well alone.

There will be another fan at the top (usually) of the case at the back, this will be the power supply (PSU). Again lock the fan with a pencil etc before sucking out the dust, if this fan is spun too fast it can cause damage and it may burn out and blow the power supply then you will have to replace the whole PSU.
Try not to disturb any thing too much

Replace the side panel and replace the retaining screws and then reconnect all the wires in the back, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc. Know cross your fingers and turn it on - Job done, your PC should now run cooler :thumbup:

I take no responsibility for any damage that may occur to your PC etc etc etc and will wait with baited breath to see if you come back on line

if you are at all unsure it may be best if you take it to your local PC shop - Not PC World if you value your wallet.

Hey Sid

Sounds like you're like me and build your own pooters?

Mine is full of lights and fires laser beams out of the front. Kewl

 

[SweetHeart]

Sheesh...thought my bro's puter was the only one that looked like a mobile discotheque.

Someone give Sid mouth to mouth, he's gone a funny colour....too much bated breath!

Julia

 

[Grazer]

I wait till it stops then get a new one.......

 

[Anonymous]

We would not generally put a hoover anywhere near a machine - too much static

We use cans of air duster (outside) and have had no problems with this method. It doesn't mean a hoover will hurt it, but I think it adds to the risk and we're working on customer's machines.

 

[ladybird64]

Thanking you all kindly (apart from the spammer who has infiltrated our thread and who I hope will shortly be banished from our midst :roll: ).

I shall tackle this at Easter..going to print this page off and refer to it. I will of course take notice of your disclaimer Sid (ps..are you breathing yet?) and promise not to sue you if it goes bang.

As for PC World..couldn't afford to get it fixed anywhere if it goes haywire..I'm a full member of the Stoney Broke Society.

 

[MadMat]

As for PC World..couldn't afford to get it fixed anywhere if it goes haywire..I'm a full member of the Stoney Broke Society.

PC world is the last place I'd take a PC that needed any work . . . . .

FWIW I'm a cisco certified network engineer, and I clean out my PCs as most people say above - take the side off and stick the smallest attachment on a hoover in. Pay special attention to the fans and cooling vents

Mat

 

[viv1969]

I'm with the others......Power off...Side off Teeny hoover nozzle and suck suck suck.

My husband and I also build our own PCs to our own specs...though no laser beams from mine! lol

 

[LittleGreyCat]

Google is your friend

Try http://www.microsoft.com/athome/setup/cleancomputer.aspx.

Most professional sites strongly recommend against using a vacuum cleaner because of the risk of static damaging the sensitive components.

Some local computer shops also have horror stories about the damage done.

That said, people have cleaned out computers with vacs and got away with it.

The usual recommendation is compressed air, which can be bought in a can for this purpose or obtained via an airline at a garage. However taking your PC to the local forecourt is a bit of a mission.
I've just cleaned a case out using a 12V air compressor and the plastic attachment used for blowing up air beds and other such things.
Truly impressive, cleaned up the heat sink a treat, but I am not convinced that such a device removes all the risks of generating static.

Amazon show http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Duster...7DZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332170012&sr=8-1 which is not too expensive.

Whatever you do there is some risk.
Safest is probably to buy a can of compressed air and use that, remembering to stop fans spinning too fast.

Cheers

LGC

 

[xyzzy]

I'm with the others......Power off...Side off Teeny hoover nozzle and suck suck suck.

My husband and I also build our own PCs to our own specs...though no laser beams from mine! lol

You into overclocking and stuff like that Viv?

My current PC can't photo the laser beams coming out but you get the idea..

Made the laser thingy by getting a table top laser decorative light that has a rotating mirror thingy that would normally fire lasers around onto the ceiling. Ripped the guts out and mounted it inside the PC along with other "tasteful" lighting things. Bit of a hobby of mine building weird overclocked PC's. Keeps me off the street.

 

[viv1969]

My machine's not overclocked, just decked out for photography PP work / photoshop.

Hubby's is though. A constant mission to see "what he can get out of it". He's a gamer, (WoW), so there's always the need for more fps etc. Boys will be boys :roll:

 

[xyzzy]

He's a gamer, (WoW), so there's always the need for more fps etc.

My youngest is the expert gamer in our family (can just hear the growl of anger coming from another poster when he reads this!). He took it to the extreme of getting us to buy him a mouse with over double the dpi accuracy of normal mice so that he got more accurate and faster. The eldest (growler) got us to buy him a THOUGHT CONTROL gizmo a couple of years ago for xmas, not that expensive actually. You put this band round your head and then thought about where you want the mouse to be. Took a lot of training but give him his due he had some success with it. The trouble was it was very susceptible to other electrical interference so I think he gave up on it.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Most professional sites strongly recommend against using a vacuum cleaner because of the risk of static damaging the sensitive components.

We would not generally put a hoover anywhere near a machine - too much static

Can one of you or anyone else explain how static electricity can be conducted by a plastic vacuum attachment?

Not saying it cant happen just dont understand how it can as plastic is non conductive, isnt it? Also I did advise earthing yourself to the chassis before touching anything, I doubted that Ladybird would have an anti static mat and or anti static strap.


@ Ladybird, good luck over Easter, if you run into any problems PM me :thumbup:

 

[xyzzy]

Can one of you or anyone else explain how static electricity can be conducted by a plastic vacuum attachment?

Same way as when you rub a balloon against a jumper it will get a large static charge. Balloons don't conduct either.

But like you I use a hoover and have never had any problems with static. If people are paranoid they can do what you suggest and hold onto a radiator or something to earth themselves while they do it.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Yes I guess your right I hadnt thought of the balloon friction thing, I am also aware that static can 'jump' so you dont have to actually touch the mobo, but like you say earth yourself properly and no problems :thumbup:

 

[xyzzy]

Least we seem to agree on something Sid :lol: Have a great Easter :thumbup: