Out, out damn dust…
Cleaning the removed cards
Possibly the easier bit of the cleaning operation. You can get to the entire card with a paintbrush to sort it.
1. Choose your weapon, mortal..
Most cards are quite shallow and require nothing more than a small paintbrush and a vacuum cleaner or air blowing on them to give them back a factory appearance.
2. Have at ‘em!
Get yourself comfortable and pick a card, any card..;) If you’re planning to sit and clean them on your knee, remember the static risk and put some newspaper at least between yourself and the card(s). Now take your trusty paintbrush and move that dust! Don’t be afraid to push the bristles (not the paintbrush body!) into the little gaps between some of the components. If you’re not sure how much force to use, use common sense. Too little is ALWAYS safer than too much!
Try and clean between all the little “feet” on the microchips, and any dust filled connectors on the back you may find too. Brush gently to avoid making the dust fly if you’re not comfortable with sneezing and choking..;) Do both sides of the card, and once done suck the dust into a vacuum cleaner, or take it outside. Feel free to blow on the card (that’s blow, not spit) to move any dust that may be hiding.
Your card should now look green (or brown, or maybe even blue or purple), and shiny. Now is the time to notice the gold coloured contacts at the bottom of the cards where they sit in the slots on the Motherboard. It does no harm to rub these gently with a soft pencil eraser at this time, making sure to remove all rubber remnants afterwards. This removes any oxidisation that may be present on the contacts. Oxidisation is nothing to worry about, but can sometimes cause odd problems.
3. Next victim, I mean patient…
As each card is done, put it safely to the side on some paper, and move onto the next one.
What to do if a card has a big hunk of metal and a fan strapped onto it.
Normally found on Video Adapters, this is the Heatsink, whose purpose it is to stop your chip on that card getting so hot it becomes a novel new form of space heater.
My personal suggestion is to GENTLY use the paintbrush to slide the bristles between the fan blades and CAREFULLY dust the blades and the metal you can see underneath them. Them blow quite hard down the fins of the heatsink and see the dust come out! It may take a few times, but those heatsinks are VITAL to the life of that card. If it’s blocked, the card won’t work as efficiently (or at all) as it should.
Cleaning the Motherboard
Slightly more complex this. Not much though. Basically look at the Motherboard as a big card. OK, you can’t necessarily get underneath it, but try to blow under it a few times..it’s surprising how much dust appears!
Anyway…yes. Now you can see the board better, use the paintbrushes to dust EVERYTHING. Do it gently though..Motherboards are expensive! Just do the same on the Motherboard as you did on the cards. Dust the chips, the slots, and whatever looks dusty. I DON’T recommend you blow on it just yet. You WILL choke.
Cleaning the Case
While you’re cleaning the board, it’ll probably hit you just how much dust is sitting inside that case. Stuck to every imaginable surface. Now is the time to dust it all off as well. Any dust you see can be moved. If your case has a fan on the front, as many do, you will probably see that is caked in dust. Attack that with a paintbrush. If you can, take it off to clean it and the metal in front. If you can’t take it off, just dust as much of it as you can, and use a vacuum cleaner to suck any more.
Use that same vacuum cleaner to CAREFULLY remove the loose dust from the case. If you cant get at some, blow on it, and hold the vacuum cleaner mouth close to the dust. It’ll suck it up.
What about the cables then?
Simply brush the cables (or wipe them) along their length to give them a clean. They’re hard to hurt.
I see another of those Heatsink fan thingies… It’s probably the biggest one in your PC..it’s also the most important one. You will find it. It cools the systems main Processor chip. It is IMPORTANT to CLEAN THIS THOROUGHLY!
At the very least employ the same technique as we used on the other heatsinks above, and if at all possible remove the fan from the heatsink to do it. The majority are only held onto it by crosshead screws. This heatsink needs to be clear as if it fails to perform it’s function, your PC will die before very long. These build up dust very fast indeed.
If you can get the fan off, that’s great! Do so carefully though, and once off employ the paintbrush to clean ALL the surfaces of the heatsink. Then clean the fan the same way. Once done, refit the fan to the heatsink carefully, and admire the gleaming metal.
What do I do with these silver/black blocks screwed into the PC then?
Aha! I think you could be referring to the hard disk drives and CD unit. I suggest gently dusting them with a long bristled brush and blowing gently to move any dust you can. It’s best not to remove drives unless you have to unless you’re experienced in this, as they’re not that hard to damage.