BEST
PRACTICE CLEANING TUTORIAL
Finally a place
where I feel like I can be authorative yet comical on a subject! LOL
To all my new friends at the Taz Zone! Enjoy! 
I ran a word of mouth PC repair business HW/SW in Miami and almost
ALWAYS had to clean every PC I took home with me to repair. There is
just no two ways about it. A mechanic may be able to work on a dirty
car, but usually a dealership is going to wash it either before they
work on it or before they give it back to you. It is just good
practice. I always opened the case and looked inside even if they were
just experiencing a problem with windows or a virus that I preferred
not to fix on-site. I loved finding a dirty PC because not only would I
collect at least $25 for cleaning it for them, but I could scold them
too upon return! You filthy pig! If they had any type of pet 
I could always find hairs/feathers inside the case unless it was a
brand new PC in which it was almost always an on-site SW problem or
just connecting a printer or something....
As for PC care, here are the rules of thumb I have always used.
THE PROBLEM: NOT DIRT OR DUST BUT
STATIC!
First, take note of where you live and the season. If humidity is
low or if it is winter, etc. and you find yourself getting shocked when
you come out of your car, or walking through a carpeted house with
socks, etc., then you have to take more care in cleaning your PC all
the way around. Dust (and hair/feathers) are both flammable and can
conduct electrical current between polar contacts, so you will want to
clean it more frequently in that type of environment, as more dust will
collect inside electronics when there is low humidity, just like those
ionic air cleaning products and your TV screen. When you wipe the dust
off your TV screen, think about what is going on inside your PC, and
any appliance or stereo with a fan. If you leave your computer running
often it is continuously filtering the dusty air across its electronics
like a big magnet. That is why large network or computer/server rooms
are climate controlled and "clean" especially in the manufacture of
chips. Dust carries and therefore conducts electrons which makes it bad
for electronics.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, moving air through fan blades charges
those dust particles and makes them stick (ask anyone who has central
HVAC) and the dirtiest place inside your PC is going to be your power
supply because of the fans, their current, and the strong electrical
field being generated there, 350-550 watts. Generally speaking the fan
blades and any opening right near the fans can become a "dust clot"
like a blood clot. That is where it will stick the most. Fans are the
magnetic field and electronic 'black holes' of filth. Stereo equipment
without a fan rarely gets dirty because of the size of the PS and the
passive heatsink.
On one hand, the fan is your friend because it pulls in cooler air, but
there is an osmotic gradient of heat because the air is accelerated
almost instantaneously in the immediate space before the inlet and when
the fan blade 'smacks' the molecule. It is just like a mini electrical
storm raging in on a weather front. Fans with lights in the blades are
even worse. The temperature drops due to acceleration (kinetic energy)
but the particles become charged with this potential energy
(kinetically and electronically induced) in the form of an electron
(coming off a plastic blade) and become very 'sticky' to anything with
a positive charge, creating an electrical bond.
That is why if you have ever noticed, a two fan system is better at
cleanliness than a one fan system due to the total cfm of all fans
combined (W=FxD). The kinetic energy is retained as a potential and not
expended onto the stagnant parts. And the heavier than air dust does
not get a chance to settle, but is constantly stirred. The front fan
pulls room temperature air from the outside and pushes it at volume at
a lower temperature called the wicking effect (after I.M. Wicking,
George Washington's Military Meterologist during Valley Forge 
) or "Wind Chill" into the slightly warmer than room temperature case,
and the rear air fan on the PS pulls this gradually re-warmed again air
over the PS where it collects the most significant amount of heat and
charge and pushes it out the back. It is true that the higher the cfm
(W) of the fan, the more that fan is charging the air it is pushing
(F), so we want to limit the temperature gradient as much as possible
by increasing the surface area of all fans combined so that the
airspeed (D) inside the case is a relative constant. The more work a
fan has to do alone, the more it is going to give off electrons. We
want the inside of the case to approach vacuum, or airstream levels:
Two heads are better than one (in the back), and relative dust and air
pressure in an environment can be made artificially thinner by higher
cfm pressures which fight the other force: Gravity.
Direction of flow is important as well. Power supplies would
probably fail at twice their rate if their fans did not discharge
heated air into the environment but pulled in cooler air, especially
when a rainstorm would come in or the humidity would change during a
front. ZAP! They would also corrode faster because they would just
simply condense the cool natural humidity in the air on the hot parts.
The fan that comes with the power supply is for cooling the power
supply, not for doing double duty with the case, especially at todays
power consumption levels. We need an intake fan in the front to collect
cool air, and a fan at the back to discharge hot air, attempting to
keep the dust bunnies hopping along at constant velocity above the
speed at which they can bond electrically, because dust bunnies and the
energizer bunny have something in common: they are like tiny little
batteries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_bunny
And that brings me to my next point: If your equipment is dirty, it can
not only overheat the components for lack of airflow, it can also start
a fire (or at least short circuit) if enough charged dust crosses a
capacitor contact. I would say it is the number one reason power
supplies fail in the first place, second would be faulty
components/construction, or a DOA ready to happen, and third is dirty
power or brownout/spike, and yes, they need to be replaced not repaired
if they do fail. But if they are on a quality surge surpressor with
EMI/RFI protection, last 72 hours of use (about 5 hours a day for the
first two weeks) and are kept clean they can last indefinitely if made
by the right company like Sparkle, Encore, AOpen, etc. Ebay is the
absolute best to get a low cost replacement, or one with fancy lights!
Adding a front fan to your case probably is the best thing you can do
for your present PS to make it last, as well as all the components in
your system, CD/DVD rom included so the dust can stay away from there
and be pulled towards the black hole. (you can also scotch tape the
joints of the CD chassis shut before installation)
WHAT ABOUT STATIC DISCHARGE???.....
Secondly you really do have to worry when you open the case to plug
it back into the wall if possible and touch the power supply case. IF
the power supply does not have a hard ON/OFF switch in the back I would
not recommend sticking your hands inside at all without the cord
unplugged from the wall. Many MoBos keep the PS in a standby state
running power up through the ATX connector to the front switch, and
monitor certain functions like WOL and WOR intrustion detection, etc.
It is just not a good idea and I have never left a computer plugged in
while cleaning even with the hard PS switch. 
If you discover when the case is opened that you see more plastic than
metal parts it is a good idea as well to stick your finger inside the
female power receptacle and touch the metal ground pin. Do this each
time you have to leave your project and come back to it, say if the
phone rings or you go to the john. 
This is because plastic can actually generate and accumluate more
static charge than metal can as the electrons have no place to run to
ground as the synthetic material is not conductive. Take your carpet
for instance, a great potential generator and storage facility. If you
are going to do the whole project at once or make your living at PC
repair it is obvious to have an anti-static wrist strap clipped to the
chassis or the ground pin, another part of a cleaning kit most people
would not think about. (see below)
CLEANING: THE RIGHT TOOLS FOR THE JOB
Again we are talking about best practices, while trying to not be
drab. You have a multi thousand dollar investment (or at least several
hundred pounds), you should definitely invest $20-25 in cleaning
supplies. 
For the average person with a vacuum, this just means BOTH an computer
attachment kit to stick on your wand, AND a can of compressed air. Best
practice is to also buy anti-static spray (or wipes) available at your
local shop and the wrist strap mentioned above. A cheapie "soft"
toothbrush is also good to have, just use your old toothbrush and buy a
new one for yourself, as the old saying "Cleanliness is next to
Godliness" was coined by a dental hygenist who moonlighted in PC
repair.
Figure out how to take the front cover off (screws or latches) and take
care when removing as you can break a plastic tab or other piece or
wire that you miss. 
Quality cases will have the electronics grounded to the chassis, poorly
made cases will let the wires go along for the ride with the plastic
face cover! If the opposite side panel also removes easily, do that as
well. On some cases it is more hassle than it is worth unless the MoBo
mounting platform has giant square or rectangular holes in it so that
you can actually see the exterior (or bottom) panel from the interior.
My rule of thumb is I take apart clones and leave assembled brand name
proprietary cases, as they can be quite complex like trying to
reassemble a PCMCIA card after you've looked for the antenna jack, and
you are sure to break a tab. 
I also remove any fan ducts that can be removed (usually to the
processor heat sink) and the fans themselves if possible to be cleaned
seperately, even the CPU fan/heatsink if it is not bonded to the CPU
with paste, depending on the filth I see initially, because alot more
filth lies below that fan in particular.
istockphoto
Take the large regular sized curtain brush (usually round) and vacuum
everywhere you see dust and dirt on the exterior portion of the case,
paying special attention to the perforated fan inlets and the plastic
vents around them, loosening the dirt with the bristles. This
attachment is also good for dust bunnies inside the case AWAY from the
electronics, like on the tower floor or on the exposed face of the fans
inside the case, or the massive furball on top of the CPU heatsink fan
if you didn't remove them. Don't worry, the curtain brush bristles pick
up or "collect" the static electricity into the plastic head especially
if you are holding the steel handle, and you are not touching nanometer
technology here, just the big bulky stuff.
If you don't have this attachment, you can also use the long narrow
angled corner attachment and the toothbrush.... Open wide! 
When you do switch to this corner attachment, don't forget to do
the floppy and CD/DVD ROM openings, to suck as much dust OUT of that
moving machinery rather than blow it INSIDE with the compressed air.
Use a heavy duty paper clip to open the drive through the emergency
eject hole if it has one. No, it wasn't on the tool list above....that
one clipped me, what are you trying to do, pin me down, hold me in
place, make me report? (Ancient Chinese Proverb)
Stop and change attachments to the "mini" PC attachments, discharge
yourself onto the PS, or a door knob 
and do the rest of the interior of the case. You can directly touch the
MoBo and cards with the brush attachment but make sure your other hand
is touching the metal chassis. That way any static charge you are
creating with the rapidly moving air through that much smaller opening
will not have a chance to build up on any single component, and well
made computer cleaning tools are usually impregnated with anti-static
compounds. If you are worried, this is where the anti-static spray
comes in. Give the bristles a squirt before starting. This is where you
pay special attention to the fan blades and CPU heatsink, especially if
they have been removed for individual cleaning.
THE PRIMARY OFFENDER: THE POWER SUPPLY
Since we can expect the most dirt to be actually inside
the power supply, another rule of thumb I use, and this is a judgement
call, is with a client I ask them if the system is under warranty. If
they can't remember when they bought it or produce a receipt, or I know
the warranty has expired through a service tag (Dell) or date of
manufacture or sticker, either on the case or on the PS or by
identifying the processor family generation, (or it has an MSCOA for
WinME) then I have also been known to get a bright light and try to
look inside the vents to the PS.
Power Supplies that have well made external wire
fan grating that allows dust to exit without sticking are easy to see
into from the fan side with a light, and are very easy to clean with
mini attachments and compressed air. Perforated circular fan openings
take second place, and the lowest quality supplies usually have the
perforated metal grating (a bunch of little holes) as part of the
enclosure itself facing out, and the fan is usually on the "wrong side"
of the equation in front of the supply, or even facing the processor
(down). These have very poor airflow characteristics and generate alot
of sticky dust everywhere. On these, if I see an inordinant amount of
dust in there I will remove the power supply completely from the
chassis (unplug everything) and open the PS (which usually rips the 3-5
yr old warranty sticker, sorry!) and vacuum out the PS with the small
tools and toothbrush on the internal fan blades if reachable.
In really dusty environments on one fan systems under warranty, I do
the best I can from the outside of the PS with it out of the box
because I know warranty covers manufacturing defects, not sending back
a PS clogged with a bird's nest. They'll just laugh at you.
So I let warrantied systems slide a little more as well as systems with
an obviously good PS with the wire cage protecting the fan. There is no
need to make extra work to be a perfectionist.
Then I will use the compressed air to finish and reassemble, and plug
it all back in. I have a dust allergy so I try to do all of the
"blowing" outside so I don't sneeze. In Miami I had to worry about
electrolyte-laden sweat drops from my forehead going into the
electronics rather than a lack of humidity to cause a static charge!
LOL. Again the central HVAC comes to mind: cool air, warm heat, moving
air and charged dust! Achoo! 
Finally, as I said, when everything has been brushed clean and vacuumed
away down to both sides of the fan blades and in the crevices of the
CPU heat sink, then and only then do I apply my $3 can of air, because
a good job at this point can still take up to 3/4 of one can if you are
really paying attention to detail, and can proudly charge $25 for
it.... I walk each piece outside due to my allergies, but you do what
you want. Just make sure you put on a bright light if you stay indoors
so I can say that I told you so! You are cursed with a sneeze! 
IMPORTANT NOTE: Mention was made above about damaging the fans. Now is
a good time to cover that. If possible, remove the fan and vacuum it
seperately while holding the blades in place. Vacuuming a fan while it
is free spinning can take the fan higher than its rated capacity and
damage the brushless motor. You will know this sound because the fan
will begin to scream at you like some Fire Engine full of clowns in a
big parade somewhere WHOOOOOP! WHOOOP! WHOOOOOOOOP! Although admitedly
it is an enjoyable noise and louder than the vacuum itself, you could
ultimately confuse the magnets and they might become bi-polar resulting
in you having to give them some Prozac for a successul reinstall to
their natural habitat of "blowing alot of hot air". Once they leave
that corporate world and you show them freedom, don't be surprised if
they just sit there and hum unless you flick their earlobe to make them
get back to work..... 
This is also where I will use the thick paper clip on the CD ROM
emergency eject hole so that the tray can be open and I am not blowing
the remaining dust deep into the mechanics or onto the lens, and do the
PS if I have left it in the computer. I will stick that little red
straw inside both the CD ROM chassis and the floppy chassis through the
door so that I blow from the inside OUT. On CD roms you only should
penetrate about 1cm or a half an inch as the force of the air from the
can and the temperature right at the tip of the straw can make the lens
malfunction. Yeah, that's what she said.... Stay away from the lens
(and her eyes), and do short bursts of a half a second at a time when
penetrating drives and power supplies if you do not disassemble them
and poke the straw through the little holes. On drives without an eject
hole I would do all the fans first, put them all back in especially the
heatsink, and then turn on the computer briefly to eject the tray,
pushing it back in manually. If I know I am going to do this I do not
connect or disconnect the HD power cable until this step is done to
avoid corruption. Listen closely, there will be a test! 
Finally depending on visual evidence supplied I may or may not "reseat"
the cards as described above. This believe it or not can actually
introduce more problems than it prevents, especially on older systems
that have gotten so dusty. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If I notice
corrosion I will definitely do it as well as clean the contacts on the
card with the anti-static and a rag or wipes. Otherwise it is too much
of a hassle (like a quality PS) especially on proprietary systems to
unscrew the cards one by one, blow out the card channel and then get
those buggers back in place; any creaking noises you hear from your
Printed Circuit Board (PCB/MoBo) is Baaaaaaad. You may have just
snapped a connection 3 layers in. 
PCBs get very brittle over time especially when they have been baking
in a dusty overheated box. My practice is to leave them alone unless I
have reason to suspect a problem or can see caked on dust. If you want
my recommendation, I would not do this when cleaning more than once per
year, and that only after your wet or humid season has allowed the
boards more flex. Also you can spot corrosion quicker after the humid
season, it is usually white or rust colored... If you want a great
running PC though, I would open and check for dust AT LEAST twice a
year; spring and fall cleaning. When it is most humid is your call
depending on where you live, and if you take all the boards out at
once, make sure you write down where they go because after this
cleaning marathon you will be tired and loopy....FOUND NEW
HARDWARE......yeah, so did I! BSOD...........
The very last step I do is either take the wipes and wipe all the
surfaces of the fan blades, or just spray a coating on each side of the
fans from about 6-8 inches. I do not soak them, just give them a
protective layer before putting them back in the box and plugging them
in. Once connected, also spray any perforated inlets with a short blast
from about 8-10 inches (or wipe them). THE
DISTANCE IS CRUCIAL IN THIS LAST STEP! LOL.
If you take the time to do this much detail to your PC one time, you
will be surprised the next time you open it how easy your job is. Just
remember that no matter how clean the inside of your PC is, it will
never be sterile, so wash your hands before you eat, or else! You think
viruses can't get out of the inside of a PC?
So that's it. I have written this very long article not to bore you
or send you over the edge, but to remind everyone that the very
electricity that runs your computer is the same principle as to why
your computer can get very dirty and suffer all kinds of maladies and
failures in the first place. "Dust
gets a charge about getting filthy-dirty."
We worry about firewalls and virus attacks, windows and software bugs,
but we forget that the computer is an electrical and mechanical device
that needs regular maintenance and attention just like your automobile.
Most of us probably use the computer more than we drive, yet we change
the oil in our cars 3-5 times per year.
Take the time to care for your PC and it will give you many years
of static-free performance. When it comes to the end of it's life
cycle, give it to a less fortunate relative or donate it, and give them
a copy of this article so they know your sh*t ain't junk! 
And now for your visual entertainment and memory enhancement, a
slideshow entitled "When a dust bunny becomes a filthy pig":
http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-10878_11-6064.html
And now your homework: FIND ME THE BEARDED CLAM COMPUTER!
.
Original Tutorial by SchoolDaGeek
for TheTAZZone-TAZForum
Originally posted on Oct 12th, 2006 here
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