3646471

Re: How to clean your

April 24th, 2007 10:04 PM

yea the vacume cleaner takes care of that,
what also helps is just taking of bothn side pannels and putting it out side in the wind for just a few minuts .. ofcourse not when its raining or any shitty weather like that just some nice sun and a good breeze does the trick to

3646518

Re: How to clean your

rob.

April 25th, 2007 12:24 AM

Vacuum Cleaners are great sources of static. Use compressed air.

3646582

Re: How to clean your

April 25th, 2007 02:33 AM

1.) No, not you. The computer. You know, if your walking around with wool socks on a carpet or something. Theres always a risk of touching a circuit and shocking it, ruining it. So its just a safety percaution, for the life of your computer

2.) well, it's not a big deal, but if you get the fan spinning fast from using the canned air, it's just not good for it, and if god really hates you you might get some power generated and backfired into your pc, who knows lol. just spray it at an angle to be safe i guess

3647783

Re: How to clean your

April 25th, 2007 09:12 PM

Plus the bearings on the fans could wear out faster, reducing the life of the fan.

Yeah. I would avoid anything that has to be plugged into an outlet. I figure that if it needs that much power, then it probably produces too much static. Although, some battery powered devices can be as bad, or worse. It depends on the design.

A good rule of thumb, it there is any exposed metal, or any external wires, it is probably a bad choice.

As always, there is always a small risk that you might short something out in the computer. It is best to minimize that risk. Including avoiding using electrical devices, or metal objects on, or around circuitry. As well as discharging any static, by touching a metal object, and double-checking all "grounds".

3647862

Re: How to clean your

April 25th, 2007 10:21 PM

paintball gun works too just make sure its not loaded with p-balls

3648236

Re: How to clean your

April 26th, 2007 05:13 AM

Whoops

Joking... I hope

3648445

Re: How to clean your

April 26th, 2007 08:28 AM

Well, it could work in theory. I mean, what do paint ball guns use, "compressed air". What do you need to clean a computer, "compressed air".

I guess it would be best to compare prices for cans of air, vs an air cartridge.

3648517

Re: How to clean your

April 26th, 2007 09:50 AM

To those that used a duster and vacuum to clean the innards of their pc's. Consider yourselves very lucky you didn't damage your systems. Just because the system is unplugged doesn't mean there's no electricity in it. Capacitors can store an electrical charge for several seconds after the computer is unplugged.

Using a small air compressor on a medium or low setting is the optimal way of cleaning your system. Don’t use it on too high of a setting or you may end up damaging parts of your system that 'stick out' by bending them or cracking the pins that hold them in place.

If you don't have an air compressor, canned air is the only other safe means of cleaning out your system. It may take a little longer, but it will conduct no form of static electricity and remove the dust that's been sitting on your components.

Use a duster or vacuum? No. Never use it to directly get the dust off of your system. You can use it for collecting the dust in the air after blasting it with compressed air, but never, ever use a vacuum to clean your system.

Do not put any type of cloth on your components either. Cloth of most types conducts a static charge and wiping it all over the inside of your case is just asking it to fry.

Why clean your case? As it was mentioned above about it blocking circulation, especially if you have dust filters, the dust itself can heat up, and when it gets baked on, say a graphics card, not only do you have the heat from the graphics card, but the heat that's generated by the dust both blocking the heat from being released and by the fact that you're heating the dust as well. So it's like a warm blanket being on something you want to keep as cool as possible.

The hotter computer components get, the shorter the life span, and the lower the performance becomes. This is both long term and short term, as you'll notice slower speeds the hotter the system becomes and the potential of damaging your components becomes a lot higher.