Hoover dust from PC

[dturtill]

Hi Guys


quick question what is the main opinion on hoovering dust from the pc, On my old build i used to use the hoover pipe when it was switched off once every few months after giving it a blast with compressed air but i know people say it causes static

any opinions on this

[Spreadie]

Should be ok, if it's switched off but still plugged in, to keep it earthed.

Pro tip: keep a finger on any nearby fan blades when sucking out any dust - a powerful vacuum cleaner can spin them up too fast and damage the bearing.

[Ferral]

I usually use a non synthetic paint brush to avoid static, brush over motherboard and fans etc with it with a hoover sitting turned on over the corner of the case which catches everything that gets kicked up.

[dturtill]

thanks , that tends to be what i have been doing with tipping it to the side but thought would check to see what everyone else was doing

[Ttaskmaster]

I take mine outside to the garage and let rip with a 140psi air compressor.
Hold fans still, blast away - Clears the rads out nicely.
Get stuck in with a ½" paint brish, then re-blast to finish off.

I do that at least once a month and my PC stays nice and shiny.

[smargh]

Don't vacuum. Blow.

At my workplace we use a Datavac blower. Noisy, but efficient.

Take static precautions with grounding.

[badass]

Look for an "air duster"
It's just a can of compressed gas for blowing dust out of PC's. Does the job nicely but make sure you're outside when you use it. Dust goes everywhere!

[OilSheikh]

Use a toothbrush to loosen settled dust and then blow it away

[watercooled]

I've always hoovered inside PCs. Air dusters can be useful for blasting away more stubborn bits of fluff but an oil-free air compressor as Ttaskmaster says would do the job just as well if you have one. Combining the two preferably outside is good, but avoid doing it with flammable air dusters as the hoover exhaust may be passed over the motor brushes (an ignition point).

I think the static thing is made out to be a much bigger problem than it is for cleaning PCs - the risk of smacking something off with the nozzle is probably a much bigger one and assembled PCBs aren't really as uber-sensitive to static discharge as is often thought. It's up to you of course but I've personally never heard of a single incident (doesn't prove it either way, I understand). To be extra careful you could use a grounded metallic nozzle and/or just keep your distance from PCBs.

As others have said though, hold fans still when cleaning with air , just to be safe.

For a serious case (geddit, case??? ) of dust I've heard of people carefully using a leaf blower, outside of course. Just be careful it doesn't accelerate bits of dirt into your PC, cause mechanical damage or, again, spin fans.

[Tumble]

I've got a grounded service vac (need it for digi presses) but the last PC clean warranted taking heatsinks off, so a wee brush and a tin of duster was employed (along with some lint free cloths, contact cleaner & IPA)

[TooNice]

Speaking of cleaning PC, I wish that every laptop is designed with that aspect in mind. My previous laptop was rendered pretty much unusable because the fan is pretty much dead. Not much to do there except hunting for a replacement fan+heatsink (they are attached) but I decided to just replace the whole thing.

I thought that my current laptop (Dell XPS L502) was suffering the same fate. For the last year whenever I run anything with that ran with the GPU, the laptop would gradually get very hot until the CPU is throttled down to 20% or less, requiring a power down and cool down period. At first it might have taken hours of gaming, but gradually the time got shorter, until last month when the overheating became almost instant. I thought that was the end of this laptop as a main (it still works okay when the discrete GPU isn't necessary so I figured it can still be used for something). Anyway, just in case I decided to give it a clean just in case it was dust clogging up the fans.

I was petty shocked when I saw the instructions to reach the interior of the laptop where the fans were. While the last one only required me to lift the keyboard, this one would have required me to dismantle everything from the keyboard to the screen! As I didn't feel that adventurous / patient, I decided to try shooting some air through the vents. I know that most of the dust will stay inside and I am only moving the dust around but it seemed sufficient to postpone the inevitable. For the past month, I could run the GPU for the whole day without the system throttling down. I only need this laptop to stay alive for another year or so, so it'll have to do. Nevertheless, what made Dell think it was a good idea to design it this way is beyond me. As I understand, it was very easy to access the predecessor's interior and despite the design being not that different, the access to the interior is a world apart.

(There were some guides on hoovering dust through the vents but I ultimately decided against it for fear of static)

[peterb]

I use s vaccum cleaner. I try not to let thenozzle touch anything other than the case, but I have not had a problem with static. Everything is connected anyway.

[ik9000]

I use s vaccum cleaner. I try not to let thenozzle touch anything other than the case, but I have not had a problem with static. Everything is connected anyway.

Ditto. Compressed air to stir it up and then vacuum just off the surface to gobble it up. Good note above on not letting fans spin too fast. I hadn't thought of that. I've done it a few times now on my fans though and they don't seem to have suffered for it.

I've even vacuumed off the base of the case with the thing running once or twice in various machines over the years. Not suffered for it. I wouldn't stick the vacuum right onto a running mobo though obviously.

[Ryan2801]

A combination of the two works for me.