Hi listers,

I recycle a lot of old PC stuff and cleaning is a part of almost every box I acquire. I have a small canister style vacuum and use it with the hose attached to the exhaust fitting and the crevice tool on the other end of the hose. I also find a 3" or 4" new clean paintbrush to be ideal for fans and heatsinks. The vacuum is a lot cheaper than the canned air. If it is not too obvious to say this, you should do this kind of work outdoors.

Regards,
Dale Mentzer

>Date:    Sun, 19 Jun 2005 17:22:17 -0500
>From:    Jerome Deyle <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Proper Cleaning Inside the Tower
>
>Well, no guarantees, but what has worked for me is this:
>1. Power down, and unplug everything.
>2. open the case and use the vacuum nozzle to clean dirt off the metal
>surfaces (bottom of the case, air inlet holes/louvers, vent slots on power
>supply, etc). Use care not to touch any of the circuit board surfaces with
>the nozzle.
>3. Use compressed air (I use dry, filtered air from an air compressor and a
>small pencil nozzle) to blow dirt from all the nooks and crannies. Pay
>special attention to the processor heat sink and the power supply. I use a
>pencil to keep fans from spinning, so the air stream can reach the heat sink
>fins. Again, don't touch the board electronics, but keep the air nozzle back
>a bit. Also, don't forget the area around the drives. Modern hard drives run
>very warm, and fuzz and lint tend to block airflow around them.
>4. I always keep one hand on the steel part of the chassis to try to avoid
>static buildup.
>
>Thing to remember is that you're not looking for a white glove cleaning job.
>Just trying to encourage air flow and heat exchange so components don't
>overheat.
>
>I've found that many office computers are set on the floor beside the desk.
>By getting them up off the floor, even just setting them on a 6" high wooden
>box, the amount of dirt sucked into the machine is reduced considerably.
>
>I recommend to my service customers that business machines be cleaned 4
>times per year, home machines 2 times per year. More or less if the
>environment is exceptionally dirty or very clean, based on experience.
>
>>>>
>>>>  I recently bought a Kensington Desktop Vacuum to  use on my
>>>>  desktop computing
>>>>  equipment.  The instructions that came with it  only talk about proper
>>>>  maintenance of the vacuum and not much about how I can  safely
>>>>  use it with my
>>>>  computer equipment or WHICH equipment.
>>>>
>>>>  I also  bought a can of Memorex Air Duster and again, no
>>>>  instructions on what
>>>>  equipment  I can safely clean with it or how.
>>>>
>>>>  I look inside my computer and see that the insides really have
>>>>  a  buildup of
>>>>  dust, but I don't want to do anything harmful.   Any
>>>>  direction on using
>>>>  either of these two products would be greatly appreciated or
>>>>  any tips of caution.
>>>>    I've had computers for years, but  have never attempted to
>>>>  clean one, more
>>>>  than just dusting with a soft cloth on  the outside.
>>>>
>>>>  Thank you in advance for any info that may be provided.
>>>>
>>>>  Donna Parsons
>
>------------------------------

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