OT: Computer dust protection

One solution is to install a water cooling system with a passive radiator. It also makes the system much quieter. The commercial kits are not cheap but there are lot of do-it-yourself ideas on the web.

install air conditioner type filters over the inlets. next time use an air hose, not a leaf blower - higher pressure, blow the junk out and give it back.

You go girl!

How about fabbing a sheet metal frame for a cheap replaceable furnace filter?

Worse, because the openings are smaller.

--Winston

I've seen covers for comps that were designed to keep the dust out yet let the comp breath . Dude that managed a cabinet shop I useta work at got them somewhere in the web . Here's a link to one vendor

. -- Snag Learning keeps you young !

The best solution involves getting rid of the ankle biters. They don't belong inside anyway.

Second is getting them up off the floor by at least 18", where most of the dust stays.

Panty hose over the box is probably an effective hair reducer, too. I imagine you can spare a pair for him, eh? Just don't let on that they were actually yours.

-- An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. -- Sir Winston Churchill

Computers did that normally even before a PC existed. Intel began putting that function inside CPUs even back with the 80486.

Heat is not hardware destructive despite so many who promote it. Heat causes temporary timing and threshold changes. As soon as one transistor does not fire fast enough (or too fast), then the entire system crashes. Makes it almost miraculous that a computer works at all.

How to find defective hardware? Operate it in a 100 degree F room or heat semiconductors with a hairdryer on highest heat settings. That is normal temperature to any computer. Heat also causes defective components to temporarily fail. Heat is a diagnostic tool to find intermittents that will cause failures maybe many months later.

The W-tom troll raises it's ugly head, yet again. Some compoments fail when heated, some when chilled.

Surprisingly, just putting them six inches off the floor makes a BIG difference in how much dust a computer picks up - but in a fery dusty environment there is no better alternative than a bi-monthly clean-up with the blower end of a vacuum cleaner.

Excessive heat WILL kill computer components, both active solid state devices and "passive" devices such as capacitors. They all have rated operating temperatures, and rated life at those temps. The life drops off VERY quickly when the rated temperature is exceded. The failure may be "temporary" the first time or two, but the damage is cumulative and permanent.

I put a box in a friend's T-shirt shop. Lint everywhere.

Most PC's draw air in the cracks & vents and exit via the power supply.

I found a case with bottom vents and built a wooden shoebox; i.e. open top, the computer sits on it. The front got a big boxer fan AND a filter.

This pressurized the case with filtered air. The result was outflow at every leak; and the innards stayed lint-free.

Filters restrict airflow, which restrict cooling. The best procedure is to blow out the computer on a regular basis, once or twice a year if it is really bad.

Jon

And then cool it below 110 degrees F and it works perfectly normal again. Or you heat it above -5 degrees C and it works perfectly normal again. Extreme heat and cold cause timing changes and computer crashes. Only causes hardware failures when those temperatures are, for example, many hundreds of degrees warmer.

Clogged air vents would not cause computer damage. Remove a heatsink from an Intel CPU. No semiconductor damage results. The CPU simply slows down so as to not overheat.

Intel CPUs have even operated as high as 170 degree C environments. The trick was to adjust for timing changes. That temperature caused no semiconductor damage. Clearing clogged air vents simply changes timing and thresholds back to normal values. Engineers know this. Electrionic repairman would not. Which explains his abusive posting style.

We simply obtained a power supply with heftier heatsinks. Then sealed the entire computer. As long as the room stayed about 70 degrees F, then no problem.

Dust problems are also created by too many chassis fans. Most computers will work fine with one chassis fan in a 100 degree F room. Moving too much air is a major reasons for dust.

And yes, getting it up off the floor also significantly reduces dust instake. Animal hairs can be particularly problematic.

Perhaps that is the case with newer Intel CPUs, but follow this link to see what happens to an older AMD CPU:

(Quite a dramatic death)

I think you are one engineer I would not hire.

BS. I've seen equipment that would only work between 55 and 65 degrees F. It was all I could do to keep from laughing at the 'supertech' spray freeze mist, then use a heat gun repeatedly. he believed the same BS you do.

Yeah. Right. If it's that hot, you'll have to scrap it.

More BS. Heat destroys the Electrolytics in the CPU power supply. I have three dead Acer Insperion L100 computers sitting next to me that need all new Electrolytics from running hot.

If the BIOS monitors the temperature. Some didn't. Some could be turned off. Either way, the computer is dead, until it's serviced.

Electrionic repairman? Apparently you still haven't learned to spell, but it doesn't explain whay ou post so many lies. BTW, you never have come up with a list of power supplies guaranteed to work at 90 volts.

Computers I built are in orbit. Are yours?

Then my server rack with built in air conditioning isn't needed? You better tell Emerson to stop building them.

He only shows up when someone mentions a couple subjects, and tries to put down anyone who don't kiss his ass. If he's an engineer, it's on a Lionel toy train. He doesn't understand how surge suppression works, but to hear him tell it, he's the world's expert.

This is one reason that my mini tower is mounted on a shelf outboard of the hutch portion of my desk. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Have a look at the under the desk racks and mounting solutions at

Off the floor really does keep the dust monsters down, the works still needs a blowdown at least once a year. At least he didn't keep it in a closet with a litter box for several cats...

The method we used at the shipyard was to blow the crap out with one side of a Shop-Vac and suck the loose stuff up with the other side. Lots of crap since they sat in the various shops all the time. Extreme cases called for PS replacement, was easier and cheaper than paying a contractor to clean one out.

I've had those fan filters, all they do is fill up with crud and block airflow. Better just to plan periodic cleaning and inspection. We had contractors doing PM when they weren't fixing stuff, do enough PM and there's not a lot left to fix barring lightening strikes.

Stan