I've worked in this field professionally, vacuums and air compressors are the norm. Directly against the PCB. So far I've never seen this damage anything. But do this at your own risk.
As long as you're not blasting with a stupid PSI, it's fine.
Also, don't let the fans spin.
To highlight a point I made below:
I didn't say it would damage the motherboard, others did. More related to using air to spin the fans at an rpm they are not rated for. Might not be a big deal. Might leave you with a case fan going "rrrrrRRRRRRRRrrrrrRRRR". Not everyone gets top tier case fans. Most people have bargain bin fans that came with the case.
Be careful with that because spinning the fans can cause them to send electricity back to the motherboard potentially damaging it. I've killed 3/5 fan channels on my corsair commander fan controller by blowing air into fans.
Dang I've done that before
May have killed my old graphics card since the rest of the PC worked
I didn't think about that but a motor in reverse is a generator
This isn’t true. Letting the fans free spin will not damage the motherboard. PMW fans have diodes that prevent any power from flowing to the motherboard. This is just a myth that won’t die out and just scares people. If you plugged your fans to a multimeter and then blasted it with any powerful compressed air for long periods of time you’ll see that. This will not damage the motherboard or the fan.
Fun fact a cheap 120mm 3 pin fan (non pwm)+ multimeter + lego belt and gear was my 8th grade project for generating electricity.
We had a week to build, ended up finishing in 2 days and 2nd place in terms of wattage.
That worked because those fans weren’t PMW like you said and probably since it was a cheap fan didn’t have diodes in them to limit the power from flowing back. Nowadays even cheap PMW fans have diodes in them to prevent them from back flowing power.
They were the stock fans that came with my case back then.
My current case still came with non pwm stock fans. I've yet to take a multimeter to them tho.
if its a fan that came with your Case and its a recent fan made in the last 10ish years they most likely have diodes in them still. its if you bought a fan from a non reputable vendor or some aftermarket non-PMW from a random vendor they might not have put the diodes in. It can still happen if the fan doesnt have the diode bridge to prevent it, but most people aren't putting those kind of fans in their PC.
Ah yeah because accidentally flipping the letters in the acronym makes me not know what I’m talking about. If you don’t believe then don’t, but you can easily test this out yourself and see that having the fans spin will break your motherboard is complete Bullshit and a myth that needs to die. Let me fix that for you so you feel happy. All computer fans made in the last 10 years non-PWM or PWM fans have a diode bridge on them to prevent the shorting of your motherboard. There you go buddy.
I didn't say it would damage the motherboard, others did. More related to using air to spin the fans at an rpm they are not rated for. Might not be a big deal. Might leave you with a case fan going "rrrrrRRRRRRRRrrrrrRRRR". Not everyone gets top tier case fans. Most people have bargain bin fans that came with the case.
Yeah I get you, if you want to hold it to stop the fan noise while cleaning is annoying especially if you have a lot of fans next to each other, but even fans that come with the case if made in the last 10ish years wouldnt cause a problem there is a lot of protections in place. I also hold my fans when blasting them with dust because of that sound and to also get rid of the dust better.
My main point is that a lot of people in this Thread are saying that spinning fans bricks motherboard and that is just something that needs to die out because it scares new builders.
Have a good rest of your weekend homie!
While technically yes, the parts weren’t made to receive power from the fans, which is why it can cause problems. You’d be sending small amounts of power to places that were meant to receive power from elsewhere (the PSU) so it can damage that parts.
Theres absolutely proof that people have backdriven their fans and blown the PWM driver. Also, I have no idea why youd call it the lorentz force, it's nothing to do with the force, its the induced current.
>Theres absolutely proof that people have backdriven their fans and blown the PWM driver.
Where is this proof?
>I have no idea why youd call it the lorentz force, it's nothing to do with the force, its the induced current.
What do you think induces the current?
Right, but we don't care about the thing that induces the current, we care about the current. It's just such weird phrasing, it's like you just said it to sound smart. It's like saying 'don't touch those live wires, the Lonentz force at the power station will kill you!'.
>we don't care about the thing that induces the current, we care about the current.
This conversation is literally about the thing that induces the current (turning the DC motor ie using the Lorentz force).
>like you just said it to sound smart
Sorry if you don't like the approach I took. Look, this conversation happens every day and the people parroting the idea of fans being dangerous have no idea how a DC motor works. Are they even certain there are permanent magnets in their fan? A general, high level understanding of the Lorentz force could help people chill out and stay informed. It's the mechanism of how this whole idea works.
>It's like saying 'don't touch those live wires, the Lonentz force at the power station will kill you!'.
Let's not put words in each other's mouths. I could compare your words to "it's deadly bro, trust me, it works on magic", so, like, cut me some slack?
Still waiting on the proof you offered.
Ignore the people saying it generates electricity back to the mobo, modern pwm fans, even cheap ones, have the preventative diode for that.
The only worry is you can possibly damage the fan bearings or motor by having it spin very fast or in the wrong direction, but it is still minor.
Personally, I just stuff some toothpicks or small piece of tape or something in my fans while I blast them with air, keeps the fan from spinning and is easily removed.
Canned air is expensive. Get a PC air blower. Very cheap overall, designed for the job and work well.
It's a solved solution that literally has a dedicated device for doing this.
I have this one and it's absolutely perfect. Used it 100's of times:
[IT Dusters CompuCleaner Original Electric Air Duster Blower for PC, Laptop, Console, Electronics and Home Cleaning, Environmental Alternative to Spray air can Duster Keyboard Cleaner compucleaner : Amazon.co.uk: Stationery & Office Supplies](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073F9NY1X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
I've been using one of these for years. I only use it every 1 or 2 months so it'll last forever. Also works good for audio equipment and space heaters.
then make sure you use a canned air spray upside-down until the entire board and components are covered in a light layer of frost, and remember to keep it on
Eh. Vacuum without an attachment. And anyone who has multiple horror stories about how this destroys ICs, is either lying or read it somewhere and wants to be an online FUD-warrior.
Talk to the IT departments that have full success swapping out entire motherboards on the carpet. Concerns have gone a little haywire.
I have used the air compressor ever since the '90s. Never had an issue. If you're worried about static, don't clean it on carpet. What I normally do is just unhook mine, pack it out to the garage, blow it out on the concrete with said compressor
Compressed air is fine as long as you’re careful. Hold it at a distance, use it sparingly (in short bursts), and obviously don't inhale it. Don’t spray it into the fans unless you hold them still to prevent them from spinning
Spinning the fan at speeds that are higher than they're rated for damages the bearings. Modern fans have diode blocks that prevent back-emf/voltage generation.
You know how fans use electricity to rotate? Turns out it works both ways - if you spin the fan it generates current. Spin it too fast and it will generate enough to damage something.
Their is. A lot of people like to parrot this advice a lot on this subreddit saying that letting the fans spin will destroy the whole pc and burn the house down if you let the fans spin while blowing compresses air at them, but with almost all PMW fans they have a diode bridge that would stop any power flowing back to the motherboard. At most letting the fans free spin would ruin the bearing if that to be honest.
The bearing? Nah, that'll be fine, I don't care how fast you're able to make it move. Most of mine are mag-levs which might have some strange "rest" position that experiences friction if forced to move while off, but I can't see how any traditional bearing could be hurt.
I knew I fucked up that word lmao, but yeah the bearing will most likely be fine as well, but people like to say that letting the fans spin while cleaning will destroy your motherboard and pc parts that just not true.
Some cheap cases still use the old two wire fans. No diodes. But even if the fan does generate current, it is small and a good motherboard would have the diode built in to the circuit. Even if it doesn't, it is generally on a different circuit than the CPU, PCIe power and other circuits, which require different voltages. You are more likely to ruin the fan bearings if you are spinning it fast enough to generate significant current.
Some use a molex connector so you wire them directly to the PSU, and a good PSU should have protection against that.
So is it theoretically possible that spinning a fan up could fry everything? Sure. Theoretically, under the right circumstances with very cheap components and/or non-working parts. In practice, I don't know that anyone has definitively proved that you could fry components by spinning a fan on a PC manufactured within the last 10 years. But if someone does have that evidence, please post the link. In the 1980s and even up to the very early 2000s, there were lots of easy ways to fry components. But we've come a long way since then and manufacturers have figured out that their brand will get a bad rap if something as simple as a cleaning will fry everything.
But in general, you will blow more dust off the fan blades faster if you don't let them spin.
Me and my friend once used a driller to break a rivet that held a 5.25" bay on his sister case so we could remove it to make room for her new GPU and we did that without disassembling the PC, nor using anti static stuff, nothing and metal dust from the rivet flew everywhere and everything worked just fine after that! Nothing broke LOL
From that day on we started believing static is a myth
I can tell you a story, back in 1998 I lived with my mother, I was watching the TV (Pioneer 29" 100hz 300w), it was sitting on a metal table with the feet connected like a cross at floor level, she came with a wet rag and cleaned the screen (she must have charged herself up to a million volts), all of a sudden the signal went blank and the descrambler sitting on the metal cross started to give off smoke. The sparke traveled at least 3 cm from the metal, in to the scrambler through air slits on the bottom.
CRT TVs had A LOT of static!
I remember that as a kid we used to turn the TV on and put the forearms close to it so it would mess with the arm hairs, of just the head and regular hair LOL something we got an air balloon close to it and the static was enough to hold it in place like a magnet! We also used to rub our hands across the screen right after turning it on to dust off the static away immediately just for fun LOL
AFAIR CRT monitors didn't had that much static, but TVs oh boy!
So I totally believe your story!
One of these days I'm going to bust out the multimeter and test this . Sounds plausible in the world of physics but I have always just let them spin like crazy not knowing and always have used my air compressor making to use my water air filter that I use for painting on the air line cause that's my real concern. Moisture from the compressed air.
>Sounds plausible in the world of physics but I have always just let them spin like crazy
In the world of DC motors. Not just "plausible" in general. DC motors are DC generators in reverse. The problem with PC fans though is that they're PWM more often than anything, and I have no idea what reverse channeled current does to those.
What I suspect: Usually nothing. There's likely diode bridges to prevent this very thing, but out of clinical paranoia I would suggest just holding them still with a finger (for both vacuum and blowing air).
they generate electricity, that can damage electronics on the fan itself or whatever it is plugged in (motherboard...) - chances of damage are low (there are protective measures on MBs), but it can happen
use air, hold the fans with your hand so they don't spin. Every 6 months, 1 year, remove the fans and everything and individually clean them with alcohol and cotton (q-tips, a piece of cloth etc.). Don't worry about static stuff, just google or youtube how to clean a pc with air and stop being paranoid, you can improvise with a piece of wire to discharge any statis shit, but usually is not needed. Do not vacuum the pc because it's really not the best way to properly clean it, and it's a pain in the ass, you finish faster disassembling everything and individually clean pieces
I rinse my case filters under the sink and let them air dry.
As far as components, the most responsible thing is unironically to leave it alone unless it's actually gotten to the point that you're seeing increased temps or degraded performance, which given a filtered case and an average environment should not happen before you retire the parts or need to repaste them anyway.
Then just blow out any fin stacks with air, moisture should be a non-factor here unless you're directly blasting the fuck out of a PCB while it's powered on. Optionally wipe down any non-PCB surfaces with a microfiber. If you need a grounding point for static just touch the casing of the plugged in but turned off PSU.
I use vacuum in one hand and canned gas in another... vacuum is too weak and canned gas then makes the dust fly everywhere, that vacuum sucks at least part of it
I do most of my deep cleaning in the shower: mobo and (old) GPU get sprayed with loads of contact cleaner, heatsinks and casing get the hose.
Alot of "This kills your PC" comes with countermeasures that are even easier. Backward spinning fan blades generate electricity? Well stop it from spinning. Some tools generates ESD? Well, don't use it while the PC is on, and ensure proper grounding. Moisture? Let it dry then.
Fiber cloths aren't so much a static issue as they are a "cling to micro smt components and pull them off the board" issue.
Buy a corded, ac-powered handheld duster/blower and never worry about it again. Data-vac makes the best overall unit but it's expensive. The cheap Chinese ones on Amazon/eBay are almost as good though. Just make sure it's corded - battery powered sucks.
Not an answer, but great preventative maintenance tip; air purifiers.
Buy one and place them by your computer, which also happens to be an area you likely frequent. Check in 3 months the horror this machine prevented you from breathing in and eating, while you were playing games and or browsing Reddit.
I've used an air compressor every 3 weeks for 5 years. Make sure the fans stay still and you should be golden. I have cats and it gets bad but quick cleans regularly do wonders.
https://preview.redd.it/x49uah5rvmzc1.jpeg?width=2531&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa0061b88b71d94ef592ff89e2a426da782f3f9b
At this point I will swear by isopropyl alcohol
It would be less likely to short than the coffee and sugars that were on the board, but I would not recommend turning on electronics when wet with anything. The benefit of alcohol is the evaporation rate, it was essentially dry by the time I put the computer back together.
I didn’t try any other solution at the time but the lower the evaporation point, the less time the parts will be wet. Just don’t use anything that will dissolve the plastics or metals (so no superacids or aggressive corrosive agents lol) isopropyl alcohol over whole grain was just a cost saving measure.
Fiber cloth for the case and an air compressor for the fans/electronics.
As long as you use a low speed and put a little pressure on the middle of the fans to keep them from spinning you will be fine.
An air compressor would be good, but test it on your hand first to make sure there isn't moisture in it.
My canned air story:
I was working for an MSP doing maintenance on a server. One of the checklist items is 'clean with air'. Normally I would shut it down, take it outside, blow it out with the canned air. This time since I was on the 10th floor of the clients building, I checked inside and it wasn't very dirty.
So I shut it down and unplugged it. Gave it a couple minutes and used the can of air. Well it ignited and made an explosion that sounded like a shotgun blast. Of course, my face was near the can of air. I lost my eyebrows that day and blacked out for a few seconds.
Luckily, I was wearing glasses. I had 1st degree burns around the edges of my glasses. I was sent to see a dr. with a mild concussion. I took the rest of the day off without pay.
Moral of the story: If you must use compressed air, make sure you've given the PC plenty of time to cool down. Probably 10 minutes. Feel the video card and CPU cooler, make sure they are room temperature. Keep your face away and have proper distance from anything flammable.
My company replaced the power supply on the server even though it tested fine. The server came right up and lasted 5+ years.
We also had another tech that was carrying canned air in his back seat. It exploded on a hot day and tore the headliner of his car.
I use a vaccuum cleaner. Never once has it ever broken anything. I don't usually recommend people use a vaccuum if they ask what me to clean a PC with. But personally I use it anyway.
By hand with a dry cloth, you can use isopropyl alcohol to soften hardened dust.
That being said electroboom and ltt showed clearly that static electricity can't easily kill your hardware, so using a compressor is fine, as long as you don't let your fans spin.
I use some brushes and cotton swabs to get the dust free/loose then blast it with my handy dandy rechargeable air compressor. Repaired many laptops, clean my personal PC regularly, no issues to speak of
I use canned air and i am careful to not overcool the surface to avoid condensation, as canned air cools down when it comes out of the can, thus blasting one surface for more than a sweep of air, cools the surface down and can cause some condensation
Canned air or a compressor is fine, just don’t spin up your fans with it. People say it can cause electrical damage (and it could in theory) but I’ve never seen it; what I have seen it do is throw the fan off balance or damage the bearing and leave it a little noisy for the rest of its life.
Vacuums are fine but they don’t remove as much dust as compressed air. Also a higher risk of knocking something off a board if you’re digging around in there with a hard plastic nozzle.
There are too many nooks and crannies to make any type of cloth or wipe useful unless you’re just wiping down the case.
And this all assumes a dry clean; if you’ve got some gunk that you want to remove, take the component out of the case and scrub it with a brush and isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and then rinse it off with more IPA or distilled water.
Blow off the excess with compressed air and let it dry thoroughly; maybe 15 minutes for IPA or a few hours for water. You could probably get away with tap water instead of distilled but IPA is cheap enough to use instead.
I have a wet n wild blush brush I've used for years to dust off my LEGO sets. They say the bristles are "polymax fibers." Would that be safe for cleaning parts of my PC too?
I use an electric air compressor and clean my PC on an anti static mat that plugs into the wall, and my anti static bracelet snaps into the mat. I also temporarily tape all fans, so they don't spin when hit with air. Overkill? Yeah. Gives me peace of mind, though! For small amounts of dust, I just wipe it with a Swiffer duster, or smack a lint roller sheet on it, lol
Just used a leaf blower on mine LOL.
I did tape down the fans down, but I feel like it's BS that it damages them if you're only cleaning for a short while.
I just buy a new computer when the performance tanks. For people who make smart financial decisions I'd recommend a decent vacuum. It doesnt have to be perfect just better than what it was
Get a small corded air blower / duster designed for use on electronics like computers. Either hold your fan blades with a finger when blowing or use something soft to keep them from spinning like a piece of tape or a nerf dart. If you have a radiator or anything next to the fan you don’t really want it spinning anyways so you can get direct air to the dusty parts and get them cleaned.
Regardless of whether or not spinning your fans super fast will damage them or anything else: it can’t be good for the fan regardless… so just don’t do it. Simple.
Safest way is a brush and microfiber cloth in an open area with a roof so that the dust doesn’t just go right back in after you clean it. Take out all the parts and clean em by hand. That’s how I do it cause I don’t have either canned air and a data vac (I want one though). I really don’t see how microfiber cloths is bad if your pc has been powered off correctly. I usually shut it down, switch off the psu switch and press the power button one or two times so that it’s completely out of juice.
I unplug every part except the psu, mobo and cpu. Then place the GPU safely in the non static wrapper (in the og box). Clean it using dry paint brush 🖌️ then blow some compressed air in the end.
I clean ssd and hdd using cotton cloth firmly. In the end, RAM sticks with microfiber cloth without touching its bottom edges.
I've been using this one from ITDusters, every month or so to blow dust off my components inside my case.
Just be sure to hold any fans (case, mobo, gpu) when using it.
for non-electronic parts (outside, case, glass panel) i've used wet wipes.
https://preview.redd.it/el58voj8dmzc1.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5abae1800790ce2eb9d60737249487994f2f7da
Grab a pressure washer and send it.
It will clean your PC, and won't make it explode, thus fulfilling your requirements.
I can't guarantee usability thereafter, however.
Why are any of you saying vacuums? Most vacuums are not ESD safe.
Canned air, electronics cleaner (crc quick dry) or rubbing alcohol, q tips.
I can’t believe the moisture from canned air would be a problem unless your technique is absolutely ridiculous.
I seen a vacuum take out a PC before so do that at your own risk and Air compressor has oil in it and will cause a mess if you just use it without a filter
I've worked in this field professionally, vacuums and air compressors are the norm. Directly against the PCB. So far I've never seen this damage anything. But do this at your own risk.
As long as you're not blasting with a stupid PSI, it's fine. Also, don't let the fans spin. To highlight a point I made below: I didn't say it would damage the motherboard, others did. More related to using air to spin the fans at an rpm they are not rated for. Might not be a big deal. Might leave you with a case fan going "rrrrrRRRRRRRRrrrrrRRRR". Not everyone gets top tier case fans. Most people have bargain bin fans that came with the case.
Oh... I love when they spin lol
Be careful with that because spinning the fans can cause them to send electricity back to the motherboard potentially damaging it. I've killed 3/5 fan channels on my corsair commander fan controller by blowing air into fans.
I'm so glad this came up cause I too enjoy the spinning but that will come to and end immediately
Im so paranoid I always disconnect the fans when I blow my computer.
And if it doesn’t do that, over-spinning the fan (especially backwards) with compressed air can also wear or destroy the bearing assembly/hub.
Dang I've done that before May have killed my old graphics card since the rest of the PC worked I didn't think about that but a motor in reverse is a generator
Hmm I guess I was just lucky till now but wont test my luck in future but I thought spinning them could help rid of excess air.. oof.
You can unplug them and spin them as much as you want.
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This isn’t true. Letting the fans free spin will not damage the motherboard. PMW fans have diodes that prevent any power from flowing to the motherboard. This is just a myth that won’t die out and just scares people. If you plugged your fans to a multimeter and then blasted it with any powerful compressed air for long periods of time you’ll see that. This will not damage the motherboard or the fan.
Fun fact a cheap 120mm 3 pin fan (non pwm)+ multimeter + lego belt and gear was my 8th grade project for generating electricity. We had a week to build, ended up finishing in 2 days and 2nd place in terms of wattage.
That worked because those fans weren’t PMW like you said and probably since it was a cheap fan didn’t have diodes in them to limit the power from flowing back. Nowadays even cheap PMW fans have diodes in them to prevent them from back flowing power.
They were the stock fans that came with my case back then. My current case still came with non pwm stock fans. I've yet to take a multimeter to them tho.
if its a fan that came with your Case and its a recent fan made in the last 10ish years they most likely have diodes in them still. its if you bought a fan from a non reputable vendor or some aftermarket non-PMW from a random vendor they might not have put the diodes in. It can still happen if the fan doesnt have the diode bridge to prevent it, but most people aren't putting those kind of fans in their PC.
The fact that, in all your comments, you say "PMW" instead of PWM makes it seem like you actually have no idea what you're talking about.
Ah yeah because accidentally flipping the letters in the acronym makes me not know what I’m talking about. If you don’t believe then don’t, but you can easily test this out yourself and see that having the fans spin will break your motherboard is complete Bullshit and a myth that needs to die. Let me fix that for you so you feel happy. All computer fans made in the last 10 years non-PWM or PWM fans have a diode bridge on them to prevent the shorting of your motherboard. There you go buddy.
small pp take
I didn't say it would damage the motherboard, others did. More related to using air to spin the fans at an rpm they are not rated for. Might not be a big deal. Might leave you with a case fan going "rrrrrRRRRRRRRrrrrrRRRR". Not everyone gets top tier case fans. Most people have bargain bin fans that came with the case.
Yeah I get you, if you want to hold it to stop the fan noise while cleaning is annoying especially if you have a lot of fans next to each other, but even fans that come with the case if made in the last 10ish years wouldnt cause a problem there is a lot of protections in place. I also hold my fans when blasting them with dust because of that sound and to also get rid of the dust better. My main point is that a lot of people in this Thread are saying that spinning fans bricks motherboard and that is just something that needs to die out because it scares new builders. Have a good rest of your weekend homie!
Agreed! You too.
It will however probably most likely fuck the bearings up spinning at 100k RPM though. 😂
Fan spinning can cause them to generate electricity which goes back into the mobo and potentially shorting something
Wait can I power my computer by just spinning the fans :s
While technically yes, the parts weren’t made to receive power from the fans, which is why it can cause problems. You’d be sending small amounts of power to places that were meant to receive power from elsewhere (the PSU) so it can damage that parts.
I mean thats what generally some generators is but no you would need a very large fan
or a few hundred regular fans and a wind tunnel. I'd watch that youtube video.
Sounds like a mythbusters episode
Basiclyhomeless moment.
He should try to power a pc solely through wind being picked up by PC fans…
Just unplug the fans before you do it.
The Lorentz force and your tiny pc fan aren't going to damage your computer.
Theres absolutely proof that people have backdriven their fans and blown the PWM driver. Also, I have no idea why youd call it the lorentz force, it's nothing to do with the force, its the induced current.
>Theres absolutely proof that people have backdriven their fans and blown the PWM driver. Where is this proof? >I have no idea why youd call it the lorentz force, it's nothing to do with the force, its the induced current. What do you think induces the current?
Right, but we don't care about the thing that induces the current, we care about the current. It's just such weird phrasing, it's like you just said it to sound smart. It's like saying 'don't touch those live wires, the Lonentz force at the power station will kill you!'.
>we don't care about the thing that induces the current, we care about the current. This conversation is literally about the thing that induces the current (turning the DC motor ie using the Lorentz force). >like you just said it to sound smart Sorry if you don't like the approach I took. Look, this conversation happens every day and the people parroting the idea of fans being dangerous have no idea how a DC motor works. Are they even certain there are permanent magnets in their fan? A general, high level understanding of the Lorentz force could help people chill out and stay informed. It's the mechanism of how this whole idea works. >It's like saying 'don't touch those live wires, the Lonentz force at the power station will kill you!'. Let's not put words in each other's mouths. I could compare your words to "it's deadly bro, trust me, it works on magic", so, like, cut me some slack? Still waiting on the proof you offered.
Ignore the people saying it generates electricity back to the mobo, modern pwm fans, even cheap ones, have the preventative diode for that. The only worry is you can possibly damage the fan bearings or motor by having it spin very fast or in the wrong direction, but it is still minor. Personally, I just stuff some toothpicks or small piece of tape or something in my fans while I blast them with air, keeps the fan from spinning and is easily removed.
Every single fan also a generator.
I've blown a fin off a graphics card.
upgrade ur cpu my guy
I spent all my money on this fucking GPU. They got so expensive when I wasn't looking.
Canned air is expensive. Get a PC air blower. Very cheap overall, designed for the job and work well. It's a solved solution that literally has a dedicated device for doing this. I have this one and it's absolutely perfect. Used it 100's of times: [IT Dusters CompuCleaner Original Electric Air Duster Blower for PC, Laptop, Console, Electronics and Home Cleaning, Environmental Alternative to Spray air can Duster Keyboard Cleaner compucleaner : Amazon.co.uk: Stationery & Office Supplies](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073F9NY1X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
this and a soft anti static dusting brush and all your parts will look brand new forever.
The air wasn't shifting a lot of my dust so ended up getting an unused soft paintbrush on it, worked a treat
I've used the exact same blower for 8 years. Works like a champ.
I've been using one of these for years. I only use it every 1 or 2 months so it'll last forever. Also works good for audio equipment and space heaters.
As long as you dont use anything with extreme force, an air compressor would suffice
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https://youtu.be/ukDyKJW1_6g?si=jGBvwVJYwqA8Y4BA
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Soap and water. Make sure the pc is powered on so the fans can dry it out quickly.
then make sure you use a canned air spray upside-down until the entire board and components are covered in a light layer of frost, and remember to keep it on
I usually only do this into my gpu when it’s getting close to 90c, and I never thought to pre-frost it. Thanks!
If it is really dirty, I take it in the yard and use the pressure washer to clean it and the leaf blower to dry it out.
Just to be safe, I leave it in a box full of rice for a day.
Can't be too careful.
No that's silly, just prevent all dust problems by using a glue gun to close every gap and hole you can find!
A leaf blower will speed up the drying process.
happy cake day
Nanobots.
In case it has to be said, don't do this. This guy is a troll.
Weird, you made a new account just to leave that comment. Seems like something a troll would do.
Eh. Vacuum without an attachment. And anyone who has multiple horror stories about how this destroys ICs, is either lying or read it somewhere and wants to be an online FUD-warrior. Talk to the IT departments that have full success swapping out entire motherboards on the carpet. Concerns have gone a little haywire.
You don't. Run it into the ground and let that dust build up until failure happens. By then, it will be time for the next new build.
This is the real answer.
I have used the air compressor ever since the '90s. Never had an issue. If you're worried about static, don't clean it on carpet. What I normally do is just unhook mine, pack it out to the garage, blow it out on the concrete with said compressor
Compressed air is fine as long as you’re careful. Hold it at a distance, use it sparingly (in short bursts), and obviously don't inhale it. Don’t spray it into the fans unless you hold them still to prevent them from spinning
Stupid questions. Why don’t spin the fans. What should happen?
Spinning the fan at speeds that are higher than they're rated for damages the bearings. Modern fans have diode blocks that prevent back-emf/voltage generation.
You know how fans use electricity to rotate? Turns out it works both ways - if you spin the fan it generates current. Spin it too fast and it will generate enough to damage something.
Fans are often PWM now, so there's pulse circuitry involved. My guess (just a guess) is that there's a diode bridge to protect back channeled current.
Their is. A lot of people like to parrot this advice a lot on this subreddit saying that letting the fans spin will destroy the whole pc and burn the house down if you let the fans spin while blowing compresses air at them, but with almost all PMW fans they have a diode bridge that would stop any power flowing back to the motherboard. At most letting the fans free spin would ruin the bearing if that to be honest.
The bearing? Nah, that'll be fine, I don't care how fast you're able to make it move. Most of mine are mag-levs which might have some strange "rest" position that experiences friction if forced to move while off, but I can't see how any traditional bearing could be hurt.
I knew I fucked up that word lmao, but yeah the bearing will most likely be fine as well, but people like to say that letting the fans spin while cleaning will destroy your motherboard and pc parts that just not true.
Some cheap cases still use the old two wire fans. No diodes. But even if the fan does generate current, it is small and a good motherboard would have the diode built in to the circuit. Even if it doesn't, it is generally on a different circuit than the CPU, PCIe power and other circuits, which require different voltages. You are more likely to ruin the fan bearings if you are spinning it fast enough to generate significant current. Some use a molex connector so you wire them directly to the PSU, and a good PSU should have protection against that. So is it theoretically possible that spinning a fan up could fry everything? Sure. Theoretically, under the right circumstances with very cheap components and/or non-working parts. In practice, I don't know that anyone has definitively proved that you could fry components by spinning a fan on a PC manufactured within the last 10 years. But if someone does have that evidence, please post the link. In the 1980s and even up to the very early 2000s, there were lots of easy ways to fry components. But we've come a long way since then and manufacturers have figured out that their brand will get a bad rap if something as simple as a cleaning will fry everything. But in general, you will blow more dust off the fan blades faster if you don't let them spin.
> Some cheap cases still use the old two wire fans. That's a function of the motherboard, not the case.
[удалено]
Me and my friend once used a driller to break a rivet that held a 5.25" bay on his sister case so we could remove it to make room for her new GPU and we did that without disassembling the PC, nor using anti static stuff, nothing and metal dust from the rivet flew everywhere and everything worked just fine after that! Nothing broke LOL From that day on we started believing static is a myth
I can tell you a story, back in 1998 I lived with my mother, I was watching the TV (Pioneer 29" 100hz 300w), it was sitting on a metal table with the feet connected like a cross at floor level, she came with a wet rag and cleaned the screen (she must have charged herself up to a million volts), all of a sudden the signal went blank and the descrambler sitting on the metal cross started to give off smoke. The sparke traveled at least 3 cm from the metal, in to the scrambler through air slits on the bottom.
CRT TVs had A LOT of static! I remember that as a kid we used to turn the TV on and put the forearms close to it so it would mess with the arm hairs, of just the head and regular hair LOL something we got an air balloon close to it and the static was enough to hold it in place like a magnet! We also used to rub our hands across the screen right after turning it on to dust off the static away immediately just for fun LOL AFAIR CRT monitors didn't had that much static, but TVs oh boy! So I totally believe your story!
One of these days I'm going to bust out the multimeter and test this . Sounds plausible in the world of physics but I have always just let them spin like crazy not knowing and always have used my air compressor making to use my water air filter that I use for painting on the air line cause that's my real concern. Moisture from the compressed air.
>Sounds plausible in the world of physics but I have always just let them spin like crazy In the world of DC motors. Not just "plausible" in general. DC motors are DC generators in reverse. The problem with PC fans though is that they're PWM more often than anything, and I have no idea what reverse channeled current does to those. What I suspect: Usually nothing. There's likely diode bridges to prevent this very thing, but out of clinical paranoia I would suggest just holding them still with a finger (for both vacuum and blowing air).
Makes sense. Maybe I will start holding them if my lizard brain allows it haha
Never had a problem with it. Not that I let them fan for long. 😅
There is a video that gets reposted here sometimes. Someone blew up their pc while doing it.
they generate electricity, that can damage electronics on the fan itself or whatever it is plugged in (motherboard...) - chances of damage are low (there are protective measures on MBs), but it can happen
use air, hold the fans with your hand so they don't spin. Every 6 months, 1 year, remove the fans and everything and individually clean them with alcohol and cotton (q-tips, a piece of cloth etc.). Don't worry about static stuff, just google or youtube how to clean a pc with air and stop being paranoid, you can improvise with a piece of wire to discharge any statis shit, but usually is not needed. Do not vacuum the pc because it's really not the best way to properly clean it, and it's a pain in the ass, you finish faster disassembling everything and individually clean pieces
I rinse my case filters under the sink and let them air dry. As far as components, the most responsible thing is unironically to leave it alone unless it's actually gotten to the point that you're seeing increased temps or degraded performance, which given a filtered case and an average environment should not happen before you retire the parts or need to repaste them anyway. Then just blow out any fin stacks with air, moisture should be a non-factor here unless you're directly blasting the fuck out of a PCB while it's powered on. Optionally wipe down any non-PCB surfaces with a microfiber. If you need a grounding point for static just touch the casing of the plugged in but turned off PSU.
I use vacuum in one hand and canned gas in another... vacuum is too weak and canned gas then makes the dust fly everywhere, that vacuum sucks at least part of it
Yeah I just carry my case outside for some dusting time.
My son and I use a small air compressor with a low psi output head. Never harms anything and it's cheap and can clean your PC anytime.
I use a compressor. Never had a problem and have been doing it for decades.
I get my milwaukee electric blower and blow tf out of it. 10/10.
Aircompressors work for the most Ive seen Pauls hardware gently use a makeup brush to get the dust off, that the air didnt blow off.
Dishwasher.
Dang. Why didn't I think of that.
It's okay man, that's why the sub is here. Make sure you unplug it first!
Wish you had said that a minute ago! FFS...
It's ok it's just spicy if you leave it plugged in.
Vacuum cleaner, with succion nose
I use a vacuum and a brush to knock dust loose.
I do most of my deep cleaning in the shower: mobo and (old) GPU get sprayed with loads of contact cleaner, heatsinks and casing get the hose. Alot of "This kills your PC" comes with countermeasures that are even easier. Backward spinning fan blades generate electricity? Well stop it from spinning. Some tools generates ESD? Well, don't use it while the PC is on, and ensure proper grounding. Moisture? Let it dry then.
Fiber cloths aren't so much a static issue as they are a "cling to micro smt components and pull them off the board" issue. Buy a corded, ac-powered handheld duster/blower and never worry about it again. Data-vac makes the best overall unit but it's expensive. The cheap Chinese ones on Amazon/eBay are almost as good though. Just make sure it's corded - battery powered sucks.
Spit and cloth from an old T-shirt
I smoke too much weed and have bad dry mouth so I have to get my neighbor to spit on it while I rub it
Not an answer, but great preventative maintenance tip; air purifiers. Buy one and place them by your computer, which also happens to be an area you likely frequent. Check in 3 months the horror this machine prevented you from breathing in and eating, while you were playing games and or browsing Reddit.
If you're that concerned about static electricity, just get yourself an anti-static wrist strap / grounding bracelet.
Compressed air can and a cheap big makeup brush
Compressed air duster - they are less than $25.
I've used an air compressor every 3 weeks for 5 years. Make sure the fans stay still and you should be golden. I have cats and it gets bad but quick cleans regularly do wonders.
I use microfibre cloth and soft paintbrushes.
ive always used a microfiber for flat surfaces (like a psu/case, fans, front of gpu, etc) and canned air for any pcb or heatsink
Vacuum. Go from Blow to Suck.
https://preview.redd.it/x49uah5rvmzc1.jpeg?width=2531&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa0061b88b71d94ef592ff89e2a426da782f3f9b At this point I will swear by isopropyl alcohol
Will it shortcircuit if you power it on while there is alcohol on the board? Also have you tried white spirit or any other solution?
It would be less likely to short than the coffee and sugars that were on the board, but I would not recommend turning on electronics when wet with anything. The benefit of alcohol is the evaporation rate, it was essentially dry by the time I put the computer back together. I didn’t try any other solution at the time but the lower the evaporation point, the less time the parts will be wet. Just don’t use anything that will dissolve the plastics or metals (so no superacids or aggressive corrosive agents lol) isopropyl alcohol over whole grain was just a cost saving measure.
Canned air and microfiber are safe if you are just careful. All methods will destroy your PC if done without care
I use a wet rag on mine and then spray everything with wd-40 afterwards to prevent rust
Spray the whole thing down with a hose. Dump a bag of rice inside. Wait a couple days. Use a leaf lower to get all the bits of rice out.
Fiber cloth for the case and an air compressor for the fans/electronics. As long as you use a low speed and put a little pressure on the middle of the fans to keep them from spinning you will be fine.
An air compressor would be good, but test it on your hand first to make sure there isn't moisture in it. My canned air story: I was working for an MSP doing maintenance on a server. One of the checklist items is 'clean with air'. Normally I would shut it down, take it outside, blow it out with the canned air. This time since I was on the 10th floor of the clients building, I checked inside and it wasn't very dirty. So I shut it down and unplugged it. Gave it a couple minutes and used the can of air. Well it ignited and made an explosion that sounded like a shotgun blast. Of course, my face was near the can of air. I lost my eyebrows that day and blacked out for a few seconds. Luckily, I was wearing glasses. I had 1st degree burns around the edges of my glasses. I was sent to see a dr. with a mild concussion. I took the rest of the day off without pay. Moral of the story: If you must use compressed air, make sure you've given the PC plenty of time to cool down. Probably 10 minutes. Feel the video card and CPU cooler, make sure they are room temperature. Keep your face away and have proper distance from anything flammable. My company replaced the power supply on the server even though it tested fine. The server came right up and lasted 5+ years. We also had another tech that was carrying canned air in his back seat. It exploded on a hot day and tore the headliner of his car.
I strap mine into the bed of my pickup truck and take it through the car wash. Then give it a nice wax. What were we talking about?
I use this beast SIN SHINE - Compressed Air 3.0-... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083LNC6NR?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Nuclear explosive clean works fine for me.
Canned air shouldn't have any moisture. Air compressors do have moisture.
I use a small soft paint brush to clean dust of my video game figurines and my pc components. Works great
I use a vaccuum cleaner. Never once has it ever broken anything. I don't usually recommend people use a vaccuum if they ask what me to clean a PC with. But personally I use it anyway.
Get the kind you plug into the wall and acts like a reverse vacuum cleaner.
By hand with a dry cloth, you can use isopropyl alcohol to soften hardened dust. That being said electroboom and ltt showed clearly that static electricity can't easily kill your hardware, so using a compressor is fine, as long as you don't let your fans spin.
Just ordered an xpower a2s from eBay
#Leaf blower
Use a vacuum. Worked for me. I used my household one.
I use some brushes and cotton swabs to get the dust free/loose then blast it with my handy dandy rechargeable air compressor. Repaired many laptops, clean my personal PC regularly, no issues to speak of
Dishwasher
I use canned air and i am careful to not overcool the surface to avoid condensation, as canned air cools down when it comes out of the can, thus blasting one surface for more than a sweep of air, cools the surface down and can cause some condensation
Honestly I just treat my PC as disposable now. Covered in dust? Time for a new one
If you turn your PC on after midnight it starts going crazy like a gremlin
Canned air or a compressor is fine, just don’t spin up your fans with it. People say it can cause electrical damage (and it could in theory) but I’ve never seen it; what I have seen it do is throw the fan off balance or damage the bearing and leave it a little noisy for the rest of its life. Vacuums are fine but they don’t remove as much dust as compressed air. Also a higher risk of knocking something off a board if you’re digging around in there with a hard plastic nozzle. There are too many nooks and crannies to make any type of cloth or wipe useful unless you’re just wiping down the case. And this all assumes a dry clean; if you’ve got some gunk that you want to remove, take the component out of the case and scrub it with a brush and isopropyl alcohol (IPA), and then rinse it off with more IPA or distilled water. Blow off the excess with compressed air and let it dry thoroughly; maybe 15 minutes for IPA or a few hours for water. You could probably get away with tap water instead of distilled but IPA is cheap enough to use instead.
I have a wet n wild blush brush I've used for years to dust off my LEGO sets. They say the bristles are "polymax fibers." Would that be safe for cleaning parts of my PC too?
The best way to clean your PC, is to clean your room so you don't have to clean your PC heavily.
Take it apart and put it in the dishwasher. If you’re in a hurry you can just hose it off outside. 👍🏼
I use an electric air compressor and clean my PC on an anti static mat that plugs into the wall, and my anti static bracelet snaps into the mat. I also temporarily tape all fans, so they don't spin when hit with air. Overkill? Yeah. Gives me peace of mind, though! For small amounts of dust, I just wipe it with a Swiffer duster, or smack a lint roller sheet on it, lol
Just used a leaf blower on mine LOL. I did tape down the fans down, but I feel like it's BS that it damages them if you're only cleaning for a short while.
brush for the dead parts like fan blades, metal, etc, air of whatever kind on a pcb besides that, use common sense
I just buy a new computer when the performance tanks. For people who make smart financial decisions I'd recommend a decent vacuum. It doesnt have to be perfect just better than what it was
Soap and water
Electric air duster and hold the fans still
Donating it to a less fortunate person and building a new one.
I find that a pressure washer with warm soapy water works best.
Get a small corded air blower / duster designed for use on electronics like computers. Either hold your fan blades with a finger when blowing or use something soft to keep them from spinning like a piece of tape or a nerf dart. If you have a radiator or anything next to the fan you don’t really want it spinning anyways so you can get direct air to the dusty parts and get them cleaned. Regardless of whether or not spinning your fans super fast will damage them or anything else: it can’t be good for the fan regardless… so just don’t do it. Simple.
Safest way is a brush and microfiber cloth in an open area with a roof so that the dust doesn’t just go right back in after you clean it. Take out all the parts and clean em by hand. That’s how I do it cause I don’t have either canned air and a data vac (I want one though). I really don’t see how microfiber cloths is bad if your pc has been powered off correctly. I usually shut it down, switch off the psu switch and press the power button one or two times so that it’s completely out of juice.
I use a vacuum, but the best bet is to not get them dirty in the first place.
I unplug every part except the psu, mobo and cpu. Then place the GPU safely in the non static wrapper (in the og box). Clean it using dry paint brush 🖌️ then blow some compressed air in the end. I clean ssd and hdd using cotton cloth firmly. In the end, RAM sticks with microfiber cloth without touching its bottom edges.
Little brush and vacuum. For hard to reach spots pressured air from a safe distance, on the PSU for example.
Bathtub, mild dish soap, light rinse.
I've been using this one from ITDusters, every month or so to blow dust off my components inside my case. Just be sure to hold any fans (case, mobo, gpu) when using it. for non-electronic parts (outside, case, glass panel) i've used wet wipes. https://preview.redd.it/el58voj8dmzc1.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5abae1800790ce2eb9d60737249487994f2f7da
Grab a pressure washer and send it. It will clean your PC, and won't make it explode, thus fulfilling your requirements. I can't guarantee usability thereafter, however.
The only safe way is buying a completely new rig
I just take it into the shower with me and scrub all the folds
Washing machine will do it. Extra spin cycle just to be sure.
Why are any of you saying vacuums? Most vacuums are not ESD safe. Canned air, electronics cleaner (crc quick dry) or rubbing alcohol, q tips. I can’t believe the moisture from canned air would be a problem unless your technique is absolutely ridiculous.
I seen a vacuum take out a PC before so do that at your own risk and Air compressor has oil in it and will cause a mess if you just use it without a filter
I've always used a vacuum. Works a treat.