The dust thread

[370forlife]

Re: The dust thread

The dust I hate is the kind that seems to have a coating of glue on it that compressed air can't budge. You wind up going in with a lint-free cloth and some q-tips and attempt to work around all the parts.

[momaka]

Re: The dust thread

ALWAYS flip the CPU fans on those comps to blow out from the factory they actually blow in.

On that particular model (Dell Dimension 3000), the 92mm CPU/system fan blows air out of the case by default. Problem is that the front intake hole is really small so the CPU/system fan starts to suck air from the vents on the back of the computer, which pretty much has the same effect that you described. Keeping one of the sides slightly open eliminates this problem and keeps the fans dead silent, even when CPU is under 100% load. Of course your method with the 120mm fan on the front is definitely a more neat alternative.

[stj]

Re: The dust thread

i fit a 92 or 120 on the front,
i put it in front of the floppy/3.5" bays and cut the metal out so it cools the drives.
fit the fan on the outside of the metal, and cut the plastic front so it sit's flush - almost.
then fit a filter.

here is one i did for a friend - not filtered.
double 80mm bb fan's going direct to the drives & mobo.
no metal behind them.

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

looks like that one was in a bad environment.rust on the case.
had a neighbor with a unit with a dead mobo.turns out it failed due to mouse pee.

I get lots of computers with rusty cases. One that I had in a few weeks ago looked 10 times worse than that. Some look so bad that I reckon I could just push the grills out.

Just before the motherboard died on this dell, my boss was getting data off it for the owner. He said that the fans would labour hard even under very light load. There was a coat of dust about 5mm thick over the CPU Heatsink.

[pentium]

Re: The dust thread

I wonder when this last saw a good cleaning?



It was in a dustbin of a case so nasty I tossed it outside. It was so dead the sparkle PSU in it wouldn't even power on.

[Wizard]

Re: The dust thread

Looks like this decent heatsink was from a AM2 or AM3 AMD cpu, wouldn't this CPU be saved and put on different board?

Cheers, Wizard

[sofTest]

Re: The dust thread

I don't have any pictures, but back in the mid 90s, the company I worked for was in a merger. In the other company, only the accounting department was networked. So, when the time came to co-locate to new offices, I had to find out what was needed to get rest of the PCs networked. Most of their PCs was standard stuff, like HPs. One of the exceptions was an engineer with an IBM in a desktop case. This case was placed flat on the floor, under the desks drawer section. Since IBM was IBM (read MCA) in those days, I had to open it up to verify what kind of card slots it had. When I opened, it was fully packed with dust. Visually, there was absolutely no free space in the case. Had to scope the dust out by the handfulls, to get to the slots. I was surprised it worked, as there must have been very little or no air circulation in that case. Fortunately that particular PC was so old, that it was decided to be one of about 20 to be replaced with the then new Pentiums, so I didn't need to clean it out properly, before fitting a network card.

[pentium]

Re: The dust thread

Looks like this decent heatsink was from a AM2 or AM3 AMD cpu, wouldn't this CPU be saved and put on different board?

Cheers, Wizard

It's for a socket 478 P4 actually and I'll put it aside for later once I figure out how to separate the CPU from the heatsink. It feels like it's glued in place.

[Wizard]

Re: The dust thread

Clean off dust and warm the heatsink with your hair dryer or heat gun. The heatsink grease will soften. The OEM heatsink often is heat-melt termal pad that reharden when cooled.

Cheers, Wizard

[shadow]

Re: The dust thread

That is what happens to the 478 socket cpu's with stock Intel thermal paste. It dries bloddy hard and is very difficult to separate the cpu from the heatsink.

What I did with mine was gently heat up the heatsink with a hair dryer..and slowly twist the cpu and heatsink and eventually I was able to separate the cpu from the heatsink.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: The dust thread

If heat doesn't work, try popping the thing in the freezer for a few hours and then trying your luck again.

That's what I had to do to get a 478 P4 off an aftermarket heatsink in an old home-built computer someone gave me that their uncle had put together for them a few years back.

The reason it was stuck? The idiot who put the thing together put the heatsink on without taking off that plastic tab that all heatsinks come with to keep the copper surface unmarred during shipping. He must have assumed it was some sort of pre-applied thermal paste.

[EGuevarae]

Re: The dust thread

If heat doesn't work, try popping the thing in the freezer for a few hours and then trying your luck again.

That's what I had to do to get a 478 P4 off an aftermarket heatsink in an old home-built computer someone gave me that their uncle had put together for them a few years back.

The reason it was stuck? The idiot who put the thing together put the heatsink on without taking off that plastic tab that all heatsinks come with to keep the copper surface unmarred during shipping. He must have assumed it was some sort of pre-applied thermal paste.

[kc8adu]

Re: The dust thread

thats a close contender for the cruddiest hsf ever.
and i use my heatgun to warm it up then gently pry the chip off if stuck .if the board runs you can also run it a short while with the fan unplugged and when warm gently twist the hsf to break the cpu loose.yanking it out without releasing the lever probably isnt good for the very thin gold plating on the contacts and pins.

[Krankshaft]

Re: The dust thread

Dang if you didn't say it was dust I would say it was penicillin .

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

This looked brand new after I gave it the leaf blower treatment, but here are the before pics. There was so much dust on the CPU cooler that the fan could not spin

[momaka]

Re: The dust thread

It's like there's a carpet at the bottom of the case .
By the way, one of the Teapo caps next to the CPU heatsink looks bulged in that last pic.

[dood]

Re: The dust thread

Probably every one of those caps is cooked to death... whether they show it or not. Sandwiched between the CPU HSF and the PSU. That CPU HS was probably hot enough to take your finger prints off.

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

The cheapo teapo caps are indeed bulged. I will be recapping it.

[AudioCraZ]

Re: The dust thread

Just a few shots of some of the computers I got pictures of. We nicknamed the Dell the "Dell Planter". Ugh, how can anybody let a computer get this bad...

[EGuevarae]

Re: The dust thread

Just a few shots of some of the computers I got pictures of. We nicknamed the Dell the "Dell Planter". Ugh, how can anybody let a computer get this bad...

Go to Mexico and you will see this almost on a daily basis. And do you want to know the best part? You'll see it in Government units ....