I just cut my temps in half, 74C idle to 38C idle

[ArmchairAthlete]

Heatsink:

http://www.pcabusers.com/reviews/thermalright/slk900a/p1.html

And just a fairly plain fan. Artic Silver thermal paste.

So I noticed my PC starting to shut off randomly. Then I reinstalled my temperature monitoring stuff, holy crap 74C. The fan is spinning fine. The heatsink is firmly secured.

I remove the fan and see...
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/ArmchairAthlete/slk900dust.jpg

Son of a...

I clean that gunk out good, and hook everything back up. My temps are down to 38C idle.


Phew.

Wonder if this is common with these heatsinks?

 

[Avalon]

Probably fairly common
My friend's A64 3200+ Newcastle started overheating very badly one day, where his system kept rebooting/shutting off. We got speedfan on there, and his chip was hitting almost 80C. I had him take the system over, and when we cracked the case open, his heatsink looked similar to yours, except a bit dirtier. A can of compressed air took care of things

 

[Zim]

Yeah it's common, but that's the worst I've seen. Just imagine what your lungs look like!

 

[Furen]

It happens with heatsinks that have little spacing between the fins and/or use high-speed fans. Putting a filter in your air intake helps out a lot, but you'll have to clean it once in a while.

 

[n19htmare]

Originally posted by: Zim
Yeah it's common, but that's the worst I've seen. Just imagine what your lungs look like!

Damn ciggs... i gotta quit

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete


Wonder if this is common with these heatsinks?

common with most heatsinks. Especially in a room with carpet. I dust mine often to prevent this problem.

Also...did you take off the heatsink and reseat it or just clean it?

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Originally posted by: n19htmare

Originally posted by: Zim
Yeah it's common, but that's the worst I've seen. Just imagine what your lungs look like!

Damn ciggs... i gotta quit

Originally posted by: ArmchairAthlete


Wonder if this is common with these heatsinks?

common with most heatsinks. Especially in a room with carpet. I dust mine often to prevent this problem.

Also...did you take off the heatsink and reseat it or just clean it?

I don't have a carpet. I just hadn't noticed dust was accumulating under the fan, didn't even think about it. You couldn't really see it.

I didn't reseat the HSF. Just did this, much simpler and it worked fine.

Wish I had some more compressed air, but I got the dust out pretty well.

Guess I just need to clean it like this every year now. Or get a filter like that guy said, but then I have to clean that and I don't think I could seal my case too well.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

At least, with smoking cigs, you have some voluntary cleaning action, and you can spit at the neighbor's cat when he invades your patio . . . .

But your heatsink can't clear its throat by itself.

As far as cruft is concerned, even cats spit up fur-balls . . . .

Did you ever wonder how many dust mites get caught in that cruft clogging your fan filters and heatsink fins, or whether they go through some strange mutation from the RFI and EMI dosages?

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
At least, with smoking cigs, you have some voluntary cleaning action, and you can spit at the neighbor's cat when he invades your patio . . . .

But your heatsink can't clear its throat by itself.

As far as cruft is concerned, even cats spit up fur-balls . . . .

Did you ever wonder how many dust mites get caught in that cruft clogging your fan filters and heatsink fins, or whether they go through some strange mutation from the RFI and EMI dosages?

/puts on TFH

Maybe some of them burrowed into my skin as I cleaned it and now they're controlling my mind =P

 

[BonzaiDuck]

That gray stuff looks so disgusting, I hold my breath and carry the fan-filters gently to the wash-tub sink with rubber surgical gloves. One false move, and there is fallout all over the place.

Also -- per that electrical environment -- I thought I once noticed that spiders are actually attracted to it . . . . . mites, too, are Eight-Legged Freaks.

But that wasn't the Sci-Fi movie I to which I think you obliquely referred. The movies which your scenario calls to mind are "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan," or that other movie with the slimy long-tailed parasites, starring Donald Sutherland . . . .