Not sure this is the right forum to put this in but as it has more to do with the hardware and the treatment thereof, I thought it the most appropriate. I picked up a PC at the weekend from a chap on Freegle. It is intended to be a replacement for the clapped out old PC at my Dad's sheltered housing. The limited specs listed on the Freegle add suggested it would be a significant improvement on the old e-system PC they currently have, so I went to pick it up. When the fellow Freegalian opened the door to his house, it smelt a bit like an over used ashtray from a Ford Cortina. I thanked the nice chap and walked back to my car with the somewhat sticky PC. Rep to the first person to identify the case. On closer inspection, mostly nasal, it appeared that the PC had a smell not too dissimilar to Gandalf's pipe. Removing the cover only enhanced the experience and now added the visual delights of brown staining on the case and encrusted poo like yik on the fans. I don't want to sound ungrateful, the guy had just given me this for nothing, but I realised my work effort sorting this out had just significantly increased. I mentioned my de-gunking task to a friend at work and was later furnished with the following. 2.5L iso-Propylalcohol Loctite 7063 I am going to have to clean everything to try to get rid of the smell and gunk. I assume the iso-Propylalcohol for the electrical gubins and perhaps the Loctite for the case, but does anyone have any tips, recommendations (I already know about the not drinking the ipa, however tempting it may seem). I also need to lay my hands on a mATX PSU, suggestions for a cheap one of those would also be welcome. I have a spare ATX psu that I am going to use to check it works before doing any real work.
Disassemble the whole thing 1st of all including the fans. Take bits out the back garden and blow and then use a vacuum cleaner, then a soft paintbrush. Use normal household cleaner like Pledge on the bare case itself. Use smaller soft brushes for the mobo etc Reapply thermal paste to CPU. Use a decent TIM cleaner 1st to clean the CPU. Not sure if the one you listed is a decent one. Chemistry students can advise on that one. Enjoy! I love bringing PC's like this back to life. You could put all the bits in a new (cheap) case also.
Wow, thanks for the quick reply. I shall heed your words, though most of this will be done in the man cave (large shed). I had thought about a new case, but this one doesn't seem too bad, so might see how it scrubs up first. Going to go down the Ubuntu route as well, as it didn't come with an OS.
Looks like that case should manage a full ATX PSU. might be a tad cramped, but it saves having to buy a new one. I'd hold on the vac, or at least not use a vac on the mother board, ram or any other sensitive pcb's. This is due to the static vacs can build up and discharge. Compressed air is a better bet. Yous should be okay on the fans and the cpu cooler with a vac. iso-Propylalcohol will clean TIM off pretty well.
Thanks insta. I have one of those VAC attachment kits that I use all the time on my own PC; perhaps I have just been lucky. The full ATX I have is too tall I am affraid , would have been nice if it had. I'll keep an eye on eBay. Would natural fibre brushes be OK from a static point of view? Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
You can wash heatsinks and fans in warm soapy water and cases to once its striped and rinse them just make sure it is dry give it a day or two in front of a radiator.Works for me 100%
OK, so the strip down commenced, and revealed some very unpleasant sights. I first tried the Loctite on the top cover, as it was the most heavily stained. It worked ok, but needed quite a lot of it to shift it. I finished off with some white spirit. The IPA worked well on the metal parts of the CPU cooler but less well on the plastic parts. I got hold of a can of Amberclens which is a foaming anti-static cleaner. That really seemed to work well on the tobacco stains, lifting it almost on application. Some gentle toothbrush work and the case was looking like new. It worked especially well on the plastic parts as you can see from the CPU cooler fan below. I used a natural fibre brush to dust off the motherboard, with a Dyson near by sucking up the debris. Paper towel and a couple of old T shirts also came in handy. Fans before (left) and after (right) Some new TIM and a bit of cable tidying. It was then time to fire her up. Didn't take as long as I thought it would and was well worth it. One big advantage of using the Amberclens was that it smells nice, well a dead rat would smell nice compared to what the PC used to smell like.
Very nice. Being somewhat of a clean freak that sort of job is a bit of a nightmare to me. Might have to grab some of that Amberclens stuff.
I have used it before on my motorbike and have always been impressed. However the way it got rid of the tar staining on the case was simply amazing, especially when I had already tried other cleaners.
Wow impressive might try Amberclens on my old rig Does it just evaporate off. Did you use it on the motherboard
It doesn't evaporate off, just think of it as an industrial strength Mr Sheen. It foams which quickly turns to a liquid as it lifts the dirt. I would not use it on any circuits, like the mother board. I would imagine that if you needed to clean off anything like a spill on your motherboard IPA (high %, like the one linked above) would be your best bet. Saying that I have never tried it, so do some research before you attempt it. I just brushed the motherboard with a dry natural fiber, paint brush and with a vacuum cleaner in close proximity to catch the debris. Don't use the vacuum directly on the motherboard as it can cause problems due to static, apparently.
Nice work. It must have been a horrible job! I'm alway cleaning out office PC'sand servers but thats just easy dust. All the smoker's residue in there made me feel a little sick
I hated those machines when I worked as a IT tech, took twice as long to clean as a normal PC's and our company didn't charge/pay extra for those jobs. Well done!
