Got an older computer?

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Summertime maintenance tip for an older computer: Open it up. Seriously, open up the computer case and take a look inside. Chance are it may look a bi
[See the full post at: Got an older computer?]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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SupremeLaW, SueW, cyberSAR, Charlie, AlphaCharlie, Cybertooth, geekdom

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You could have picked a dirty one! – The case bottom is still showing in a place or two. You’re also not in a spider friendly area,  and don’t allow smoking in the office!

The worst system I had was resident in a kitchen where a deep fat fryer was used daily – dust, tobacco smoke, and spider webs, welded into place by an overcoat of a brown substance resembling tar – air wouldn’t move the dust,, it took IPA and scraping to clear the coolers and every connector, plug, socket had to be parted, washed out/ off with IPA (need a fibreglass pen..) and the whole thing rebuilt to get it reliable.)

Remembrances of times past coming back, brought on by the extra long (about two feet) grey “figure 8” SATA cable we used to recycle from the Intel SC5200 chassis visible in the shot (We used a separate RAID card with an octopus cable and hot swap bays). They made building full towers that bit easier as most motherboard cables on workstation end stuff were at best 18 inches..  then it all went mini ITX and slimline drives..

Perhaps one thing to mention in passing is a jet of air from a compressor is good for moving the dirt, but as well as being aware of the risk of injuring yourself (or others) by launching a loose screw, you also need to realise moving air generates static so the metal source nozzle needs to be connected to the PC and preferably to ground or thousands of volts can build on the nozzle very quickly in dry conditions and that won’t help your PC. The current is almost zero until the voltage builds so it can be as simple as put the PC on the floor and hold the PC and nozzle as you blow out the dust..

The cheaper “antistatic” compressed air cans are simply not dry air. Given recent weather we probably need to be a bit more aware. If you’re using a compressor literally and you haven’t drained water from the reservoir it accumulated in wetter weather, your PC will be fine but your compressor could be on the way to becoming a bomb as the tank rusts inside and can fail disastrously. Just thought I’d mention that. It’ll be in the manual.

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SupremeLaW, geekdom

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I did not know India pale ale was good for that!!
I use QD electronics cleaner by CRC and save the IPA for later.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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SupremeLaW

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I’ll vouch for IPA as Iso Propyl Alcohol. The other IPA might work but you might want to make sure everything has thoroughly dried out first!

The old school solution was methylated spirit but I found the water content and residue from the “to prevent drinking” additives actually meant it just changed the type of mess.. and the smell just doesn’t go away quick enough..

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SupremeLaW

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Well if u go with your IPA I would suggest at least 91% , too much H2O in the 70%. None of which are as drinkable as my IPA.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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SupremeLaW

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99% is also excellent for cleaning grime off circuit boards, best applied with care using lint-free swabs or towels. Test an bare area first, electronics can withstand it and be fine. Guard against contact (if desired) with plastics, glues, and perhaps certain coatings (also this warning does apply to 91% isopropyl alcohol.)

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SupremeLaW

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When I used to be a heavy smoker, I added an additional circular hole and 140 mm fan in a side panel to blow cool air towards the video card. I also installed a layer of kitchen hood filter in all air intakes, and replaced those filters every 2-3 months.

Nevertheless, after 3-4 years inhaling tobacco smoke, all components and cables became sticky with a tarry residue, though no dust. After 6-7 years use, I considered my computer(s) obsolete and assembled/bought a new one.

Fortunately, several years ago, I’ve stopped smoking completely. Though I still get a new computer every 6 years or so, .

I’m still wondering why OEM’s don’t provide air scrubbers in computer cases.

Wouldn’t a reverse air flow from a large intake, 250-300 mm fan, with an automotive quality air filter, be a good solution to keep the inside clean?

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

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SupremeLaW, geekdom

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Air scrubbers don’t pan out – they block too much flow (raising in warranty call outs) and add cost, so the tendency has been for chunkier heatsinks do the dust blows through the gaps, so the build up gets problematic after the warranty has expired and contributes to the sale of new machines.

As to the reverse air flow that was done in the Sony PS3 with some success (but as they designed their own everything, having a  fan spin backwards at speed wasn’t difficult..). Experience there is spiders are still a problem! The webs string the dust and help bust bunny formation and they tend to get back in when evicted..

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SupremeLaW

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I am thinking any blower strong enough to work with an automotive quality air filter would tend to be a bit loud. I use a more porous type of filter material and make sure I have applied a positive pressure to the case through it.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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SupremeLaW

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I have a couple older desktop PC downstairs and they tend to suck in more dust then what I thought they would. They get a good cleaning at least every year if not sooner. I think todays PCs have even more fans so probably move a lot more dirty air through them

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SupremeLaW

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That Windows 7 computer shown in the topic picture looks like the case was never opened in the 12 to 13 years since it likely was built.  I used to see computers come back into my office from construction sites that looked like that.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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SupremeLaW, Cybertooth

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That looks clean compared to the ones I’ve been getting in recently! Veterinarian offices and woodworking shops have been my worst ones. Who remembers the days of putting the keyboard through a dishwasher cycle?

Edit to add: The one after Katrina where a water moccasin came out angry was my all-time worst one. I despise snakes so you can imagine my reaction at that one!

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SupremeLaW, Charlie, Wayne, Cybertooth

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When I bought my current desktop computer in 2018 I did two things that made a big difference in keeping the motherboard & component dust collection to a minimum.

1.  Liquid cooling with a radiator and a case with front, top and rear radiator fans.
2. A small hand held rechargeable cordless Air Duster & Vacuum 2 in 1.  Eliminates compressed air cans.

There are lots of different cordless dusters available.  I got a KOONIE 15000mAh.  Cordless dusters work well for desktop cases, keyboards, etc.

 

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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SupremeLaW

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Instead of a small powered vacuum, use a regular household vacuum cleaner that has a hose and a crevice tool (the one with the flat tip). Tape a plastic soda straw (ones that bend are best) into the hole of the crevice tool tip with duct tape such that the tape holds the straw in the tip and the rest of the crevice tool tip opening is covered. When the vacuum is turned on this forces all the air thru this small straw which greatly increases the suction power. You now have a high powered suction with a small flexible tip that is non-conductive.

HTH, Dana:))

HTH, Dana:))

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SupremeLaW

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Susan Bradley wrote:

Summertime maintenance tip for an older computer: Open it up. Seriously, open up the computer case and take a look inside. Chance are it may look a bi
[See the full post at: Got an older computer?]

Susan:  I had a case at a place I worked at back in the early 90’s that’ll beat your dust problem!

Our developers were located in a beach house(!) so that they wouldn’t be distracted by other employees.  One of their computers came back to us, and when I cracked it open – dust was the least of my problems! – but it was loaded with sand and a terrible level of salt corrosion.  It was a fairly new computer (for the time), which makes it all the worse because that means they had it located where the salt breezes blew right into the machine.  They should have known better, but nooooo….    I was able to remediate most of the corrosion, only because I learned about that from my Air Force days in aircraft maintenance, but it most certainly wasn’t easy!

I have had to deal with dust clogging up systems over the years, including a laptop where I was able to drag out clogs of dust and debris with my fingers before even starting to blow anything out.  One useful class of tool was a utility (the name of which I’ve forgotten, but it was an oldie) which monitored the system temperature.  A great tool I found was a Black & Decker hand-held vacuum cleaner (I have two, one for the house and one for the RV for housekeeping, which I highly recommend) which allowed for reversing the hose so that it works as a blower as well as a vacuum) that made quick work of any dust cleanup in laptops.  (I don’t have any desktops at present, just laptops.)

In short, definitely check for dust but don’t stop there!  Look for corrosion and other problems as well, as there are strong>many issues besides dust that can cause untold grief in computer systems!

//Steve//

Moderator Note: Please use the Edit Menu buttons and the Text Tab to avoid coding issues.

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oldguy, SupremeLaW, geekdom

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Steve-

For future use, you may wish to test a post to see how it will look before posting it. As you can see above, the site didn’t handle your formatting for underlined text too well. The forum for testing a post is located here:

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/forum/testing-forum/

Hopefully, things will get better with regards to adding underlined text as a formatting option in addition to the bold and italicized options.

OK, enough of this as it’s off topic for this thread.

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SupremeLaW

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Thanks, and my apologies.  I only used the formatting options in the toolbar above the composition window, did not know they would not always work properly.  I’ll try to remember that in the future. //S//

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SupremeLaW

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Drcard:)) wrote:

Instead of a small powered vacuum, use a regular household vacuum cleaner that has a hose and a crevice tool (the one with the flat tip). Tape a plastic soda straw (ones that bend are best) into the hole of the crevice tool tip with duct tape such that the tape holds the straw in the tip and the rest of the crevice tool tip opening is covered. When the vacuum is turned on this forces all the air thru this small straw which greatly increases the suction power. You now have a high powered suction with a small flexible tip that is non-conductive.

HTH, Dana:))

Great idea, thanks!

//Steve//

 

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SupremeLaW

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I do case cleaning about every six to eight months.  What I didn’t see mentioned in the article was connectors.  I unplug/re-plug every drive connector at both ends, as well as remove and re-insert DIMM’s.

I build my machines, and choose cases with fan filter screens built in.  I also cover all the open vent holes with clear packing tape from the inside, which forces air entry only through those points protected with filter screens.  The filter screens can be removed and cleaned frequently, keeping the air flow up and the amount of dust inside greatly reduced.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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SupremeLaW, geekdom

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feng shui that PC’s location for Win7 longevity and reliability.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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SupremeLaW, Charlie, SueW, Cybertooth

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wavy wrote:

Well if u go with your IPA I would suggest at least 91% , too much H2O in the 70%. None of which are as drinkable as my IPA.

but the 91% Iso Propyl Alcohol is sometimes hard to find in some regions (and sometimes more expensive than the 70% variety)
maybe order the 91% IPA online if that one is not available in your area

https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/lpz5g5/can_i_use_91_isopropyl_alcohol_on_electronics_i/

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SupremeLaW

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CVS seems to to have 91% 99% is hard to find but not really needed in most cases.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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SupremeLaW

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We’ve had much success by catching dust BEFORE it enters the chassis.

On much older “Press-Hot ” CPUs, we added a 120mm fan to the left side panel, and added this 120mm plastic dust filter to that fan:

Silverstone FF121 120mm Fan Grille and Filter Kit

https://www.newegg.com/silverstone-ff121/p/N82E16811999217?Item=N82E16811999217&Tpk=N82E16811999217

Thus, it’s a piece o’ cake to fire up our shop vac and remove the dust that has accumulated in that Silverstone filter.

 

On our more modern HP Z240 workstations, there is an optional dust filter that fits behind the front bezel, but cleaning that filter requires removing the bezel first.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1222469-REG/hp_t9w48aa_z240_dust_filter_filter.html

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Cybertooth

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This is something that every computer owner should be aware of. Box or laptop. DIY or vendor-built.

When I was building box computers I would always search for and pick a case that had easy-to-clean air filters along with plenty of fans for air cooling – many mfgrs don’t seem to consider this important.

I tend to buy laptops used and the first thing I do is open it up to access the cpu heat-sink-fan, remove it, clean it, and replace the thermal paste with something new and likely better than original.

(for win 11) I always run the software “Core Temp” which puts a couple little temperature readouts (one for each cpu core) in the active taskbar region so I can check on the health of the machine. I also run a very old program “SiMeter” which has a vertical real-time graph for cpu-usage, etc, again, so I can keep an eye on what my machine is doing. I have similar monitors for when I am running Mint.

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SupremeLaW

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