As far as I know, no spiders were harmed in the cleaning of that PC Honestly, I didn't find any, dead or alive... Edit: Might as well add a recent laptop repair:
Man, you should have seen my Toshiba laptop the first time I cleaned it out. (Note, I got it used.) I coulda sworn the MoBo was grey. And I could literally peel off the ~2mm thick layer of dust off of the HS.
I'm ashamed to admit that this is one of mine. It's completely uncharacteristic of me to let a machine get even near this level of unacceptable dust, but it did run panel-less 24/7 in the control room of the arena for a few months, and picked most of it up there. I couldn't seem to find the time to clean it after I brought it home, but I made time to do it at the weekend - it was stripped, cleaned and re-assembled with a newly made wiring loom which included power and data for some new stuff that I was installing. Here are some "after cleaning" pics of the motherboard - notice I also replaced the stock Thermaltake white bladed fans on the Frio, because they're quite pants and I like Enermax Twisters much better
I forgot about this thread, otherwise I would have taken pictures of my 700W PSU. It has 2 HUGE circuit boards, more than likely a true 4-12v-rail PSU. MAN, that HUGE capacitor was SCARY! What made it so dusty? Little breathing room. Big heatsinks, on both boards.
It's a completely different machine now compared to what it was. I installed some new stuff over the weekend as well. It got a new Blu-Ray drive, a 600GB Velociraptor boot drive and an Asus Xonar - I'm still on the hunt for a four channel fan controller with a brushed aluminium, black anodised front. It not only looks good again, it even sounds different because the heatsink fins on the GTX Pro and Frio aren't clogged any more I may be getting gifted an H100 in a couple of weeks which might make it into this rig to keep the 930 cool a little more quietly. We'll see
Darn. Every time I see this thread, I visit expecting to see some comely computers engaged in some lewd, lewd acts of pornographic titillation. All I see instead is lots of, well, filthy computers. Oh, come on. Surely I can't be the only one?...
Darn? Expecting? You have some weird tastes Nexxo. I hope you don't get aroused by dusting out your case because that would be even stranger.
Air compressors are fantastic for cleaning barftastic computers, well worth owning one especially for PC repair shops, they get every little bit of filth out.
But...but it's really fun to make them spin really fast! We have a compressor at work, can't stand people who use canned air! Might as well set fire to your wallet!
I couldn't agree more, I would be lost without my compressor! I hope you guys are using an ionizer in your airline setups though!
Can you explain this bit please Uni? I'm just using a standard filter regulator and blow gun at the moment
An airline can generate a static charge when particulate is introduced into the air stream. You might have a little moisture such as air and/or water from the tank which is removed by a drier filter or small particles of dust which make it through the intake filter on the compressor. If you're not using a drier or filter, this is guaranteed to be the case. Either way, the particles travelling along the inside of the air hose contact the inner wall of the hose and gun at high velocity and generate a small static charge. It can build up enough to cause damage to small silicon components in the same way as handling them after charging yourself by, for example, walking across a carpet of synthetic fibers in your socks. An inline or end of line ionizer eliminates the static charge in the air stream, reducing the risk of static damage to components you're cleaning. AN inline one is only suitable if the rest of the air system after the unit is comprised of anti static material and any metal parts such as couplers and guns are grounded. EoL ionizers are more common for this application because they go close to or at the end of an airline and eliminate the need for the extra expense of anti static hose and grounding.
