It is amazing how little attention people can pay to the cleanliness of the inside of their computer. Maybe it is because it is such an easy thing to overlook. That machine that makes your computing life so easy tends to find itself on the floor, a carpet or somewhere where dust is literally always blowing and stirred up in its vicinity by footsteps and air movement. Since I first became aware of the performance impact of dust on the innards of a computer I have stopped putting my computers in harm’s way. None of my computers will see the floor again unless I can find a way to completely dust proof them there.

A desktop or shelf is a much safer place for longer lasting peace of mind unless you really feel like blowing out the innards of your machine on a relatively regular basis. I have written about this before but more and more folks are coming to me with complaints of slow and hanging machines that really only need to be blown out and cleaned inside for everything to return to normal.

Dust, especially grimy and small particle dust settle on fan blades and cooler fins over time. They rest on chip coolers and motherboard capacitors and generally find their way to every bit that needs to see clean contact with moving air on a constant basis. Given enough time it slowly forms a carpet of dust over the inside of your computer causing cooling problems. When it really gets bad your fans can start rattling and the pc can slow down severely as it tries to protect itself from burnout! If you don’t know what is causing this then you tinker with all kinds of things, like virus scans for instance, instead of applying your attention to what is really needed, namely a good blow out.

I take dirty computers to the nearby petrol station and use the tyre air hose to blow them out. This can be hazardous though because you need to keep fans still when doing it as the air pressure can make them spin so fast the bearings burn. I am NOT responsible for any damage you incur doing this, so steer clear of this if you are not sure how to do it safely. There could be water droplets inside the pipes due to condensation and water don’t mix well with electronic equipment.

Maybe the best bet would be to use a vacuum cleaner that can blow or commercial compressed air canisters made for use in blowing out computers. I hate them though because their air pressure generally disappoint. A brush can also help, but it only works if the computer is regularly cleaned, because once the carpet of dust is in the fins and on the fan blades, brushing tends to be too little too late.

The tyre hose is my weapon of choice, get yours!