Dust and computers

The fans on my computer seem to attrack dust like a magnet. Adding to this I have two Amazon parrots in the same room as my computer. They put in to the air a very fine powdery dust that is similar to sanded joint compound. I would like to tape to the outside of my tower, by the fans, some type of filter. It would have to be a fairly open weave type of material to allow the fans to do their job, but yet ward off some of the dust that gets inside. Does this sound like a bad idea?

 

It works fine..just as long as your filter isnt too thick.

Some people use the cheapest furnace filters as air filters (you know the blue ones that are plasticy?). This is very similar to what computer case manufacturers use when they include a filter.

 

I cut up one of the $4 furnace filters. The paper filter element is a whole lot easier to deal with than that blue stuff.

 

someone said they boil, and then air-dry bounce dryer sheets. Though
I don't recall exactly the (brand-type), in other words, that first
sentence is imprecise. The dryer sheets can then be placed over
the fans. (Or, that was in a table of this-vs-that solutions)

 

So I'm guessing when you air-dry the dryer sheet, you probably don't put a dryer sheet in with it? :-)

 

They also sell the thin filters that you can put in your heat registers (though I'd never recommend that!). They're nice and thin, easy to trim down and come in a bag of 10 or 12 for $5. You could probably get 2 PC filters out of each sheet.
Available at Home Centers and prob hardware stores also. Like this....

Furnace Filters, AC Filters, Replacement Filter: WEB Vent Register Filters, 12-Pack

 

I'm glad to hear that my idea of a filter isn't so dumb after all. I think I even have a piece of furnace filter in my garage. Thanks for the info everyone.

 

If your fan is clogged, the inside of the computer is probably also loaded with dust. The easiest way I've found to clean the circuit boards & wiring while they're in place is to use a vacuum cleaner with the upholstery attachment.

A small artist's paintbrush with a very light touch loosens the dust on those sensitive components, and the vacuum takes over from there. Never touch or jab at anything with the upholstery attachment. Keep it an inch or two away from everything.

The vacuum's brush attachment may seem like a good idea, but it's too rough and can actually generate static electricity.

 

All those are great idea and should work for your computer, but if you have not a ready done so, get an air purifier. This will help your problem plus clean the air that you beath. Just think if all the stuff is in fan is also going in your lungs. That can't be healthy.

 

I've had my new computer for just one month and I want to nip the dust problem in the bud before it starts. I did find in my garage some old furnace filter material. It is the roll type vs the screen type. It is very open weave and several layers thick. About 1" or so. Air flows freely through it so it should work well.
With my old computer, every couple of months I would take the side off and blow out the dust. I felt comfortable doing this and never had any problems. Eventually Windows became very corrupt and had allot of systems errors. But thanks to Norton I got stuck in Safe Mode and could not get out. Had to do a partial recovery, but it was never the same again. I am now in the process of getting the data that is on that computer, and yes, putting it on little 3.5 floppies, as my dvd burner won't work. I'll do a full recovery, put the data back on it, and then burn it to a dvd. At least that is my plan. Within a few days I will find out if that plan works. I guess that is what happens when you let a 26 year old have free reign of your computer, downloading anything and everything, and myself for not doing any backups. Not to mention having a 6 yr old computer.

 

Floppies?!? One CD holds as much as 400. One DVD holds more data than 2500 floppies. You'll be there for years!

For under $20, a 4 gig USB flash drive can hold almost as much as a DVD. Copy, cut, paste as many times as you need to.

Or, can you afford a USB hard drive (sample here)?

 

8 gig thumb drives at WalMart for under $20

 

37 floppies later....but I did it. I did buy a thumb drive but then got kind of confused. The software on it says it is for Vista 32 bit...I've got 64 bit and I am taking stuff off of XP. I didn't know what was compatible with what, so I went with what I was comfortable with. Time wasn't an issue. I'm in the process of doing a full recovery now so there is no going back.
The thumb drive that I bought is a 2 gig Sony microvault. If my recovery on the XP doesn't go as planned, can I transfer the stuff from my disks over to the thumb drive and then on to my Vista computer?

 

You can use the window a/c filters (the gray ones that you cut to fit), it's a foam type that will filter the air without restricting flow too much. However it's going to be very important on your part now to keep the filters clean.

For dust inside the machine, the two most important parts to keep free of dust is the CPU heatsink, and the Power Supply heatsink.

Don't waste your money on those cans of air if you have an air compressor. Take the 'blow gun' attachment, and use it to blow out the entire case, paying attention to the areas I mentioned above.

If you smoke indoors, this is even more important, as the tar in cigarette smoke is a dust magnet.

Obviously, if you have an inline oil injector for air tools, you'll want to be tapping the air before this point.. doh!

I've used this method for over 15 years and have never damaged a machine doing it. I use it on all my desktops and laptops.

The bonus, since you are doing this OUTSIDE, all that dust you are blowing out stays outside, rather than just getting recycled back in to you home.

 

To add:

I would not use a vacuum near the insides of a computer. The plastic tubes can create some pretty good static with air passing through them, which could damage your machine.

 

I've used shop vacs, uprights, DirtDevils, portables and even the tiny vacs that are designed for the purpose for 25 years without a single problem.

A vacuum & brush removes the dust in the reverse order in which it arrived. Blowing it with compressed air forces dust further into every little nook & cranny.

 

A vac won't get the dust that is inside the power supply, or on the fins of the CPU heatsink. 100 psi of air will. It will also get it from between the motherboard and case where no vac can reach, as well as inside the front bezel area, etc.

 

I always use a combination of both......blow it with air (I've used canned in some places, I wasn't payin for it) and keep the shopvac nozzle at the exit point.

 

The first time I cleaned it out I used canned air. Now I use my compressor. That works much better and costs next to nothing.
I did a full recovery on the old computer last night. Couldn't get my DSL to work and then also had some kind of a system 32 error. Then I remembered that we had installed a DVD drive a couple of years ago. I disconnected that and then did another recovery. So far no errors but I haven't tried to get an internet connection yet. I want to check with Verizon and see if the disk they gave me 5 years ago is still usable or if I need someting more up to date.

 

Not meaning to be argumentative ... Earlier this month I took one of the machines apart -- and I mean completely apart -- since I was going to add some ram and wipe the drive anyway.

My little artist brush and upholstery attachment worked for an hour to get at every little crevice, including the tines of the CPU heat sink. I suppose I could have used compressed air, but it's wintertime here in Sunny Buffalo so taking it outside was not an option. I didn't want to just release the dust into the room.

 

> I took one of the machines apart -- and I mean completely apart

Most people aren't going to take their machine apart, especially removing the cover from the power supply, or the fan from the CPU heatsink.

Let's face it, most people aren't going to do anything about the dust in their machine at all.

>worked for an hour to get at every little crevice

Something you could have done in 2 minutes with compressed air.

The most important think to come away from all of this is that you just do something to keep the dust build up down. Whether it's canned air, compressed or or vacuum.

 

At one time I never even gave dust a thought. About a year or so after we got our 1st computer I got a message on boot up that the system was running hot. That's when I discovered the massive dust build up. The fans and guts get cleaned out much more frequently now. At first I was a little intimidated about taking the cover off....but not anymore.