Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Electrostatic Contamination?

interval1066 writes "I've generally made it a practice to blow the dust out of my devices 1) when I remember to do so 2) after about 3 or so years of use 3) when I can get inside the case. My monitor is very thin and difficult to open. When I did finally crack it open I didn't really notice a whole lot of dust, but I blew the thing out anyway and put it back together, and it's doing ok, as far as I can tell. I'd be interested in knowing other Slashdotters' experiences with maintaining their devices in this way and where possible. And I actually extending the life of my devices, or am I just wasting my time?"

It can maker a big difference

[person46]

I was having problems with my system crashing under "load" (i.e. games) last year. I replaced the drivers, the video card and the power supply before I noticed that the CPU heart sink was stuffed with dust. One blast of canned air later and I haven't had a problem since. It had probably been two years since I installed that processor. So yes, there are times when it really does make a difference.

Re:Not your time, ALL OUR TIME

[X0563511]

Dear Slashdot:

I heard you could hide Ask Slashdot stories from my home page. Is this true?

Re:Teflon tap

[Anonymous Coward]

Run you CPU through the dishwasher on 'pots and pans' to clean slow electrons out of infrequently used data paths.

You'd be surprised.

Modern CPUs (by which I mean socket 370 PIII and forwards) are pretty resilient. I regularly wash off CPUs in the sink with mild dish soap to get old thermal grease off them (grease is grease, after all). Just make sure you dry them off with compressed air afterwards. Other techs freak the fuck out when they see this, but it's actually pretty safe and I've done it to a couple dozen chips over the course of my career and have yet to experience a failure. It's even easier these days due to the pins (the only fragile part) being on the board now.

Re:For the most part

[anubi]

You ain't kidding about the air compressor. Mine is so oily it makes a mess to "clean" anything with it, but the pneumatic tools it was designed to power love the oil in the airstream. Its often the only lubrication they get.

My favorite cleaning tool is the 20-pound cylinder of CO2 and regulator I bought primarily to carbonate home made soda pop. I used a standard stainless-steel screw-in tire valve mounted in the cap of a PET 2-liter soda bottle as a carbonation vessel. 70 PSI. The tire fitting also lets me fill car, bike, and other tires from the cylinder. A modified basketball needle ( end ground off ) lets me direct a concentrated flow of 70PSI CO2 to clean out electronic things, and it does a damm good job.

You get a LOT of CO2 for your buck. CO2 is a liquid in the state it is sold. By my calculations, I bought enough CO2 to carbonate a swimming pool full of water. That's several years worth of soda-pop for me.

I paid around $14 for 20 pounds of it ( not including the tank ). Contaminant-free CO2. From what I understand, the companies out there are condensing this from CO2 rich sources. If I did not buy any, it just gets released into the air anyway, so whether or not I pay them to condense some for me makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. Now, if I had bought freon for this purpose, I would be making a market for a deliberately manufactured gas currently suspected of causing destruction of the ozone layer. For my purposes, the CO2 works every bit as good.

Do it outside.

You don't want to risk a CO2 leak in the shop. Its quite an asphyxiant, and there is a lot of gas by volume in a cylinder ( the cylinder is full of liquid CO2 at around 500 to 1500 psi depending on temperature ).

You can get CO2 at welding supply shops, as welders like to use this stuff to keep oxygen away from their welds ( especially around things like fuel tanks. A fuel tank purged with CO2 during a nearby weld is a helluva lot safer to weld around... ).