Cleaning burst from my components: Can a plastic tip vacuum prevent…

Thomas Kinderberg need help to clarify doubt about: : Cleaning burst from my components: Can a plastic tip vacuum prevent static electricity?
My computer stopped working yesterday, it wont go further, whenever I turn my computer on, and it just stops. Also the CPU temperature is at 78, has this something to do with it? I consider vacuuming the components, with a plastic tip vacuum(I’ve heard this prevents static electricity). I do take any precautions into consideration before I eventually clean my components. My point is, can a plastic tip vacuum, prevent static electricity ?

Try this:

Answer by Colinc
Plastic is the worst thing for static buildup. You need to disconnect power and then the battery if it is a laptop. Is the fan working? Normally restricted air flow will NOT prevent a machine from starting, it will allow it to start and does not affect running until the chip warms up more. Cleaning will not cure this. If it is very contaminated it is a good idea to clean it, just be careful not to actually touch ANY component on the board, really you only need to get near the dust to lift it. Except on the heat sink vents, where static will not cause any problems and you may need close proximity to move internal dust. Ideally a metal head on the vacuum nozzle, and keep contact with the metal head and the chassis at all times. That way there will be NO static problem. Even holding the head with one hand and touching the chassis with the other will stop static.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. To prevent static electricity you can do two things wear a anti-static wristband or grab something that is metal and ground yourself to it. Yes that is why you computer is shutting down (78c I guess you mean) I don’t use the metric table converted that would be 178.4 in F. degrees. To clean my components I use rubbing alcohol with a soft cotton rag, the alcohol dissipates quickly and won’t harm your parts.

    Hope this helps good luck.

  2. NO. Even if you had a HEPA filter on your vacuum for the dust, your vacuum cleaner will produce alot of static electricity and its synthetic brushes with the static electricity they produce from being brushed across your components may damage them.

    Use a horsehair brush to clean dust off your components as its supposed to create the least amount of static electricity. You can usually find these brushes in an arts’N’craft store. I use a RoyMac 1600

    Make sure you earth yourself onto your case before you start touching the components. Consider buying and using an anti-static wrist strap and for the more overly concerned you can even buy a special mat to stand on.

    Best of all if you want to use more power to blast dust off your components use a oil-less hobby compressor with a moisture trap, you don’t spray oil or water onto your components with them.

    Please remember if your gonna blow dust from your system go outside, you don’t need those pollutants being sucked back into your PC and breathed in by you.

    Dust is a key source of heat problems with all PC components as dust is a thermal insulator, just brushing dust off the heatsyncs and fans can make all the difference in the world to how your PC performs.

    Have you also got adequate case fans to move air through your case, suck in fresh cool air and blow hot air out.

    Ideally your CPU should be in the range of 45 – 60 degree’s Celsius depending on whether your system is idle or under load.

    You may need to redo your thermal paste that is between your heatsync and CPU, the job of thermal paste is to make good contact between the CPU and its heatsync so that heat may be transferred and dissipated efficiently. If you have too little paste to begin with or it has dried up it won’t be doing its job.

    If you use a can of compressed air to clean your system, remember to invert the can upside down and spray a little away from your components before blowing dust off your components with it. The reason why is simple, air even air compressed in a can has moisture (its why you have a moisture trap on a hobby compressor) and you don’t want to spray water/moisture on your components, what you want to spray from the can is the propellant (freon usually), to blow dust off your PC components.

  3. Could be a bad heat shrink and cpu fan and the thermal paste has lost it’s cooling effect, needs to be reapply between the heat shrink and cpu , since i don’t use vaccuum cleaner to clean up the dust when a kind of loose circuit came out and the vacuum suck it up just a can of air would be better, let’s hope its not the motherboard .

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