Computer Dusting

Dusting, and other things you haven't been doing.

Just some quick little dos and don't for dusting a computer, from my experience.

Dos

  • Set aside time to clear out your computer of dust, bugs, and other things regularly. In a normal home or small business, this may be once a month or every other month and that's okay. For high dust environments, clean it more often.
  • Be cautious of spinning fans. Even with a little spray keyboard duster, if you let it spin your fans, it may be strong enough to bend the blades or otherwise put additional wear on the fan physically. If you let it free spin, on occasion you may damage the bearings or the plastic connections to the motors and the fan won't connect properly. This causes the fan to be unusable and usually becomes a matter of replacing the fan. This includes processor fans, case fans, powers supply fans, etc... DO NOT SPIN THEM BECAUSE ITS FUN. I know it is, but refrain.
  • Use between 40-50 psi from air compressors. Most controlled cleaners or air pumps have a limit of between 45 to 80 psi to clean keyboards, motherboards, etc.. 80 psi is likely too high for most things you will need an air duster for. If you can't get it with between 40-50, use an anti-static brush. Rubber brushes for bbq and cheap soft bristle toothbrushes work in a pinch, but just spend the money to get a real antistatic brush. Your computer will thank you.
  • For stuck on residue, alcohol and brush, slowly chip away at it, and ensure complete drying after. 
  • Check for faulty or blown components before and after cleanup. This will save you time and hassle, but mostly, it lets you know something went wrong and you can fix it before it's a bigger issue.

Donts

  • Don't use a leaf blower.
  • Don't dishwasher or water brush your motherboard. (this can work, it sounds crazy and it is, but it can work. Water by itself isn't conductive, but pure water almost never exists. Soap in water makes things like bath water extra conductive. But without cleaners in it, and with a good water filter on the incoming tap water line, you can run a computer in a dishwasher, dry it and check for damages completely before powering, and bam it works. But that's a lot of stress you don't want or need.
  • Don't leave alcohol on the board overnight. I don't really know why people suggest to do this, but some boards often have bubbles and print damage caused by liquid damage induced by soaking in alcohol. Due to most modern boards being able to soak for immersion cooling, it may be unlikely today to cause much damage if you're using a high enough concentration, but if you need to soak something off, it would be more appropriate to use mineral oil.
  • Don't clean by force. Force can do more harm than good, instead learn some patience. put on some tunes and expect to spend some time on it.
  • Don't push the collection of dead bugs from the power supply to the inside of the chassis/case. It really doesn't make sense, just remove that stuff. Same for rodents, lizards, and snakes. 
  • Don't rely on some fancy tiktok hack for your computer's safety, sometimes it's better to not try things in production/on systems that matter.

Thanks for reading

If you need any IT or CyberSecurity work remotely or within the DFW area, please contact us over at FeemcoTechnologies.

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