Fan.

[PaulMacC]

My fan is rly loud, my friend from school who is pro with pc's said to get a vacum cleaner and suck the dust out cause there is alot in there.
Will this break the pc and he said something about touching power supply to earth the charge.

[scottish]

You keep power supply on and powered and touch the case, this "grounds" you so you can't kill chips with static electricity.

Vacumming won't break but if the fan is dead you can easily get a new one for about 4 quid and its really easy to replace.

[PaulMacC]

Do I turn the PC off?

[Swearwolf]

if ur hooverin inside the case then good god yes turn it off

[scottish]

You don't need to ground yourself just to vacum a fan lol, only when your touching motherboard/graphics card/ram etc :P

[PaulMacC]

Just need to make sure not to touch it then?
So Im gonna
1) Unplug everything
2) place on ground
3) open case
4) get dust out via vacumm
5) screw everything back
6) plug in wires
7) done

[Swearwolf]

touch the case outside before touching anything inside :)

[scottish]

Even still i built computers and don't ground myself and never had a problem.

You can also get wrist bands if you want to be extra safe :P

[PaulMacC]

Im not touching anything inside just taking off the case.
How do I open the case of the computer lol?

[united-champ]

Heres ur steps..

1() shut the PC down
2 () Find yourself a screw driver.
3 () Unplug the PC from the Power supply... (basicly rthe wire coming outta the pc to the plug)

4 () now take the screwdriver to the back of the pc and look for screws down the side, there should be 4 - 6 maybe less / more, unscrew them and put them on the side, USUALLY, looking front onto the computer, take the LEFT panel off, since that is normally open and isnt blocked with a cage for MB.

once taken off, slide the panel off.. use a bit of force, dont worry, the side wont break!


after its off, you might see alot of power cables maybe one connecting to the fan, it will probebly be a MOLEX connector, a 3pin one. unplug it from the connection and take the side panel to the side.

You could benifit from a air compressed can, availible from most PC stores, just a few £'s and its a air can that you spray around your computer (UPRIGHT!!!!) and it blasts the dust outta fans!


After its off, blow around the computer and picking all the dust up, using a vacumn cleaner i wouldnt recomend, might actually damage electric compoments

Remember, rouch the OUTSIDE of the case before going in!


once you have all the dust gathered, you might see that the fans are covered! which they are! maybe the Processor fan is, blow it all out, but i still say get a air can,

heres a picture of what you should be looking @.

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p284/wallpaper42/Computer-Inside.jpg



Blow it all out!!

The fans will be dirty as hell, so disconnect them and maybe unscrew them if you can be adventerous!

clean with a anti static / normal cloth..

anti static is recomended but it dun matter for a fan!

and maybe dampen it a LITTLE bit just to wipe around the fan blades, you could do trhis aorund the inside of the pc, but DONT touch any compoments with the cloth!

Plug it all back in, just reverse of what you did.

even if u dont screw the side back on, it'll stay on its own.

If you have any problem doing this, i recomend taking it to a pc store, they'll charge a few £ and go during the week while its quiet and they'll do it there on the spot, :)

[scottish]

To the guy above your instructions don't make sense.

You said pull the plug out, yet then you said touch the case.

The only reason you touch the case is when the power is on to ground yourself, touching it while it is off will have no effect :S

[N!ck]

Yes, you can hoover inside the case, but i wouldn't recommend touching any on the components with the nozzle of the hoover. Touching plastic and metal bits with it should be fine, but be warned it is possible to kill your computer/some of the components as there can be static build up on the hoover nozzle, especially if it's just been used to clean a carpet. If you want to be completely safe then take the fans out before subjecting them to the hoover. Alternatively use an old toothbrush/cotton buds to get the hard to reach places.

[Technologic]

wouldnt vacuuming create tonnes of static?

[PaulMacC]

Dunno but I wont be touching the fan with the vacuum.
will it be ok