Cleaning computer hardware
- Thread starter Manason
- Start date
(Of course this goes without saying but I'll put it in here anyways, ALWAYS UNPLUG AND DISCONNECT YOUR COMPUTER BEFORE INTERNAL SERVICE.)
What we do for our clients is take the computers back to our shop, and use an air compressor to blow the dust, fur, and other buildup out of the casing.
The only caveat to this is you want to make sure you hold any FANS in place so they do not spin freely. The air speed a compressor sends through them could be more than what the Fan is rated for and you'll damage the bearings.
After that we take Q-tips and clean the heat sinks (big blocky metal things) and other hard to get areas. Then we let it sit long enough for the cleaning solution to evaporate off, and power it back on to confirm everything is still connected, and out the door it goes to another satisfied customer.
What we do for our clients is take the computers back to our shop, and use an air compressor to blow the dust, fur, and other buildup out of the casing.
The only caveat to this is you want to make sure you hold any FANS in place so they do not spin freely. The air speed a compressor sends through them could be more than what the Fan is rated for and you'll damage the bearings.
After that we take Q-tips and clean the heat sinks (big blocky metal things) and other hard to get areas. Then we let it sit long enough for the cleaning solution to evaporate off, and power it back on to confirm everything is still connected, and out the door it goes to another satisfied customer.
Your finger is fine.
But Jubei, it could chop his hands off! Fans are very dangerous!
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- Mar 11, 2011
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I hopp hol hn o; no I h o yp lik hi.
(^ I chopped a whole hand off; now I have to type like this.)
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- Dec 18, 2008
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I clean my motherboards with soap and water. Works pretty well, haven't killed anything else.
Might wanna dust it off first since the dust will get kinda caked on there.
Like this (not me in vid):
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huGl2hfzL90[/ame]
(not joking)
Might wanna dust it off first since the dust will get kinda caked on there.
Like this (not me in vid):
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huGl2hfzL90[/ame]
(not joking)
Yeah, but I'd rather be back to playing with my PC than waiting for it to dry. I know it doesn't take that long, but I'm impatient.
Assuming that cleaning one's PC doesn't make them brain dead, one would think that the power would be off first - so you know, the fans aren't spinning?
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- Sep 1, 2008
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- 258
Use distilled water when you do that. :chair:
So how is it that you can clean a motherboard like that? You would think it would be harmful to the motherboard since it requires electricity to go through it to power certain parts. So how long do you have to wait for the motherboard to dry before using it again?
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- Dec 18, 2008
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Why lol? My motherboard doesn't deserve fancy water.
As long as there is no electricity going through it when you clean it it will be fine. Without electricity there is no way for it to create a short. Just make sure you let it dry 100% before you try to use it.
I think in that vid he left the cmos battery in, which i would usually take out.
This is really only practical for getting vasaline, or other insulators off you board (used to insulate for extreme cooling methods), if you are just trying to get dust off, then compressed air works fine.
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- Jan 22, 2010
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i use a compressor 
