How best to clean motherboard and PC ?

[nawab u]

 

Can anyone help me to study the basics of PC cleaning?
I know there are different ways to clean pc. Using vaccum cleaner, blower, compressed air, isopropyl alcohol etc.
I have some questions.
Please answer me.

1. Can i use compressed air or iso propyl alcohol to clean motherboard?
Does moisture caused by iso propyl alcohol and compressed air damages motherboard components like mosfet, capacitors etc?

2. how to clean the ram and ram slots?
Ram contacts can clean by eraser.
How to clean the ram parts above contact?

3. can I use compressed air or isopropyl alcohol to clean the inside of ram slots?

4. should I open power supply to clean it?

[Giganthrax]

Just take it outside and blow it out with compressed air. 

 

I also saw Paul of Paul's Hardware use his wife's old makeup brushes to fine-clean the dust afterwards, so I do that as well sometimes. 

[TetraSky]

Compressed air.

There should be no reason to "clean" the motherboard, other than blowing the dust away.

 

That is, unless you're a heavy smoker... In which case, you're better off buying a new one because you'll more likely damage it trying to clean it with any sort of liquid, even isopropyl alcohol, since you'd need to "scrub" the tar away.

[Mark Kaine]

vacuum cleaner definitely isn't a good idea for mobo, more for fans etc... 

 

as to how to clean a mobo best? either a blower (canned air is not ideal) or 

 

 

contact cleaner (or in this case pcb cleaner!) 

 

Otherwise isopropyl 90% minimum and a soft brush works too. 

 

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, TetraSky said:

There should be no reason to "clean" the motherboard, other than blowing the dust

there could be dust that got hard and is difficult to remove, old thermal paste, etc...in which case a blower doesn't suffice... 

 

1 hour ago, TetraSky said:

That is, unless you're a heavy smoker... In which case, you're better off buying a new one because you'll more likely damage it trying to clean it with any sort of liquid

I don't think a bit of nicotine would pose much of a threat to my PCB cleaner, it even comes with a brush! 

 

 

1 hour ago, Giganthrax said:

also saw Paul of Paul's Hardware use his wife's old makeup brushes to fine-clean the dust afterwards, so I do that as well sometimes. 

I too prefer some demake up when working with electronics. 

 

 

CPUs and heat sinks love it! 

[Rocketdog2112]

Be very careful using compressed air from any type of home or industrial type air compressors. Aside from the high pressure air, the air that these produce can contain grit and particles (rust) from hose and tank deterioration. The air storage tanks are the worst culprit because as air is compressed, moisture in the compressed air causes the storage tank to develop rust internally over time. The rust is picked up in the outgoing pressurized stream of air. These rust particles could possibly damage or wedge themselves components such as ram slots and possibly cause a short circuit. As a mechanic,  I myself on many occasions embedded rust particles in my skin blowing off items with compressed air. A filtering system on the hose connector at the tank helps to catch these particles.

[SnooedKiwi]

 

[OscarMike]

we use an air compressor at work to blow out dusty machines. just remember however if you have fans connected to the motherboard dont let them spin freely as they could potentially generate a charge and send it to your mobo. especially if you are using quite high pressure air like we do.