Reminder to clean out your dusty machines.

[amcdonald]

My case is well filtered, and I keep the visible filters clean most of the time, but after 6 months of continous use, dust has crippled my system.
I cleaned all of the dust out of my home computer yesterday after it overheated a few times...
When I checked I was getting ~55ºC idle/70+ºC(automatic shutoff) load on my quietest fan speed settings....

now I'm back to a healthy, and silent ~33ºC/~41ºC

One disadvantage of the slk900a (and similarly-designed products) is that they clog very easily... whereas my old alpha8045 had far more tolerance for dust buildup.

 

[us3rnotfound]

Now, I've got a big case of raisin and chocolate chip cookies, along with some brownies baking in the oven

 

[Mustanggt]

Funny, same thing just happened to my PC temps 52c SLK 800 I am sick of this heatsink what good is it if you have to clean it every 6 months more like every 4 for me, never had this problem with any other HS I have used, everyone says how great these things are Yes they do work great after fresh install but its downhill from there.

 

[Sid59]

Originally posted by: shminu
Now, I've got a big case of raisin and chocolate chip cookies, along with some brownies baking in the oven

those sound good .. i've got chicken and veggies being cooked.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: shminu
Now, I've got a big case of raisin and chocolate chip cookies, along with some brownies baking in the oven

ok

 

[cubanx]

Don't forget the risk of fire.

It was in the old celeron FC overclocking day's I started smelling something burning and then saw smoke venting from the case. I opened it up a saw a string of dust connected between 2 capacitors and one of them glowing red about to explode. The Abit BH6 mobo did still work for awhile after that though but good thing I was home. I now blow some compressed in the cases every couple of months.

 

[Sarobi]

Oh c'mon, having to clean your rig every six months is not much of a hardship -- really now...

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: cubanx
Don't forget the risk of fire.

It was in the old celeron FC overclocking day's I started smelling something burning and then saw smoke venting from the case. I opened it up a saw a string of dust connected between 2 capacitors and one of them glowing red about to explode. The Abit BH6 mobo did still work for awhile after that though but good thing I was home. I now blow some compressed in the cases every couple of months.

You sure it was the dust that caused it? Not only would the dust need to be a decent conductor (not likely, unless the PC is in a metal shop), but it would then have to bridge two of the capacitors' leads. And...you sure they were capacitors? I think that a capacitor would explode or melt long before it would be hot enough to glow. Maybe resistors...but they usually make a loud SNAP, and then all current flow through them ceases.

 

[Goatsan]

yes, filters help out alot, i've notice a difference with my case. Just the other night, i cleaned out a friends pc, who is a heavy smoker and is on the pc 24/7. The heatsink on the video card looked as if someone just stuffed chewing tobacco in there :Q:disgust:

 

[BlackMountainCow]

I "abuse" some old tights (NO, they ain't mine!!) as filters ... works great

With my Volcano 12 I don't have the prob of dust. If i notice a raise in temp during time I just fire it up to full speed for a couple of minutes (ignore the urge to duck and cover cause I think an F-16 is flying through my room) and then all the small dust things are gone

 

[cubanx]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: cubanx
Don't forget the risk of fire.

It was in the old celeron FC overclocking day's I started smelling something burning and then saw smoke venting from the case. I opened it up a saw a string of dust connected between 2 capacitors and one of them glowing red about to explode. The Abit BH6 mobo did still work for awhile after that though but good thing I was home. I now blow some compressed in the cases every couple of months.

You sure it was the dust that caused it? Not only would the dust need to be a decent conductor (not likely, unless the PC is in a metal shop), but it would then have to bridge two of the capacitors' leads. And...you sure they were capacitors? I think that a capacitor would explode or melt long before it would be hot enough to glow. Maybe resistors...but they usually make a loud SNAP, and then all current flow through them ceases.

Yep it was dust Jeff7. It was a string of it between the CAPs. Blew it away and one of the CAPs stopped glowing. Yeah I didn't get too close becuase I thought it was going to explode but only the protective film over them started melting. The built up dust must have blown off a intake or heatsink.