IT Dusters CompuCleaner Xpert.

Once a year in Spring, when it gets a little warmer outside. Not much dust to clean though.

Running custom built watercooling, very silent system.

Edited November 9, 20187 yr by SimonC

I use a compressor.  Just put a screwdriver or something in the fans to prevent damaging them.

PC's used at home don't get all that dusty compared to PC's in factories, particularly ones used near areas with welding and grinding etc. I've seen some really bad ones in factories over the years but they still work year after year, considering a factory is very hot in the summer time over 100 degrees and they get really full of dirt and grime, and probably never get cleaned out.

Usually the ones that end up on the factory floors are ones that were demoted from office use and have been around for about 10 years, so I would say if you never ever cleaned out your home computer it wouldn't kill it, probably just run a bit warmer then it should. People like to be dramatic but it is just dust.

29 minutes ago, Matthew Kane said:

I would say if you never ever cleaned out your home computer it wouldn't kill it, probably just run a bit warmer then it should. People like to be dramatic but it is just dust.

Hmmmmmmm.....

I would tend to disagree. Having worked on uncountable machines over the years, it's stunning how bad they can get inside. My girlfriend was quick after the first few times to order me out of the house when cleaning peoples machines due to what I called the "Nuclear mushroom cloud" that could billow from such computers when blown out.

It was actually comical watching huge clouds of dust billowing down the street. And a bit shocking.

Some machines were so caked with moisturized dust that it formed something you might see in a dryer lint trap that had never been changed. It stopped fans from spinning (including heatsink fans) and could certainly damage machines.

Smokers were the worst. You couldn't even keep the machines in living areas while working on them as they reeked of cigarette smoke from several feet away, and were often pitch black inside; so caked with particulate that the frozen fans had literally burned out and even melted a bit.....

Just seeing that a few times makes you wonder what the inside of the owners lungs might look like....... 😨

Don't even add animal fur/dander into the mix......

Speaking of smoking and cleaning inside your computer. Many moons ago when I worked at a service desk where we repaired client pcs there came in a Hewlett Packard that was not booting.

The gray case was yellowed, and reeked of cigarette smoke. Judging by yellowing on the outside of the case, it seemed likely that an ashtray was positioned directly in front of the case.

When we popped the case open we found that everything was caked in a layer of sticky tar. We put our gloves on attempted to remove parts to reseat everything on the motherboard.

As we inspected the motherboard we eventually found a capacitor that had blown open. From the looks of it, the tar had bridged the gap on the terminals and perhaps some condensation had finished the job. These boards in the 386 days weren't using surface mount components without exposed legs.

We called the client to break the news that his pc mainboard was toast and he decided to come pick it up without repair. When he came to the store we opened the case and did him what it looked like inside as we rendered the diagnosis. We explained, "Sir, your has computer died of cancer, perhaps you may want to quit smoking."

The man chuckled and then turned pale when he saw the inside of the case. He thanked us for work and then took his pc and left the store. I still wonder if we made a difference in his life.

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I'm always amazed at how much dust comes out of my PCs when I clean them, and I clean them quarterly, more or less.

11 minutes ago, Oracle427 said:

From the looks of it, the tar had bridged the gap on the terminals and perhaps some condensation had finished the job.

Yes! I couldn't think of a word to explain the moistness and stickyness of the interior. It wasn't just dust anymore: It was like the sludge coating the wiring on the wiring inside of an old car engine..... 

On 4 November 2018 at 4:12 AM, WingZ said:

Remember to hold onto the fan blades as you blow... the bearings are not designed for that airflow!

Good shout. Very, very important if using air pressure to clean either in or out.