Dust Bunnies
29 Jan 2010 5:56:17 UTC
Topic 194749
(moderation:
Well a mate of mine asked me to look at his computer - some 3 years old now - that was behaving oddly, running slow, rebooting randomly and generally making novel noises :
it had a few other issues like Limewire and three firewalls enabled, but it was mainly an air compressor that did the trick :
I've suggested he keep it up on the desktop from now on .... :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
Dust Bunnies
)
Note in particular the layer of dust almost forming a felt pad behind the CPU fan (right hand side), completely obscuring the heatsink visible in the second picture. That's the killer, and in some cases/locations can be almost invisible - take a torch in your field service kit.
ironic, i just cleaned out my
)
ironic, i just cleaned out my dust bunnies a week ago. i remember thinking "WHY do they put the fins so close together on the heat sinks!"
seeing without seeing is something the blind learn to do, and seeing beyond vision can be a gift.
I've seen worse :)
)
I've seen worse :) Thankfully, not in my own PC. If the PC keeps acting up, he might want to invest in a new Power Supply. I just bought myself a new one (Seasonic X-Series 750 W) and it solved all the problems I'd been having ever since I bought this PC (which was supposed to be very high end, but..). Although the one I bought is probably a bit overkill for a mainstream user, I suggest Hardware Secrets to get an informed opinion on which ones are best - they do very in-depth reviews.
An air compressor is not the
)
An air compressor is not the most obvious of tools in pc shops,
the amount of dirt that can build up in a 24/7 boinc machine
Real compressed air is better than the tined stuff :)
Though i also have a sand blasting cabinet (and filters),
so dust bunnies are near extinct here,
i have my own terminator.
RE: An air compressor is
)
Depends on the quality of your compressor. The setup my dad had for a few years leaked small amounts of grease (oil?) into the air and was unsuitable for blowing electronics. Not sure if that was because it was cheap setup, or because of his habit of abusing tools...
There are some real beauties
)
There are some real beauties here, like something out of a horror movie http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/13/ventblockers/
Mike