Cleaning dust from inside desktop?

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Jim_and_Evil

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I have a HP Pavilion Slimline s5610f desktop that I'm planning to open up to perform a ram upgrade. I believe there may be dust and some cat hair from being dormant in my sisters room that may not be good for MB lifespan. When its open, I'm looking into using a vacuum to suck up all the dust while not touching anything. Is this a good idea or not? Would it gather static charge and damage components if the attachment tube is not touching any components.

If not the ideal solution, than what solution/dust cleaner would be recommended that doesn't cost over $50.
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
Get a can of compressed air, or use an air compressor with a blow nozzle. Vaccuming is ok for light build up but if it's down in the CPU heatsink or inside the power supply, you want and need something with more oomph to get the crap out. If you use an air compressor, make sure it's been drained first so there isn't any significant moisture being expelled with the air.

You can get cans of air at Walmart or any office supply store. Possibly some hardware stores too.
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Get a can of compressed air, or use an air compressor with a blow nozzle. Vaccuming is ok for light build up but if it's down in the CPU heatsink or inside the power supply, you want and need something with more oomph to get the crap out. If you use an air compressor, make sure it's been drained first so there isn't any significant moisture being expelled with the air.

You can get cans of air at Walmart or any office supply store. Possibly some hardware stores too.
 
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Jim_and_Evil

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TNX for the reply!! Getting help here is better than going to the local PC repair hut in the "dandiest" part of town, and having a shark salesman like techie do an evaluation on anything giving a $400 estimate.

If I use the compressed air, doesn't it blow dust all over the place and possibly create static? Is there a special way of applying the air and how long should it be held/sprayed for?
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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I've been blowing cases and components out with compressed air for over 30 years and have never had an issue. Obviously, you don't want so much air pressure that you physically damage something, and aside from blowing out the CPU heat sink (Remove the fan first or hold the blades in place so it doesn't spin up) and the power supply, you don't need to be "right" on the board, six inches or so away is fine probably. Just use your judgement. Static is probably not an issue. You're more likely to cause static arcs by simply changing out hardware than you are blowing out dust. Just make sure to blow out the cpu heatsink and psu first, and then blow the rest of the case out.


If there is really heavy build up that won't come out with air, remove the heatsink and use a brush on it but you'll have to re-paste the cpu lid and heatsink if you do that so it's better to avoid it unless you have fresh thermal paste to apply. It's never a bad idea to re-paste an old heatsink but if you're unsure about cleaning out the case I'm guessing you'd really have a fit doing that. Heh. Good luck.
 
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Jim_and_Evil

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I'm doing an practice open up to figure out what to remove to get to the ram to save time during the real deal. While I don't have that canned air yet, I also got a good look on the components and while very dusty, the cpu and fan apparently don't have a lot of heavy dust deep inside, meaning less stuff to take apart and all I have to do is jus spray it all out.


Another question, I heard that this step will make the components run cooler, but after doing a forum search, Ive seen help posters say that their GPU, CPU, and such run hotter and overheat after dusting their unit. Are they just trolling or they prolly didn't clean it correctly/damaged components. Sorry I ask so many questions, I'm new to taking apart a PC and messing something up on it (being a first timer) is more expensive to fix than buying another model kit to get the parts I messed up on. IYDN, I have hands on experience with assembling plastic model cars, and making cuts and trims to parts to make them fit.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Whoever said that, is an idiot. Dust and crap, like hair, dander and all the usual crap that gets sucked in and builds up will absolutely kill an electronic component if it gets thick enough. Heat can't dissipate from components if it has an insulating layer of junk on it. The following videos show a couple of ways of doing it but if you know somebody with an air compressor or a shop that has one that might make it available for a short time, auto shop, wood shops and most industrial shops all usually have them, an actual air compressor is much more efficient. If the dust is fairly light, a can or three or compressed air should work fine as will a reversible vacuum or shop vac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovgvppZX4k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bCkNBlisJU
 
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Jim_and_Evil

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Allrighty, I found me an air compressor and dusted the innards of the Pavilion. I do notice however, that everything runs cooler and does not get very hot anymore now.

TNX for the solutions! I'm trying this on my laptop (which gets VERY HOT under load and overheats) to see if does anything.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Sounds good. Glad it's running cooler. With the laptop it can go either way. If it's an old unit, more than maybe two years, and gets hot, blowing it out will probably help. Be careful though as the components inside the laptop are a bit more delicate than in the desktop. No big, just don't be blasting away through the fan ports etc. if you've got 150psi coming through the line. 90-120psi and back off from the port an inch or so.

If the laptop is less than a year old and is getting hot, it's likely due to a fan or other hardware failure.
 
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Jim_and_Evil

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The LT is from 2011 and the heating issues started around early 2013. I heard that there was a recall on certain Acer laptops for overheating issues, and my model was included in the recall. We tried to get ours exchanged but they could not transfer the data to the new computer because it was over a year old and its tied with the key code edition of Win 7 unless we paid a $319 fee. So my mom said "#### it" and just kept with what I had and not run high loads on it.

Lesson learned, never buy from Staples again! They have sales on stuff because its all recalled products they never sent in.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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That's not a Staples issue, that's an Acer issue. Which is why I NEVER buy any Acer products. I think they are cheaply manufactured, using cheap components and have even cheaper support. Try and find a user manual or product specifications for just about any product they've ever sold, anywhere on their website. Occasionally you get lucky and there's actually a document, but for the most part you're just SOL. Plus, as you've seen, their PC's suck. The laptops overheat on almost every model and their desktops are so weak and build with such cheap components that they are basically throw away units.
 
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