Staples and Office Depot have cans of air. Costco has them dirt cheap, buy you need to buy a truckload.
One full size can will clean out several computers.
vacuums generate static charge. A discharge below the level of human perception can damage semiconductors.
I've worked with professional disaster cleanup crews that use deionized distilled water with a pressure washer, set at modest pressure. Nothing added. Immediatly after the component is hosed off they pop the item is a standard commercial convection oven set to about 160F for a few minutes.
As a practical matter, I see no problem with cans of compressed gas. Use a wrist strap if the equimpment is made of unreplacableium.
On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 06:46:13 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@barrow.com (Floyd L. Davidson) put finger to keyboard and composed:
I don't have an opinion either way, but I offer the following two observations.
(1) Fans blow air across the motherboard and at expensive components all day long.
(2) Technicians use a heat gun (which blows very hot dry air) when troubleshooting thermally sensitive components.
When cleaning dirty electronic appliances I brush the PCBs with isopropyl alcohol, or methylated spirits if isopropyl is unavailable. When cleaning the insides of TVs and other very dusty equipment I use a vacuum cleaner because any other method just wouldn't be expedient, IMO.
- Franc Zabkar
There are several important differences though. The two most important are that the air is not drier than the surrounding air and that the volume and speed of air on any given component is very small over a long period of time.
Compare that to either a vacuum or a compressed air source, and the difference is great (as far as generating a static charge).
That is a relatively poor practice.
In both instances above though, note that the equipment is powered up, which means that it is definitely grounded and relatively able to disperse any charge build up.
That sounds like an *excellent* technique. "Tuner cleaner" sprays are also good.
Not so good... but to be honest, it probably isn't all that bad either, assuming you have pretty high humidity, which makes all of these things very forgiving.
If you have very low humidity, or if you do this to a large number of items, there will be a significant number of related failures.
Reminds me of a story I once heard, from back in the 70s about a company manufacturing small precision film resistors. They were experiencing extremely high return rates from out of spec parts.
As part of their probe into what was going on, they decided to order a test shipment of similar devices from a Japanese competitor. They ordered up "1000 ea Precision Resistors" and specified that they would accept no more than 6 percent out of tolerance. That was the spec they were failing to meet. Much to their embarrassment, the Japanese folks didn't understand.
They received a box, with two bundles inside. The large one was labeled "1000 each precision resistors". The smaller one had a note on it which said something to the effect of "Here are your
6% out of tolerance items." ;-)They obviously needed to try harder...
What they eventually found was their shipping department was packaging these thin film resistors in paper envelopes, and the ESD produced by inserting/removing them was sometimes zapping the thin film enough to change the resistance. The problem was fixed by using anti-static plastic packaging.
That is too funny. And it is probably true.
What is so special about an EPROM? Surely it is a prone to damage from water/detergent as the other chips?
Absolutely! Just because your sysoem is grounded doesn't mean everythign inside is. Indeed having it grounded could cause even more problems (current's gotta go somewhere). If you can feel the shock, it''l destroy any electronics it's going through.
Perhaps just more sensitive to ESD? From past experience I've had to reflash BIOS chips that were left in boards.
Critical components of my PC have a guarantee of 3 years, which I find long enough.RAM has a lifetime guarantee.My vendor didn't tell me anything;I find opening my PCs case doing more harm than good.Even a very small electric charge on myself can have irreversible effects on the hardware.Computer circuits are more sensitive to static, than dust (on my opinion anyway).And to forceful handling (if you allow me the expression).Just my 700 euro worth (what my PC did cost).
-- Dimitris Tzortzakakis,Iraklion Crete,Greece major in electrical engineering-freelance electrician FH von Iraklion-Kreta, freiberuflicher Elektriker dimtzort AT otenet DOT gr ? "kony" ?????? ??? ?????? news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
Well, neither of us is absolutely correct, but I will say that I've observed condensation, on my double-paned windows, when my ventilator was off. Never with it on (it's got automatic humistat control), though.
c/faulty/normal
True, with careful construction, the problem can be mitigated...
Well, no. The humid inside air is vented to the outside, and is replaced by colder, drier, outside air. Obviously, this lowers the humidity in the house below what it would be otherwise. I'm not sure what you're getting at...
When it hits -40'C outside I see condensation on my double pane windows if the RH in my apartment is above
30% - and that seems to be about the norm.I see static problems when using my mouse and keyboard at only 30% RH, so I tend to set my humidifier to 35% and just live with condensation during cold snaps.
People in newer homes here tend to have triple pane windows and can be condensation-free at -40'C and 40% RH.
Most people around here use humidifiers during the winter and the rule of thumb for avoiding condensation is to set it for 30% RH at -40'C and increase the RH by 1% for every
1 degree increase in the outside temperature. That "rule of thumb" predates the widespread use of home computers and I have fixed a lot of sporadic computer problems simply by telling people never to let the RH go below 35% or 40%.PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.