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Hi...would appreciate some help. My PC has been having various problems recently, namely XP crashing completely, and my memory halving itself. When I opened her up and took a tentative look inside I found a large build up of dust, seemingly originating from the fan on the CPU. There's some dust on the motherboard, and my memory board. Any advice on how best to clean it up? Im a bit nervous about blowing something. I considered taking a soft brush to it...but wouldn't that have problems with static? Would hoovering it out be too drastic?
:icon_scra

Hya Willy , my advice would be to go to a local computer store and buy a can of compressed air to blow out all the dust.

:smiley: Hi Williebach,

It is always a good idea to get advice for any project you're not confident in.

I have used the vacume on my PC, most would tell you to use the canned air that they sell at the computer stores, it comes w/ a straw so you can direct the air really well. Personally, I want the dust OUT of the PC, and that seems too much like a leaf blower lol. I am sure that the guys will have some other ideas for you.

However, your problems do not sound as if they are all related to internal housekeeping, I would be checking for malware infections. Also, make sure that all of your updates are done.

TTFN

LGW

Thanks for the replies...i think ill try the vacuum. Yeah, i guessed the dust wasnt the main problem, just figured it couldnt exactly be helping. esp as there was lots of dust in and around the contact area of the memory which was registering on all progs as 256 instead of 512mb. Im going to have to reformat the drive and reinstall xp i think, it was a complete mess anyway, three partitions and three seperate OSs (long story!)...anyway thanks again.
p.s (so i would be at risk from static using a brush?) just for future reference.

yes static will build up on a brush and when touching and componets be sure to regularly touch the steel chassis of the pc case to ground yourself to prevent static

Thanks...duly noted. Paint brush returned to the darkened recess of my wardrobe shelf, never to see the light of day again. Ill try the hoover....very very carefully. I've heard of dust causing an increase of PC temps, but has anyone ever experienced it being responsible for hardware failures?...such as my memory seems to be doing.

:cry:

Dust can cause heat problems and there for damage hardware , but thats more a problem with things like the processor then memory. i.e. If the processor cooler gets glogged up with dust the air can't cool it proper anymore and it could burn out.