9 replies to this topic

[rob86]

Today something not overly important nor headline news worthy happened. My fan started buzzing. It was rather annoying and my cat would agree. I calmly used the knowledge from my computer repair course in high school. I started banging on the case. Whrrrr, WhrRrRRrrrrr. That didn't work, so I tried another tried & tested technique. I lifted it up a few inches and dropped it onto the floor. The buzz quieted, but for some incomprehensible reason my repair methods weren't entirely successful.

Alas, I was left with no other option - surgery. I took off the case cover with little difficulty thanks to that quality case I was convinced to pay for years ago and blew in it. Good grief! I almost suffocated from the cloud of dust that escaped from the confines of that case. After gagging for a minute, I started wiggling the fan with my finger hoping to dislodge some dust particles, and dislodge them I did, a big glob of fuzzy dust fell out and on to the sound card. At least I think it was the sound card, it was covered in so much dust that the surface of it wasn't even visible. I blew the glob of dust off and then realized - whoa, wait a second. What if all that dust is holding the computer together? I better leave what's working alone. The thing is absolutely covered in dust. So I cleaned out the fan and sprayed some lubricant on it and now it's quiet. A job well done! Now, excuse me while I pass out from breathing that dust.

You have been listening to Life of Rob on Knowledge Sutra. This high quality posting was paid for by viewers like you.

[sheepdog]

I use the shop vac on mine. For some reason my computer seems to get filled up with dog hair. Can't figure out why.

And if you think cob webs are bad, you would never guess what we found in an old computer that I took in to the repair guy to strip some parts out of....talk about embarassing!!! We actually found the skeletal remains of a mouse! Ug. How the heck that thing got in there is beyoud me!

[mahesh2k]

I use small vaccum cleaner to clean my laptop and desktop. I often found a lot of dust on my old CRT and very less on LCD. I don't know what attracts less dust on LCD and more on CRT based monitors. I have seen CRT screens and the small ventilation points filled with dust and in such cases i make sure to wipe it out. Vaccum cleaner which are charged with USB port are good to use these days and you can keep near table.

[Iniyila]

I use vacuum blower because vacuum cleaner can not clean the whole case completely. I'm using Datavac vacuum blower which comes with a full set of cleaning tools but if you only have one pc, i suggest you ti buy a simple one for many less price.there is an alternative way too which is very easy. you can use a hair dryer in cooling mode.

Always put the case in a high place like on table so it will not fill with dog hair. Using too much fans will make the case dusty so only use one or two extra fans and not many.

[mahesh2k]

LOL. Mouse inside the case ? How big was the skeleton, sheepdog ? I guess it has to be those holes for graphic or network cards or whatever cards that leaves the case space open. I have network card space open from which cockroach always enters inside. I found one attempting for suicide near processor fan. I mean seriously what attracts them to processor fan ? air ?

[AzureMusique]

Haha. No kidding. A remains of a mouse. Eww.... Either it had heart attack or died of old age. Or it just couldn't find itself back out in the way that it came in and died to starvation. But wow, still, it must have been very rare to have that happening to that box of a computer engine.

Yup, dust has definitely the most-hated culprit of machine efficiency and computer heat-ups in older computers.

[truefusion]

I hear the new Antec Lanboy Air when you make all fans intake air (all 15 fans, i think), it creates what they call "positive pressure." This is supposed to ensure a dust-free case.

sheepdog, on 27 November 2010 - 05:20 AM, said:

We actually found the skeletal remains of a mouse! Ug. How the heck that thing got in there is beyoud me!

Your power supply unit died but forgot to take it out when you got a new one. Taking out the mouse wheel, however, seems to have been an effortless task.

[sheepdog]

It was a normal size mouse, not a real huge one, but certainly I would of thought too big to fit thew one of the connection holes. Your mention of the roaches trying to commit suicide reminded me of something I saw once at a friends house that was even more embarrassing than my dead mouse. Their phone had quite working and the repairman was there, when he took the cover off the phone it just exploded with cockroaches, it looked like a roach explosion, thousands of them went running when he exposed their hiding place. That was by the way, why their phone wasn't working. Yuck.

[PhoenixGFX]

rob86, on 25 November 2010 - 07:47 PM, said:

Today something not overly important nor headline news worthy happened. My fan started buzzing. It was rather annoying and my cat would agree. I calmly used the knowledge from my computer repair course in high school. I started banging on the case. Whrrrr, WhrRrRRrrrrr. That didn't work, so I tried another tried & tested technique. I lifted it up a few inches and dropped it onto the floor. The buzz quieted, but for some incomprehensible reason my repair methods weren't entirely successful.

Alas, I was left with no other option - surgery. I took off the case cover with little difficulty thanks to that quality case I was convinced to pay for years ago and blew in it. Good grief! I almost suffocated from the cloud of dust that escaped from the confines of that case. After gagging for a minute, I started wiggling the fan with my finger hoping to dislodge some dust particles, and dislodge them I did, a big glob of fuzzy dust fell out and on to the sound card. At least I think it was the sound card, it was covered in so much dust that the surface of it wasn't even visible. I blew the glob of dust off and then realized - whoa, wait a second. What if all that dust is holding the computer together? I better leave what's working alone. The thing is absolutely covered in dust. So I cleaned out the fan and sprayed some lubricant on it and now it's quiet. A job well done! Now, excuse me while I pass out from breathing that dust.

You have been listening to Life of Rob on Knowledge Sutra. This high quality posting was paid for by viewers like you.

This is the funniest thing I've read this morning.

But honestly, you need to get that dust out. The more dust in your case means more heat. More heat means that your computer will not run as it should and will eventually damage the components.
The best way is to use a can of compressed air and get it out.
Me personally, I would disassemble everything and give it a thorough cleaning. But in your case you need some sort of mask on and do it in a well ventilated area... or do it outdoors.

Do not use the garden hose... I repeat do not use the garden hose...lol.

[k_nitin_r]

I had a really old laptop computer, which was the Thinkpad 600E and I decided to post a long-term ownership review. I didn't have the chance to open it up and determine how must dust was in there, but I suppose there must be a dust bunny or two in there.

The Thinkpad 600E came with a rather good pair of top-facing speakers and the keyboard was great for typing. The modem supported caller ID but it was hard to get it working except with the RingCentral software provided (perhaps it didn't use the Hayes AT command set for the caller ID?). I tried putting it back into service with Linux but most distributions don't work - Knoppix did. The DVD drive seems to be able to boot only from CDs and not from DVDs. The case tends to crack near the CD drive but the hairline crack will not extend further like you would expect it to, thus staying intact. The plastic hinges of the covers for the ports will get brittle and the covers will fall off after about a decade. The CMOS can no longer hold the settings but all you need to do is hit continue after the computer boots up. The hinges of the screen have been able to hold up, surprisingly. The TV output stopped working after a week of using it, but it seems to be a driver fault and I couldn't find the recovery CD to try and get it working again. I am a TrackPoint user so I didn't miss the Touchpad and instead hoped the palmrest would go away too so the laptop would be smaller, but I imagine the screen would stick out so they had to fit something there - I would much rather have extra programmable keys above the regular keys so I can assign shortcuts or key sequences to them. The Thinkpad 600E is very light-weight compared to other laptops that I had and if Thinkpads retained the same chassis, I bet they would have it under the X series. I never had the 600E heat up enough to have the thermal sensor turn off the computer, which is much in favor of the notebook considering its age (I can only imagine how much dust must be in the fan and on the fins of the heatsink, reducing the heat exchange), and the cooling fan works well enough to get all the hot air out. Overall, I was quite happy with the notebook and it served me well for over a decade. I finally gave it away to share the experience of owning a Thinkpad.