PSA for all of my friends with a PC in the shop

[Archer0915]

This post is a sort of a PSA for all of my friends with a PC in the shop. If you decide to clean your controller PC make sure to pay attention to what you are cleaning off.
Here we have a power supply and it is used for a plasma table. The dust has a pretty good chance of being conductive so it is best left alone unless you have another power supply on hand or are ready to go buy one. Best bet here is to avoid trying to clean this part of the PC. Also please handle shop PCs with care as to not disturb the dust.
We may look at replacing this power supply in the coming days or weeks to prevent and potential damage in the near future.
Again, do not attempt to blow a shop unit out if you do not have a spare power supply. Furthermore if you do blow it out, you should jump the power supply to turn it on after cleaning. Do not have it hooked to any components or you could fry them.

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[stjames1_53]

............and now, back to our regularly scheduled program

[Common]

Archer I work in a computer shop, we blow desktops and laptops out every day, never had a PS go back because of it.
You have to blow out units to keep the heat down. You wouldnt believe how full of everything peoples computers are.
We once had a woman who said her computer wont work, we opened the side and took out and unbelievable amount of cat hair all balled up EVERYWhere.

[Archer0915]

Archer I work in a computer shop, we blow desktops and laptops out every day, never had a PS go back because of it.
You have to blow out units to keep the heat down. You wouldnt believe how full of everything peoples computers are.
We once had a woman who said her computer wont work, we opened the side and took out and unbelievable amount of cat hair all balled up EVERYWhere.
METAL DUST! Understand this is not normal dust... READ>>> CONDUCTIVE.


The dust has a pretty good chance of being conductive so it is best left alone unless you have another power supply on hand

[countryboy]

Archer I work in a computer shop, we blow desktops and laptops out every day, never had a PS go back because of it.
You have to blow out units to keep the heat down. You wouldnt believe how full of everything peoples computers are.
We once had a woman who said her computer wont work, we opened the side and took out and unbelievable amount of cat hair all balled up EVERYWhere.
I know Archer's talking about metal dust, but even with regular dust, aren't you supposed to keep contact with the chassis of the machine to avoid a static discharge from your body? I know they used to make little alligator clip gadgets for this. Is this no longer standard procedure?


@Archer0915 (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=323)?

[Archer0915]

I know Archer's talking about metal dust, but even with regular dust, aren't you supposed to keep contact with the chassis of the machine to avoid a static discharge from your body? I know they used to make little alligator clip gadgets for this. Is this no longer standard procedure?


@Archer0915 (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=323)?
Honestly, nobody uses them. We ground off on a case. When I was at IBM it was mandatory but I have never had an issue with ESD. The grinding and metal dust can cause big issues.

Also the PSU is not generally a ESD sensitive part though some are getting pretty complex.

[countryboy]

Honestly, nobody uses them. We ground off on a case. When I was at IBM it was mandatory but I have never had an issue with ESD. The grinding and metal dust can cause big issues.

Also the PSU is not generally a ESD sensitive part though some are getting pretty complex.
What do you mean "you ground off on a case"? Not grilling you, but getting ready to blow out an older tower of mine, and I don't want to fry anything. I've done it multiple times in the past, and I've always kept a finger on the frame, and held a vac wand close while blowing out with canned air. Is there a better way?

[Peter1469]

Archer I work in a computer shop, we blow desktops and laptops out every day, never had a PS go back because of it.
You have to blow out units to keep the heat down. You wouldnt believe how full of everything peoples computers are.
We once had a woman who said her computer wont work, we opened the side and took out and unbelievable amount of cat hair all balled up EVERYWhere.
That is my problem. Two ragdolls.

[Archer0915]

What do you mean "you ground off on a case"? Not grilling you, but getting ready to blow out an older tower of mine, and I don't want to fry anything. I've done it multiple times in the past, and I've always kept a finger on the frame, and held a vac wand close while blowing out with canned air. Is there a better way?

If the case is plugged in you are grounded if your hand is on it. You did correct.
Common I did not mean to sound like an ass and believe me if it were anything else I would have blown out the PSU. Here I will have another PSU present, take the cover off of this one and blow it out. After that I will test it before hooking it back up. If all shows good then that is that but if not, I will be prepared. Again this is a special circumstance and you are correct about blowing them out except in special circumstances.

[waltky]

possum does alla computer workin' on `round here...

,,, dat's why Granny got a virtual ram disk...

... with a VPN.

[Common]

Why would you blow a unit out plugged in ? always unplug it we take them out back we have a long hose that reachs outside the door. Some of them will kill you with dust if you did them inside.

Popcorn ceilings that have not been painted over as yet leave white dust in computers thats enough to choke a horse. Many have black clouds of dust coming out of them.

[stjames1_53]

If the case is plugged in you are grounded if your hand is on it. You did correct.
@Common (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=2649) I did not mean to sound like an ass and believe me if it were anything else I would have blown out the PSU. Here I will have another PSU present, take the cover off of this one and blow it out. After that I will test it before hooking it back up. If all shows good then that is that but if not, I will be prepared. Again this is a special circumstance and you are correct about blowing them out except in special circumstances.


a number of years go, I worked on a friend's computer. He had a similar dust issue in a wood shop. I found some 1/2 thick foam for covering chair seats and cut a pattern to fit the back of his computer and his intake cooling ports. It worked for his computer's cooling system. The filter kept his computer clean. He takes it off every couple of days and shakes/vacuum it out.
It has saved his computer. I think it might help you, or not. But I used some thinking and solved the issue of heavy dust inside his computer by placing homemade filters on all intakes for him. Just shake the filter out, or in your case, just replace them.
just a thought Archer0915 .............

[Archer0915]

a number of years go, I worked on a friend's computer. He had a similar dust issue in a wood shop. I found some 1/2 thick foam for covering chair seats and cut a pattern to fit the back of his computer and his intake cooling ports. It worked for his computer's cooling system. The filter kept his computer clean. He takes it off every couple of days and shakes/vacuum it out.
It has saved his computer. I think it might help you, or not. But I used some thinking and solved the issue of heavy dust inside his computer by placing homemade filters on all intakes for him. Just shake the filter out, or in your case, just replace them.
just a thought @Archer0915 (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=323) .............

It had been over 10 years since I built and installed this control PC and this is the first time it had been opened since. but there is filtering in the cabinet. Because if the location I built the PC with a low power CPU and will not run hot in this environment. But I did put filtering on the cabinet.

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The system is now clean, all but the PSU:

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I built the system with a RAID 1 and a low power/heat (AMD 5050e 45w) CPU, It has done well.