Computer hardware issue

[Erni]

This. It's amazing the number and size of dust bunnies (Harvey size....) that accumulate.

Yep. Harvey killed my first graphics card.

[CS1983]

When you open it up, make sure to unplug it from power and also hold down the power button to discharge any residual juice. Also, if you can, ground yourself if you?re gonna be sticking your hand inside.

[CobaltSkink]

And, for the love of God, don't use much compressed air.
I grenaded a fan by overspeeding it; itty bitty little plastic fan blades fell out.
HP didn't sell the fan unit- their fix was to sell me a refurb PC for more than I bought the new PC for.
I Mickey-moused a similar fan installation, but it never ran the same again.

For the mini-tower, I poke a chopstick in the stopped fan, then used compressed air.
That still doesn't get off the dust stuck to the blades.
Sometimes I use a small paintbrush or Q-tip on those.

[FoxtArt]

Don't try to vaccum it out. Just get a can of compressed air from a hardware store and use that. Blow jobs >>>>>> suck jobs.

When temps reach a certain point modern fans usually kick into a high-RPM mode. If you had used the computer in the past for really-intensive things (finalizing an edited video and outputing for an hour straight) it would do that. Simple fact is you've never used it heavy enough, it's always been capable of doing that. At this point, it's just from all the dust. Also don't be afraid, it's not going to shock you. Just touch the case to ground yourself before touching any components so you don't shock anything inside with static, but otherwise it's 100% safe.

Last tip: You probably should insert something like a ball-point pen into a fan before blowing it directly out - to block the blades, so you don't temporarily turn a 100rpm fan into a 2000rpm fan.

ETA - last note: They don't get dusty by being near something, because of their nature, they act like giant air filters and often statically attract dust whenever they are on. Even in a super-clean tile-floor, no pets house, they'll still be crazy full of dust in that timeframe.

[Rucker61]

And don't blow out the dust in the house.

[Irving]

I like to put a vacuum on the opposite side of where I'm blowing. Don't know if that's advisable though.

[Rucker61]

I like to put a vacuum on the opposite side of where I'm blowing. Don't know if that's advisable though.

It's got me hot.

[Irving]

Way less clean up too.

[battlemidget]

Getting the computer off the floor goes a long way towards keeping the dirt buildup down.

[Hummer]

I've always kept the unit on the desk where I can easily access the CD drive, USB and SD ports.

I opened the side of the cabinet this morning and found the dust wasn't too bad. I used a combination of compressed air and vacuum for the dust, then alcohol to wipe and Q-tip the surfaces I could reach except the circuit board. There are three fans so I carefully cleaned all the blade s with Q-tips. I'm happy with the results.

I booted up but had previously scheduled a Windows memory diagnostic. No problem so far but it will be a few more hours until it completes. I should know tomorrow whether the cleaning had any effect. More then....