PSA: Clean your system even if it looks ok from a distance!

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

i've not cleaned my pc for a year until just now and and just... keep reading. 

 

so i've been getting weird problems over the last few months like random freezing and gpu overheating among other things. i thought i'd fixed them but they returned and i finally was just like whatever i'll rebuild. and holy crap. 

 

from a distance my pc has always looked ok in terms of dust, nothing really visible. but when i started taking it apart it quickly became apparant that it wasn't dusty but more like WTF EW!! the first thing i took out was the gpu, and again not much visible dust. until i took the fan assembly off. there was dust all over the card, inside the heatsink and on the bottom of the fans. it was covered with it, including hair that was inside the fans. no wonder it was overheating! 

 

then, i looked at the pci-e area of the motherboard kind of in shock. the pci-e slots were covered in dust and there was hair running ACROSS THE SLOTS!!!! i was getting gpu related errors with known good cards, this was probably why! after cleaning off the pci-e area i moved on to the cpu and ram section of the board. again, no visible dust, keep that in mind. i took the cpu fan off to acces the ram and a bunch of dust fell off of it. i looked on the heatsink and it was covered in dust, it was all over it. the cpu fan had trouble spinning freely and when i looked it was full of dust and hair. after removing that it spun freely again. i took the ram sticks out, which were covered in dust on the sides, and looked at the slots. again there was dust and hair on and inside the slots!!! after cleaning all of that off i cleaned the fans at the bottom of the case (silverstone RV03, unique airflow setup) and those were full of crap and barely moved air anymore. 

 

but the worst part. the cable management area in the back of the case. i took the right side panel off and what i saw was just... it made me cringe. all the cables were covered in dust, like they looked grey when they are supposed to be black. the fan grills were clogged up, the ssd's covered in dust... that took me a while to clean as well. 

 

all in all it took me almost 2 hours to take almost every component out and dust it off. 

 

so please clean your pc's even if they don't look too bad from a distance. i wouldn't be surprised if all the dust and crap in my pc was causing all the instability and cooling problems... 

[Drama Lama]

Thanks for the advice 

just cleaned my rig recently when I added a new harddrive 

[Lordofcheez]

Well have you tested it to see if it being dirty was the issue?

[suedseefrucht]

Just to get to know the conditions... 

What case are you using and does it have dust filters? 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

Just now, suedseefrucht said:

Just to get to know the conditions... 

What case are you using and does it have dust filters? 

Silverstone RV03 and no, i took them off because i felt that they restricted airflow too much, and i was like if it gets dusty i'll clean it whatever. 

[bmx6454]

this is why i usually dust with an air duster once a month, and full cleaning every six months.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

2 minutes ago, bmx6454 said:

this is why i usually dust with an air duster once a month, and full cleaning every six months.

Yeah, I clean my dust filters fairly often. But it's been 8 months since I've done a full PC cleaning and I'm feeling anxious about it. But I think my wife is getting me a datavac for my birthday so I have to wait. 

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, bmx6454 said:

this is why i usually dust with an air duster once a month, and full cleaning every six months.

ya'll too hardworking

 

I just fully swap my components every year when new things launch

[Lordofcheez]

Maybe use filters? I do and it helps a lot.

[bmx6454]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

ya'll too hardworking

 

I just fully swap my components every year when new things launch

ocd is good for resale value lol

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

4 minutes ago, Lordofcheez said:

Well have you tested it to see if it being dirty was the issue?

it fixed the gpu overheating that's for sure. it used to skyrocket to 94c and stay there when running something like The Witcher 3, but now it goes up slowly and maxes out at like 75 to 80c. 

 

1 minute ago, Lordofcheez said:

Maybe use filters? I do and it helps a lot.

those wouldn't have helped here as they would just get clogged and block airflow. nothign will help if you keep a system running 8 to 16 hours per day and never clean it. 

 

5 minutes ago, bmx6454 said:

this is why i usually dust with an air duster once a month, and full cleaning every six months.

the stupid thing is that that's what i tell people to do as well, i should really practice what i preach there. 

[Radium_Angel]

22 minutes ago, Ashley said:

hair

Could be worse, I once cleaned out a client's system that had live cockroaches in it. And not just one either...

[Lordofcheez]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

Could be worse, I once cleaned out a client's system that had live cockroaches in it. And not just one either...

How the fuck does that happen what kind of filth did they live in? Or are they just unlucky people like what?

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, Lordofcheez said:

How the fuck does that happen what kind of filth did they live in? Or are they just unlucky people like what?

I'll PM you, the details are far too horrifying for public discourse.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

9 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I'll PM you, the details are far too horrifying for public discourse.

Oh come on! Now you have to share!

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

Oh come on! Now you have to share!

ok

Spoiler

These people were chain smokers and hoarders. The absolute filth in their system needed a stiff bristle brush to dislodge. Compressed air wasn't touching it. There was insect bodies, mouse skeletons, poop, and god only knows what else inside that poor system. 

 

[SansVarnic]

I clean my rig every 3 moths or so.

 

*yes I said MOTHS.  

[TetraSky]

Ah, the joy of having fan filters on every intake. 

Don't have to deal with OP's issues.

 

Sure it may not catch everything, but it at least doesn't let hair and other large particulate go in.

[Tristerin]

Yes and no

 

I only clean my filters and radiators.  The rest takes care of itself by having filters on the intake.  I havent cleaned my Cooler Master HAF XM in 8 years or so.  It has a finger wipeable amount of dust inside it, but I call it "Industrial Theme"  

 

Now my Cougar MX330-X lacking filters...8 months later I cant tell if thats my cat in there or not. 

 

And if you use filters, and do a neutral pressure fan orientation - I left a PC on 24/7 for a year in the corner - not a spec of dust (almost) inside of it.  Fans filters were ugly however.

[CommanderAlex]

Pretty much every morning before I turn on my PC, I wipe off the side panel where I have a 140mm fan with no dust filter to remove the dust from the mesh, front panel mesh, and then pull the bottom dust cover out to clean them and then tilt the PC on two legs to wipe underneath the PC (bear in mind on my desk). When I start to see dust on the fan blades of my CPU cooler, then I know its time to deep clean the PC (About a month or two). 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

10 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

ok

  Reveal hidden contents

These people were chain smokers and hoarders. The absolute filth in their system needed a stiff bristle brush to dislodge. Compressed air wasn't touching it. There was insect bodies, mouse skeletons, poop, and god only knows what else inside that poor system. 

 

*BARFS*

 

Thanks! 

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

*BARFS*

 

Thanks! 

I warned you....and for the record, it's not the worst system I ever had to work on...

[sub68]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

I warned you....and for the record, it's not the worst system I ever had to work on...

The worst system was my old system

umm my parents did not like me cleaning it

also I had the side panel off for about a year

 

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I warned you....and for the record, it's not the worst system I ever had to work on...

You should make a PC gore thread.

[SansVarnic]

47 minutes ago, HairlessMonkeyBoy said:

You should make a PC gore thread.

Please no.