Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Electrostatic Contamination? 197
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?"
For the most part (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:For the most part (Score:5, Funny)
in those cases it is defiantly a good idea to clean them out regularly
I defiantly clean out all of my electronics, voiding warranties left and right.
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Nice play on the spelling error.
Unfortunately, TFA is still moronic. The value of the component, monetary and sentimental, as well as frequency of use, should be suggestive of the level of care for it.
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Canned air? I use 120 psi from an air compressor. I wonder if the fan is rated for 10,000 rpm.
And if you're blowing air into a vent without taking the device apart, all you're really doing is distributing the dust evenly inside the case.. and you're not going to get at everything.
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I hope you have a filter in the line. Otherwise you could be blowing oil or moisture from the compressor into your devices! But yeah, it's great listening to how quickly those fans spin.
Re:For the most part (Score:4, Interesting)
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... ).
Re:For the most part (Score:5, Funny)
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.
How much does it cost to carbonate a swimming pool and what is a good way to do it?
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Canned air? I use 120 psi from an air compressor. I wonder if the fan is rated for 10,000 rpm.
And if you're blowing air into a vent without taking the device apart, all you're really doing is distributing the dust evenly inside the case.. and you're not going to get at everything.
You know that when DC motors spin they generate electricity, right? ...and your fan motor is connected to your motherboard.
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Canned air? I use 120 psi from an air compressor. I wonder if the fan is rated for 10,000 rpm.
And if you're blowing air into a vent without taking the device apart, all you're really doing is distributing the dust evenly inside the case.. and you're not going to get at everything.
You know that when DC motors spin they generate electricity, right? ...and your fan motor is connected to your motherboard.
PC fans use brushless motors [wikipedia.org], which don't do that.
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What did you use to blast the dust out? Some vacuums and air compressors generate too much static electricity for cleaning dust with.
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What works for me is... I vacuum weekly or at least I try, I tend to grab the dust off the fronts of the air fan vents weekly while doing this, and then every once in a great while I'll dust the inside, the former activity extends the duration of not doing the latter, which involves me unplugging a ton of shit and going outside.
I don't have time anymore, but I used to do stuff like take off the heatsink to run it under some water since dust likes to stick to it and not come off from air. I use an after mar
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I have gotten PCS over the years that were working but loaded with dust. cleaning it out actually caused them to stop working, most likely due to static.
As the other person commented already, vacuum cleaners are likely to create a lot of static, as they have plastic parts and lots of static-inducing movement of motors. Did you actually touch the board etc. with the nozzle of the vacuum?
I'd consider blowing or sucking high pressure air from a vacuum cleaner (or similar) into a computer case with the nozzle at a moderate (safe) distance from physical contact. (Maybe even *that* is a crap idea). But I sure as hell *wouldn't* want to be actually poking the no
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The rubbing of the air against the insulating plastic nozzle is what causes the static AFAIK.
You can get special vacuums with conductive nozzles that don't accumulate static, but I just tend to just use canned air these days.
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For a PC, turn the power off, leave the cord in place - it's grounded. Ground yourself to the case - an anti-static wrist snap works well. In the interest of maybe over-done prudence I don't let the vacuum cleaner nozzle touch the innards. Seems to work well. Do not let the fans spin freely. After the vacuuming, one might then use an air compressor - filtered - to blow out the rest of the dust, especially handy for PSUs.
For CRT monitors, compressed air is good IFF it's dry air - you don't want water or
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better trick to use is
1 get a spare extension cord a knife and a roll of blue electrical tape
2 cut the jacket open on your cord somewhere in the middle (where it will be noticed if you are on either end)
3 then very carefully cut the HOT and Neutral lines and remove about 2 inches of the hot line and 3 inches of the Neutral line
(note DO NOT CUT THE GROUND/EARTHING LINE)
4 fold back all four ends enough to bind them with tape (cover the bare wire)
5 tape the jacket shut
You now have a cord that is guaranteed to
Re:For the most part (Score:5, Funny)
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I agree. I would add that a lot of consumer electronics makes no effort to allow the user to prevent dust and dirt contamination. I've installed heat exchanger boxes for PCs used in industrial environments. They have dry chilled filtered air pumped in though they may or may not have air flow or thermal monitoring they usually don't need it.
I've done something similar for a home theater server and equipment setup using a dedicated room which has a partition that holds an AC unit and hepafilter for incoming a
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"For the most part I find that only devices that have forced air cooling, aka fans, have issues with dust."
Nonsense. Anything that generates a high voltage can have problems with dust. Have you ever cleaned the interior of an old CRT-style television?
And monitors with fluorescent backlights (the majority of them until recently, and even many newer ones) generate high voltages.
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Wooooossssh
Not your time, ALL OUR TIME (Score:4, Insightful)
You, and the Slashdot editors that posted this, are wasting everyone's time with this question. What's next, an Ask Slashdot for shaking crumbs and pubes out of your keyboard?
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I believe there is something much more disgusting and sinister lurking within the keyboards of the Slashdot community. And I, for one, would love to know how to unclog my keyboard of said substance.
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Keyboards are cheaper than your time spent cleaning them.
Re:Not your time, ALL OUR TIME (Score:4, Interesting)
Dear Slashdot:
I heard you could hide Ask Slashdot stories from my home page. Is this true?
Re:Not your time, ALL OUR TIME (Score:5, Insightful)
You, and the Slashdot editors that posted this, are wasting everyone's time with this question. What's next, an Ask Slashdot for shaking crumbs and pubes out of your keyboard?
Let me get this straight. You read an article you don't like, take the time to go into the comments and post how much you don't like the question. Then you accuse others of wasting YOUR time.
Doesn't seem like your time is particularly valuable, so I don't see why anyone should feel bad about wasting it. I'm wasting my time responding to you, but at least I'm taking responsibility for wasting it myself. I could have just as easily ignored it if I deemed my time was more valuable. Perhaps you should have done that with this article.
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With a headline of "dealing with electrostatic contamination" I was prepared for something along the lines of someone who has issues of constantly discharging static electricity, perhaps affecting a DIY clean room they're building or their workplace. Instead it's a fucking question about dust in a computer.
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I'm wasting my time responding to you, but at least I'm taking responsibility for wasting it myself. I could have just as easily ignored it if I deemed my time was more valuable. Perhaps you should have done that with this article.
At least you openly take responsibility instead of hiding behind the anonymous curtains. I'll +1 beer that.
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If you care about something enough to not want to see it turn to crap, you have to exert effort on that thing to let it know when it's being crap.
The problem is that you don't know if other people think it's crap. You're assuming your opinion is the important one. I'm tired of this attitude.
If an article is crap, and it doesn't get enough views, slashdot editors will take notice, because it hurts their bottom line. If you think an article is crap, but other people are viewing it, then it's just not for you. Either way, whether it's legitimately crap, or just not to your tastes, the solution is to just not participate and wait for an article you d
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The question then becomes which is more effective to "teach" Slashdot that we think the article/question is crap, posting directly saying it (which still builds pagecount) or ignoring it altogether. You may be on to something though.
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I don't know if that means I have bad judgement or if Slashdot expanded the Idle section to be the only thing on the website. Given that I've only melted three keyboards getting aformentioned crumbs and pubes out of the keyboard, I'm guessing it's probably the latter. Yeah, definitely the latter.
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Re:Not your time, ALL OUR TIME (Score:4, Insightful)
You, and the Slashdot editors that posted this, are wasting everyone's time with this question. What's next, an Ask Slashdot for shaking crumbs and pubes out of your keyboard?
Don't be an ass. The question is whether cleaning dust out of a PC actually makes a difference or not. (or even whether it's harmful). Since most people don't do it and their PCs continue to work; and it's possible to give a component a static shock while trying to clean it, the question is reasonable.
Re:Next Ask Slashdot Question: (Score:5, Funny)
I read that as "Dear Slashdot, I heard you should regularly take baths so you don't die. Is this true?"
I was scared for a second there!
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Re:Next Ask Slashdot Question: (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Ooo! A Dear Slashdot column! (Score:5, Funny)
If you can't get those, might I suggest aiming in another direction.
So, to quote Steve Jobs, "You're holding it wrong."
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I believe that you sir have won teh interwebs.
If you have moving parts YES but ... (Score:2)
I have found even non-moving electronic parts collect dust such as keyboards. Once a month cleaning seems about right.
Computers are like dust magnets. CPU fans are the worst for dust getting caked on.
Anything that helps keep your machine from working harder then it should be, should be done.
To use a car analogy: Would you run a car without oil and grease? Or do you want your engine and wheels (ball bearings) to keep functioning smoothly just by doing a quick maintenance?
Seriously, do we _really_ an quest
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Or he could just keep the environment where his electronics are clean. Vacuum and dust frequently (the room I mean.) Keep the electronic equipment up at desk level or higher. Keep it out from under window screens.
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Please elaborate about window screens. My computer is at desk level right next to a window.. What am I doing wrong and why?
It does seem to get dusty fast...
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Well, open windows would probably have been a better way to phrase it. Dust and dirt and particulates come in via open windows/window screens. They settle nearby.
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Every time you dust an electronic component you take the risk of destroying it. This is, IMO, utterly useless most of the time. Dust presents no danger, thus, there is no need to remove it.
Unless you have filters in front of your fans (then you should clean them or they'll clog the intake pretty quickly) there really is NO NEED to clean anything. Yes, dust will accumulate. Big deal. Dust will NOT accumulate where it matters because there's a lot of air blowing at it. It will accumulate in remote corners of
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Dust accumulates on CPU heatsinks. It doesn't take long (about a year in my case) for enough accumulation that the CPU starts throttling under a modest load.
Temperature monitor utilities are freely available. When the CPU temperature hits 65 C for no obvious reason, it's time to clean out the dust or you'll soon need a new computer.
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I've had numerous computers and I have NEVER dusted off a heatsink. These computers have run for multiple years, in a garage, in a cupboard, under my desk, at work, at home, 24/7 for YEARS (some up to 7 years) and nope, no dust in any heatsink. Lots and lots of dust at the bottom of the case and/or behind the motherboard, but nowhere near a fan. That's excluding "slow" (aka silent) fans with grid on the site of the exhaust which seem to accumulate more dust, but still I have never had to clean anything.
Of c
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It can maker a big difference (Score:2, Interesting)
wasting time? (Score:2)
yes.
if you're cracking your monitors open to dust them then you have plenty of time. if you don't want dust then get some dust free cleanroom to keep 'em. if you're cracking monitors open on standard basis then you got some really crappy monitors or you're just gasping for straws to do.. it's more likely you'll damage them by accident when doing it than it actually helping anything.
if you're that bored go look some teardown / repair videos on youtube. dust is not going to be the thing that kills your caps,
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yes.
No!
Vents get blocked, causing overheating, more noise, and it ends up shortening the life of the machine.
One colleague's laptop was getting slow and was quite loud. All the dust stopped it cooling properly, so the CPU kept getting switched to a low speed and the fan still couldn't pump enough air through. After hoovering out, it was quiet and quick!
If you don't keep your machines clean, this happens:
- Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide [theregister.co.uk]
- Dirty PCs: How much filth can you take? [theregister.co.uk]
- Filthy PCs: [theregister.co.uk]
NOT a waste of time (Score:2)
Short and Sweet: YES, do take the time to clean your electronics. Below is my own subjective experience. YMMV
When I was 17 I owned what was arguably the best laptop available to consumers in the whole world. It had the first edition of Pentium 4 mobile processors, a dvd burner and a 32 MEG (!) GeForce 4 mobile video card. I was the envy of all my friends. (I got it from the make a wish foundation after having cancer, they envied the laptop, not the cancer)
A year later the CD drive seemed to stop readin
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It might not even have been dust. A small amount of oil from accidentally brushing a fingertip across the lens would be enough.
I'm constantly amazed that phone cameras don't suffer more than they do from a degraded image capture due to fingerprints.
Do you want maintainability, or convenience? (Score:5, Informative)
There's a tradeoff between lifespan and maintenance requirements. For fun, I restore old Teletype machines from the 1920s and 1930s. I have four of them running.
A normal maintenance operation on early Teletypes is to remove the two electrical parts (the motor and the selector magnet) and soak the entire machine in cleaning solution to get rid of dust and dead oil. For machines in heavy use, Western Union did that annually. Then they had to be oiled again (there are several hundred oiling points and six pages of lubrication instructions), gears and sliding joints greased, the electrical parts re-installed, adjustment procedures performed, and the machines re-tested.
Because of this design for maintainability, I've been able to take 80 year old machines that were covered with rust and dirt, and restore them to full operation. But who would put up with something today which required that kind of maintenance? Getting people to clean or change the filters on their desktop computers is difficult.
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Yes, if you buy a good case. I have an Antec 1200 [antec.com] which has four removable, washable filters. I wish I had the patience to clean them once a month, because they get dirty very quickly. This design isn't the best, it still requires quite a bit of disassembly to get at the filters (which is why I don't clean them more often).
I highly recommend everyone buy a case with filters. I bet poor cooling from dust is the #1 cause of hardware failures. Don't forget to clean your la
Yes, clean them - if you know what you're doing (Score:2)
I manage a computer service department. We get a few computers every month suffering from nothing more than the thermal effects of dust build-up inside. Almost all of them come back fine after cleaning. However, we get a greater number of computers damaged by inept cleaning (though most of that is liquid damage). I personally have several pet parrots, and the dander spreads enough that I clean out my computers every six months.
Take them apart, clean them, but ONLY if you are sure you can safely do so.
If it's not broken, don't fix it. (Score:4, Informative)
That's a golden rule.
Most consumer equipment does not need or tolerate frequent maintenance. Cracking open an LCD monitor is not going to make it last longer, on the contrary, you are putting stress on plastic tabs (specially if it doesn't have screws), and on marginal quality harnesses and connectors that are meant to be assembled once.
Clean them or you can get problems! (Score:2)
I use desktop a lot and i feel you have to blow them out (canned air) and check on them when you hear the fan whine a certain way. My machine runs quiet and it should but if you don't hear anything and you get a Blue/black screen then the fan is dead.
Depends. (Score:5, Informative)
If you're cleaning them correctly and carefully, you'll extend their lives. Dust buildup is a leading cause of overheating in PCs, and heat is a real problem.
But if you're cleaning them incorrectly, you'll shorten their lives. Any time you open the case, you're exposing sensitive components to risk, especially static damage. Not grounding yourself to the case when you're touching internal components will allow any static buildup on your body to discharge through a component. Vacuum cleaners draw so much air through them that they generate static electricity, particularly on the tip of a plastic nozzle. Static discharges at lower voltages are invisible and can cause latent damage that you may not immediately discover, but those weaknesses enable other normal stresses to destroy the chip.
When you take it apart to clean it, you're exposing it to non-zero risk. You might make a mechanical mistake in assembly that impacts proper cooling. You might put the CPU heatsink on cockeyed, fail to equally tension all the heat sink mounting screws, or drape a stray cable across a fan and prevent it from turning. Failing to put airflow devices back in their correct place, or failing to reconnect the fans to the power cables, could reduce needed airflow. When you carry it to the workbench, you risk dropping it. I've seen people reuse old thermal paste or glob on a thick layer of new paste when replacing the CPU fan (the fan maker's pre-paste is usually horribly thick.) A bad thermal paste layer will insulate the CPU from the heat sink and cause overheating. Lots of the aftermarket CPU fans have really weird mounting hardware, and you need to be sure they're correctly mounted so they effectively transfer the heat. All these risks can be reduced by learning how to do it right, reading the directions, and taking appropriate precautions.
One way to greatly reduce the risk of damage due to improper handling is to clean the machines only as often as necessary. Dust buildup is dependent on your particular environment. Fabrics, pets, dirt, open windows, flowering plants, carpeting, low humidity, high humidity, smoke, grease, cooking oils, hair sprays, colognes, all are factors that contribute to the build up of dust. So clean it after a year, and figure out what the cleaning schedule should be based on what you discover. It might be that annual cleanings are appropriate, or maybe you can wait two or three years.
All heat is a problem. Direct thermal damage from too much heat is possible, of course, but temperature changes can cause problems too. Thermal expansion causes the mechanical motion of parts. Every material has a different coefficient of expansion, (e.g. aluminum expands more per degree than steel, plastic expands more than aluminum,) so as parts heat and cool, they tug at solder connections, screw mountings, and other interface points inside the case. Repeated heating and cooling cycles increase the possibility of damage. Keeping it clean will keep it cooler, reducing the amount of expansion and motion, and extending the life.
Note that I'm not saying you'll ever drop your computer or ever reassemble it incorrectly, I'm pointing out that the act of cleaning it creates a risk greater than zero, and that the risk is zero when you are not cleaning it. And bigger risks lead to shorter lifespans.
liquid fabric softener (Score:2)
Mix 1/4 liquid fabric softener (unscented if you do not want all your stuff to smell like laundry) to 3/4 water in a spray bottle.
Lightly spray surfaces and wipe dry with a clean rag. The fabric softener conducts enough that it prevents static build up. (Proof by experiment: try on TV screen/enclosure of old tube TV, or spray floor where you used to get a shock to touch a door knob, or the seats of your car.)
I've used this technique for my house's carpets (have to re-apply after each time we got the carpets
I work in a cleanroom (Score:3)
Your suspicion is right... (Score:2)
Same could be said for those who defrag their hard drives weekly, etc.
Air quality (Score:3, Insightful)
If you are having problems with fanless devices getting too dirty inside, you might want to think about improving your indoor air quality, if for no better reason, your own health.
Cpus and other devices with fans stay much cleaner inside if they are not placed on the floor.
Reversed fan and external filter: results (Score:3)
Here is what I have done with excellent results:
My NAS had a small fan, blowing warm air outside it. I remount the fan so that it blows fresh air inside the NAS and I added a custom external filter on the intake. The filter doesn't limit the flow (big accordion shape and stockings-like fabric). I plugged some holes to optimize the flow.
The NAS is sitting on the floor under the stairs, a rather dusty environnement...
After two years I inspected the NAS, here are the results:
- No dust soots the NAS, on some parts there is only a very thin grey layer of the finest particles that goes through the filter. It is much thinner than a coat of paint, nothing to worry about for the years to come.
- Filter is easy to clean, no need to open anything.
Also the NAS is actualy cooler, the hard drives report 35C instead of 37C, this is a side effect of the reverse flow which is more turbulent and effective for going everywhere to cool the parts.
subject (Score:2)
Anecdotal: my hardware firewall (old Pentium II desktop) is on top of a box in the basement a few feet from the furnace. Last time I was in there checking a cable, I noticed maybe 1/16" worth of dust all over it. I haven't had it open since I built it.
Electrostatic contamination probably shouldn't concern you.
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I was given a ration of shit by a girl I know.
She found a jar of chutney in my fridge fully 10 years past it's expiration date. Still smelled fine.
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I smelled chutnet a full year before it expired and it didn't smell fine ...
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Once I grabbed a carton of cream from the fridge, and when I went to pour it, nothing came out. It was completely solidified. I was confused because it was still 2 weeks before the expiration date. Of course, they don't include the year in the exp. date.. I just happened to grab it about one year after I bought it.
Re:Teflon tap (Score:5, Funny)
Also clean your PCI/PCIe/ram slots with fine steel wool to prevent oxidation buildup. Run you CPU through the dishwasher on 'pots and pans' to clean slow electrons out of infrequently used data paths.
Use a mixture of bleach and ammonia for fast and easy cleanup (of the gene pool).
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Trolling aside, I've found that the best way to clean those ISA/PCI/AGP connectors is a white "STAEDTLER" eraser.
Re:Teflon tap (Score:4, Insightful)
Trolling aside, I've found that the best way to clean those ISA/PCI/AGP connectors is to leave them alone alltogether.
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This depends.
Assuming the unit is in a nice, clean, and properly maintained environment, there should never be any reason to do anythiing at all to a card edge connector, or to its slot.
However, people are fucking slobs, and put computers in places they should never be placed. They suck in all kinds of horrible filth, and some very "interesting" (from a chemical standpoint) things can happen.
One noteworthy one I encountered more than once when I did professional PC repair, was the "disgusting oily film" bui
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That's cigarette smoke you're cleaning off. Dog/cat funk is mostly dander.
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In some cases, yes. In others... No. Not when the whole inside of the case smells like wet dog. Tobacco film doesn't smell like that. Personal experience is that "dog funk" happens when the PC owner has one of those nasty long haired little toy dogs, and puts the pet bed for said dog right there next to the PC on the floor. Intake ports get clogged with pet hair, and nasty dog smelling oily filth builds up inside.
Cats usually just have hair and dander. Dogs make oil. It's nasty. Don't let your dog lounge a
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When ATI form factor mother boards were new I once had a 'hacking' incident where my computer mysteriously turned itself off. It was newly technically possible. I sat there contemplating how I had to pave over the machine because I didn't know what software was doing it or how the machine had become infected, when my labweiler walked up for some attention wagging the whole back half of his body. His tail hit the hard power switch.
I basically live in a dog/cat resort. I've never seen 'dog oil' on anything
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I dont know what the substance is with any real certainty. From personal experience, the same substance coats the walls and other surfaces of their living space as well, and they tend to have unholy disgusting and filthy houses.
(After digging around on the internet, I found a picture from somebody's blog that was dealing with it on a flipped house. Pic [blogger.com]) It could be niccotine/tobacco related, but it actually binds permanently with metal, requiring something like brasso to remove it if you use chemicals, or
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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
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Just make sure you've discharged any static in your body before putting the CPU into the water. I routinely walk across the kitchen to a running faucet and get shocked just by touching the grounded water stream. That discharge could easily travel across the chip and ruin it.
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Fine steel wool over an expansion slot is fiendish.
Afterwards put it all together and power it up. It won't boot. Turn it off/on again until it boots. (it's burning steel wool fibers with each turn on).
Now it is a seismograph. It registers the most tiny vibrations by crashing.
Dishwasher used for cleaning old PDP-11 cards (Score:4, Informative)
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If your going to clean contacts, use a pencil eraser.
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As a side not he also recorverd some harddisks by placing them in the fridge to cool shaky electronics.
This one is actually quite a common tip for faulty HDDs, believe it or not, albeit with most versions I've heard recommending the freezer (and an appropriately sealed bag), not the fridge.
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If the ammonia/bleach mix doesn't clean it up. Try heating the thing up then breaking an old school mercury thermometer over it.
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Beaten, came here to say this. And you don't need any special case for this, just more intake airflow than exhaust and filters on all the intakes.
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And you don't need any special case for this, just more intake airflow than exhaust and filters on all the intakes.
The intake airflow will match the exhaust in all cases, what you need is more intake pressure than exhaust pressure so that you have a positive-pressure case. Though that isn't a "requirement" unless you have a clean-room requirements. The leakage of small amounts of air won't matter, so just make sure all your spacers and cover plates are in place, and you should be good. Positive pressure will help keep CD/DVD/blu-ray drives cleaner than negative pressure, but the point is to have one point of airflow i
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Doesn't using canned air compact the dust together and make the problem even worst?
Re:Canned Air.. not a Vacuum Cleaner (Score:4, Insightful)
Let me guess - you're a smoker? That's the nastiest dust I've ever cleaned out of a heatsink. There's oily crud mixed in that just won't let go.
Normal dust comes right off, usually.
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Easiest thing I've found to use on tobacco smoke residue is the 91% isopropyl alcohol and some cotton swabs and lint-free thin cloth over wooden coffee stirs or flat tootpicks for getting in the grooves and in PCI connectors. Probably not the best substance but it's cheap and readily gotten. For the rest? Nada, really; the machine is gonna stink like old smoke. (I should know, I smoke.)
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Is there anything wrong with using a can of electrical parts cleaner and then hitting it with eg. compressed air?
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/CRC-Lectra-Motive-electric-parts-cleaner/_/N-262e?itemIdentifier=119711_0_0_
Hasn't been problematic for me, before. No irritating cleanup, just pour it on the ground after you spray. ;)
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I think you got it.
A few years back, prompted by a remark found in a forum somewhere about manufacturers running mobos through a dishwasher at one stage, I looked into the possibility of washing a mobo at home. Seems that it can be done, if a few things are scrupulously observed. The real tricky part is ensuring that the sucker is truly dry before putting things back together and powering up.
For testing if dry, if one could shade the mobo and a thermometer, then enclose it in, say, a plastic cover as from
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I once had to clean a computer that kept shutting off due to overheating. It was used to do the administration at a cattle ranch in central Victoria (semi-desert regions) in Australia. About 2 inches of bulldust had accumulated in the case.
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It should either have been 'worse' (less good) or 'wurst' (mmm.... wurst).
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Hold the can perfectly upright and you don't get anything coming out of the can. Turning it at an angle, or worse upside down will coat it with those chemicals and that will evaporate. But before it does, it will also condense loads of water because it's well below zero degrees.
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Your first point is completely invalid when referring to a computer. The effects of a dust-induced thermal blanket are never beneficial. It's not an organism that is capable of adapting to its environment. If a thermal blanket were actually needed, the engineer would deliberately add an insulating layer.
The most thought an engineer gives to dust is to either prevent it through seals and filters, remove it, or to minimize its impact. It is never to depend upon it, with the sole exception of the activity