A Friendly Reminder To Dust Your PC
By Benjamen Johnson
As it gets warmer this spring, your ambient room temperature goes up, too — at least if you have your furnace and AC set to reasonable levels — which means your computer has to work harder to get rid of the heat it produces, so the CPU doesn’t turn into a molten pile of goo. I didn’t know just how stressed my computer was till it started beeping at me as I was getting ready for bed the other night.
I followed my ears to my computer, which was trying to tell me that it wasn’t happy. The widget I run on my desktop said the CPU temperature was 70°C — a little on the warm side. After killing everything that was running, it still was too warm, so I shut it down to worry about it the next day.
The next day after I started up the computer the CPU temperature widget read 48°C — still a bit on the warm side. I popped open the case and noticed about a year’s worth of dust caked on the CPU cooler, not unlike the photo above. I shut down the system again and blew out the case with my trusty can of air. If I’d been thinking I would have done this outside.
After the dust cleared and I could breathe again, I restarted the computer. The CPU temperature now hovered around 32°C. Simply cleaning the dust off the CPU heat sink and from inside the case lowered the temperature by 16°C (29°F)!
The moral of this story is that dusting your computer now and again can make a huge difference in how cool it runs. So be kind to your computer — after all, it’s letting you read Toolmonger right now, isn’t it?
Thanks, eurleif for the great CC-licensed photo!
April 27th, 2009 at 11:31 am
This is why I like my PC cases to have little washable air filters on the air inlets. Its super easy to just take it off and rinse it out everyonce in awhile.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Thanks for the reminder! I usually skip the (expensive) canned air and use my air compressor. One tip that I always tell people is to HOLD THE FANS STILL while you blow them off. It is quite easy to spin a fan faster than it was designed to spin + blow out the bearings! I learned this the hard way… the fans do sound really neat though when you get them really going.
Oh - and do this outside or you’ll have a very mad wife!
April 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I’ve always wondered why more computer makers don’t put the case under positive pressure and filter the single inlet, rather than putting it under negative pressure and allowing every nook and cranny in the faceplate to become a dust collector.
Or they could focus on not using so much damn power in the first place. All that heat dissipation is a sign that your computer isn’t anywhere near as efficient as it could be. (’Nother reason I like laptops, even though they’re more expensive.)
cl
April 27th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Chris, my guess is that manufacturers try to maximize airflow and heat dissipation at a minimal cost. Plus, most people wouldn’t bother cleaning the filter, and dust will make its way into the system anyways.
In any case, Joel makes a great point about stopping the fan blades to prevent damage. I like to go over fan blades with a cotton swab first to remove the really dense dust first.
NEVER Vacuum inside a computer - I’ve heard a few accounts of frying components w/ static electricity. I’m a bit skeptical don’t dare test things out with my own equipment.
I also would be a bit hesitant to use air from a compressor unless I was absolutely sure it was dry. A basic moisture filter costs about $20. Unless you have one already, that $20 can buy several cleanings worth of canned air.
April 27th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
The photo is very similar to how I found the inside of my PC just a few weeks ago. The floppy drive was totally caked with dirt!
I always vacuum-clean inside PCs.
Back in office days I had a fancy one that was supposed to protect the equipment from static and the humans from laser-printer powder. Now I just use the household machine. It hasn’t caused me any problems …so far.
April 27th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
My two cents worth:
1) The amount of curd drawn into the computer will be reduced if the case is not sitting or lying on the floor. Keep it above floor level. Put a phone book under it or some such. Do not let the case settle into that nicely padded carpet.
2) Try not to place fan openings too close to walls (especially fabric covered cubicle walls), or other surfaces that might hold dust and release when disturbed. The fan acts like a vacuum cleaner. The surface of the wall (or desk) is disturbed and a bunch of crud rains down and is sucked into the case.
3) Shut the PC off before cleaning or vacuuming near it.
4) In an office environment, quarterly maintenance should do. Computers aren’t fishing licenses; they don’t all have to be cleaned on the same day.
5) Temperature is not the only issue. I have seen ribbon cable connectors short (in the sense that signals got on to the wrong pins) due to dust on the cable. Strange things happen.
6) When using a compressor, be SURE to reduce the output pressure. 10-20 psi is more than enough. At higher pressures, you may blow connectors loose, force air and crud where it does not belong, etc.
7) Be sure your water filter is in good shape too, and that the hose is not blowing bits of itself or something worse into the computer.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Ben, you didn’t go and add dirt from your garden to ’sex’ up that picture, did you?
re: Keep it above floor level.
Taking that to an extreme, my computer is on a shelf 4 feet above the floor. I’ve got filters on the intake fans and they have not needed cleaning in the 4 years it’s been running.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
@Mitch:
No the photo’s from Flickr, I didn’t think about taking pictures until after I cleaned out the case. It’s pretty close to the amount of dust that was on my CPU heat sink though.
I said my CPU cooler had accumulated about a years worth of dust — after thinking about it, I think its more like 6 months. I blame Greta our German Shepard, she kicks up tons of dust and dirt outside and carries it inside with her.
Sad thing is that I specifically bought a case with a filter, but the filter is worse than useless because air can flow right around it. I think PC makers are worried that people wouldn’t clean the filters and soon the computers would get no airflow.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Mine looks something like that. I wish I had a regular vacuum. I just have a Roomba….You can buy filters at Home Depot. Thin black foam ones or the white paper ones. You add cheap fan grills to the other side of the case. Or just tape the filters in place if you don’t care about the looks.
April 27th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
re: Greta
I have two large Malamutes and one medium Husky. Greta’s got nothing on them in terms of fur and they bring in 3x’s the dirt and dust that she does. Having the computer 4-5 feet off the floor cuts the dust intake a thousand fold (I pulled that number out of my ass)
oh sure, the immediate response: blame the dog!
Since I’m feeling a little holier than thou, I decided I better check my computer’s case fan filters and the internal contents. Just in case. oops. The front case fan filters do need to be cleaned. Thanks for the reminder. The internals are pristine though
Even with the computer waaay off the floor, I guess I should be cleaning the filters every 6-12 months. But since they’re case fan filters, I can simply vacuum them without worrying about whether the static story is true or not.
re: “I think PC makers are worried that people wouldn’t clean the filters and soon the computers would get no airflow.”
?? But if the makers leave off the filters, then the CPU’s get crudded up and then they get no airflow. People are hosed either way, aren’t they?
April 27th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Don’t ya think the computer manufacturers want the computers to eventually overheat so you’ll buy a new one? I’m still running a Pentium II until they get rid of Vista, then its new laptop time for me
April 28th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Note to Ben: Either stop using your PC as an impromptu ShopVac or at least install a pleated hepa filter!
I’m amazed that it worked up until such a clogged state. Mine absolutely required I make a custom filter as the smallest amount of dust seems to have great impact.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I once had a service call to clean a computer that was on the shop floor of a leather goods processing factory (back when that was done in the US).
I couldn’t even see the components on the system board….
April 28th, 2009 at 10:46 am
An ESD safe vacuum is actually pretty easy to make. Run a bare copper wire up the hose and ground it to the earth ground in your vacuum with a 1 Mega Ohm resistor in series with it to limit the current that may come back UP the ground (e.g. lightning strike). Here is a link to the Woodcraft site that gives a good example of a wood shop dust collection system that minimizes static discharge. This is a good guideline for any shop vacuum, portable or not, that should be used.
April 28th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
The way I clean them is to hold my vacuum hose 6-8″ from the surface and used canned air to blow the dust into the air. The vacuum then just sucks the dust out of the air without contacting anything. Keeps the mess down, and keeps dust from getting back in the pc.
The trick I’ve found with canned air is to have 6 cans and once one gets cold and looses power swap to the next one in line. Then by the time the last one is cold, the first has come back up to room temp.
I could only imagine what the power supply in that machine looks like.
April 29th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Interresting article… I’m not sure your conversion from celsius to farenheit is correct though.
April 29th, 2009 at 6:28 am
He doesn’t mean to say 16°C = 29°F. He means to say a change of 16 degrees Celcius is equal to a change of 29 degrees Farenheit.
Farenheit degrees are smaller than Celcius degrees. If you forget, just figure it out. Freezing to boiling: F is 212-32=180 degrees, C is 100-0 = 100 degrees. So 1 degree C equals 1.8 degrees F. 16×1.8 = 29 to the nearest degree…
April 29th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
If you turn your PC off when you’re not using it you won’t get much dust in it, and save energy. I never see more than a trace of dust in my PC even thought I have it on for a couple of hours every day.
June 8th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
You must be kidding, this computer must of been in a pig pen.