attack of the dustbunnies

[kc8adu]

fuzzy logic

[zandrax]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

kc8adu, the psu blows air inside or outside the case?
In the first case I suggest swapping the fan, in the second one buying a new case with air filters: I never saw such a dust condo
OTOH, you can get a mythical Geforce FX5800 aka Dustbuster: its fan should clean your case in a few seconds

Zandrax

[kc8adu]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

not mine.
belongs to a machine shop i service for.
was running a edm.
odd dust mess to find in such a place.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

Here's one thing I definitely agree about, kc8adu, that's the typical dust bunny phenomenon!

[zandrax]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

So vacuum cleaner, an air can and a lot of patience...

Zandrax

[Krankshaft]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

So thats what fuzzy logic is .

I regularly blow my comps out with compressed air when dust starts to form on the intake vents.

[acstech]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

Yep, compressed air is your friend. Might pop the case off the PSU and blow that out too.

I've seen 'em where there was at least a 1/2" layer of dust on the bottom. Customer says they blew it out every so often. Did they open the case? No...

[bgavin]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

That machine is a little cleaner than most of the ones I see.

Personally, I favor a vacuum cleaner over compressed air which blows dust everywhere for you to breathe. Many automotive brake technicians died from inhaling asbestos dust blown into the air by compressed air.

I don't know chemical junk lurks within a computer, but I don't want to breathe it, and I don't want it all over the walls and furniture of my work area.

[dood]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

I take dusty computers outside and blow all that crap into the wind. No way I'd clean something like that out while it's inside my house! I have some good pics of nasty computers... maybe I'll post them after work.

[Harvey]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

That's spotless compared to some I've seen. I'll see if I've still got the photo's backed up......

[kc8adu]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

we take lint traps like that outside and blow them out with an air compresser.
always check wind direction first!
had the fire dept call on me once when i blew out a ford/rotunda analyser cart systen with 10 years of dirt,grime,and BRAKE DUST.asbestos city!
made a huge black cloud.
i wore a painters powered respirator made to protect me when i spray nasty stuff like imron.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

Compressed air is preferred over vacuums because (so they say) vacuum cleaners create static moving the air through the plastic.

I found a dead mouse in a machine once.
Don't have the slightest idea how it got in.

[dood]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

Here's the worst one I've gotten in here at the house-




Gee, wonder why it was unstable???


I hate people who smoke indoors.


Quite the miscellaneous cruft collection in the bottom of the case....

[pentium]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

OMG it's stuck to the bottom!!!

[toastygoodness]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

you can always get a computer vacuum. i have one that's all plastic. i'm pretty sure it won't generate static.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

Air moving through plastic does generate static.
That's why the gook inside vacuum cleaners is so clingy.
-
Thing is it seems to me the static would be inside the tube and so not matter.
Dunno for sure.

[gdement]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

Static is overrated, I don't worry much about it personally.
A vacuum cleaner helps, but for a more thorough cleaning you can pull out the cards/heatsink and clean them with alcohol. I don't really bother unless I'm worried about the heat, such as a high-strung video card or CPU.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

This is just about dust bunnies.
I agree about static being overrated though.
Going mobile I use a mini air compressor that gives me about 2 minutes of air before I have to let it catch up. Doesn't weigh much. Very handy.
Have a full size compressor in the shop.

[zandrax]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

I'm not a tecnician, I opened only about a dozen of computers so far.

I first use a vacuum cleaner and an old drawing brush: I get most of dirt and dust with the vacuum, then I move the smallest dust on components with the brush while the vacuum sucks it.
I dismantle really dirty heat sinks and open psus (if out of warranty) in order to clean them; of couse, I replace the termal compound as well if I remove the heat sinks.
Notebboks are an exception: I use the vacuum, the brush and an air can (I don't have a compressor) because only an air blow can clean their heat pipes.

Zandrax

[PCBONEZ]

Re: attack of the dustbunnies

zandrax
I used to work on gear for Nuclear plants.
Approved methods there: (some)
A brush. NOT plastic/nylon bristles. Had to be horse or hog hair. (Yeah, sounds funny)
Vacuum (Approved models were specified.)
Compressed air set to 30 psi max.
(We'd cheat and crank it up to around 60 cause 30 don't do much.)
Isopropyl alcohol (90+%) (with a horse hair acid brush if needed for scrubbing PCB)
Most of the other options release things into the environment and are illegal now.
Before that we used to use TriChlorol-something-or-another fairly often.

We would get 91% Isopropyl in 5 gallon cans so if something got drenched (there's water and steam pipes all over in a power plant) we could literally wash the boards in alcohol to dry out the water. (It works.)

--

I don't like compressed air on laptops unless I have them completely opened up.
It can shove dust bunnies into tight spots inside and make matters worse.

.