How to clean the cooler: cleaning the fan in the computer and laptop from dust
We are all familiar with the annoying noise, constantly coming from your favorite computer and does not stop for a second. You can get rid of it by dusting your laptop or PC fan, but such cleaning is not an easy thing, only a knowledgeable person should clean a PC. Otherwise, you can easily break something, as a result of which the device will stop working at all. Read our article and you will understand how to clean the fan in a computer or laptop.
How to clean the system unit cooler
Quite often many PC users face the problem when it is necessary to clean fans, which are responsible for cooling all the accessories in a computer. The most common cause is a pronounced strong hum that sounds like an old refrigerator. Usually this noise appears at startup and disappears after 2-3 minutes. It can be cured by the usual cleaning and lubrication of the inside of the fan.
First you need to determine which cooler is noisy, because there are several of them inside the system unit. In the additional cooling need both CPU or video card, and the motherboard. To keep your computer running smoothly you need to make sure the warm airflow is correct. This is the responsibility of the system unit fan, which is located directly under the power supply.
It is mounted on 4 bolts that can be unscrewed with a Phillips screwdriver without much effort. Disconnect power from the motherboard beforehand, so that it can be completely removed. Next, you must carefully remove the sticker, under which will be a small plastic round plug. It usually comes off by itself. After opening carefully from a small hole with tweezers or a thin awl to get the round plastic ring, which is responsible for connecting the parts of the fan.
At this stage begins the direct drying and lubrication of all mechanisms that produce excessive noise. First you need to dust the fan blades well. This can be done with a normal cotton swab or just moisten with water.
This is approximately how the cooler should look after removing the dirt and dust that have accumulated over the years. It is very important to remove the old excess grease before applying the new one. This is easily accomplished with paper towels or toilet paper. The other part of the fan should also be well wiped to make it like new.
The final step is the application of new grease. It is better to use thick material so that it will last longer. It is not recommended to apply ordinary sunflower or machine oil. After that it is necessary to assemble everything as it was, connect the power and check the serviceability. If lubrication does not solve the problem, then you need to replace the cooler for a new one.
Disassembly and general cleaning
How to properly clean the computer from dust
We all have seen on the Internet pictures of computers so clogged with dust that they gave birth to new life forms. There are so many of these photos because many people are afraid to dust computer or clean it incorrectly. Let’s work out together what is the right way, how often and by what means to clean the computer from dust.
advertisement
Many computer users do not even think about cleaning their computers, and it pumps dust through it for several years until it breaks down or becomes obsolete.
And the dust is extremely dangerous for computer components and human health. Dust consists of 40% of dead human and animal skin particles, as well as particles of plastic, clothing and dust mites.
advertisement
This whole cocktail is extremely dangerous for people with allergies and lung diseases. Have you ever noticed. How the nose itches when dust from the computer gets in it?
Dust is also an excellent insulator, worsening the cooling of the computer, and getting between the fins of the radiator and completely clogging them, the dust will completely negate the active cooling of the computer.
advertisement
The radiator begins to give off heat only the side walls.
All that said, dust is great at generating static electricity, which can easily incapacitate sensitive microcircuits. But if dust gets in your power supply it easily destroys the heat exchange which is already at its limit and causes the degradation of the capacitors which manifests as bloating and electrolyte leakage.
advertisement
Cheap power supplies have capacitors like that which can easily blow your computer to kingdom come.
You think that’s it? By all means! Dust is also very hygroscopic. If the humidity in a room gets too high, it starts pulling moisture out of the air, causing the contacts and tracks of computer equipment to oxidize.
Hard drive and RAM boards are especially sensitive to such oxidation. The computer starts rushing with errors, blue screens (BSOD), S.M.A.R.T. of hard drives deteriorates rapidly.
Scared? You rush to clean the computer from dust? Wait, let’s figure out how to do it right.
What is the right way to clean the computer from dust??
The first thing that comes to mind for an inexperienced user who wants to dust a computer is to get a vacuum cleaner.Vacuuming a computer the normal way is extremely dangerous! Plastic tube, plus air flow with dust. It is an excellent generator of static electricity, which can easily damage the microchips of your computer!
But don’t put the vacuum cleaner away, we will need it.
To properly clean your computer we will need an anti-static brush and a vacuum cleaner. The brush is for brushing the dust off, and the vacuum cleaner. retract. It’s better to do it on a balcony or outside. You can’t touch your computer with the vacuum cleaner hose!
But you can’t get to all the nooks and crannies with a brush, so you need compressed air. A lot of people blow in those places, but it’s not right.
That way the saliva particles fly in, and you get a lot of dust.The easiest way to do this is to use a rubber blower, a compressor or a vacuum cleaner in blowing mode.
It is important not to let your computer’s fans spin with the airflow, they will work like generators. A low-speed fan spinning up to 2000-2500 rpm will give you 20-24 volts to the motherboard.
When using a compressor it is extremely important not to blow small components like front panel wires and jumpers out of place.
Also make sure that the airflow does not block the dust under the BGA chips. Once it builds up in there, it’s impossible to get it out.
You will anyway accumulate static electricity on yourself, so it is advisable to use an antistatic wrist strap or periodically hold on to the computer case with one hand at the place where you can see the exposed metal. This will dump static electricity onto the chassis.
How often should you clean the dust off your computer??It’s all individual and depends on the computer case, where it stands, the presence of animals and the general dustiness in the room.
At least once every six months to a year it is advisable to clean the computer in any case.
How to prevent dust from getting into your computer?
Ideally use an enclosure with dust filters and do not place it on the floor, but a little higher up.Also you need to create overpressure in your case, for example 2-3 fans blowing in through dust filters, one blowing out.If your enclosure pressure is negative, it will draw dust past the dust filters, through any gaps.If you have such a case and there is not much dust in the room, then it may be enough just to clean filters for a year or more without cleaning the inside of the computer.
In that case only fine dust is accumulated inside the case, and it is not so dangerous.
Write down how you fight dust in your computer? Are there dust filters on your chassis and what is the most dusty computer you have encountered?
How to Grease a Cooler
Before you put graphite grease on the surface of the bearing of the cooler to a cloth dampened with any solvent, remove old grease and products of bearing wear, especially carefully from the bushing hole bearings. Apply a thin layer of fresh graphite grease to the rubbing parts of the cooler bearing and assemble the cooler in the reverse order.
How to Clean Your PC | Computers and Coffee
If the label is torn or won’t stick, the grease is most likely on the surface of the cooler housing. It has to be removed with solvent. If the sticker is torn or the adhesive layer looses its adhesive properties, it can be replaced with tape to protect the bearing from dust.
Graphite itself is a lubricant, because its crystals are flakey and cover the surface in a thin layer. The oil acts more as a bonding agent for the graphite. The application of self made graphite grease on the wearing surfaces of the bearing, in combination with synthetic machine oil and graphite will keep the cooler running for a long time without replacement or maintenance.
Cleaning the Graphite Card
After that you can turn on PC to listen to each of fans. This will tell you which one is the noisiest (i.e., problematic). Often the most clogged cooler is the discrete graphics adapter.
- To clean it, disconnect the board from the chipset, first disconnect the VGA / DVI / HDMI cable which connects the card to the monitor.
- Now you can remove the cooler by unscrewing a few fixing bolts. Do not forget to remove the cable from the power connector:
- Carefully go over the blades with a brush, remove the dust from the radiator grill. It can be quite intimidating:
- Try to leave as few fingerprints as possible on contacts and tracks. It is best to wipe surfaces with an alcohol cloth before installation.
After removing the chassis wall, start by blowing out the CPU cooler. If the case is big enough and you have a pneumatic wiper with a nozzle, you can do it even with the big “towers” without disassembling them. Using the nozzle, blow on both sides of the radiator, and make sure that no dense lumps of dust remain between the ribs. Blow the dust off the fan blades and also twist them a bit to inspect the parts of the radiator, which are hidden by the impeller. Remove the cooler I do not advise. do it only as a last resort, if cleaning has not helped, and it is necessary to change the thermal paste (as a rule, high-quality thermo-images work for at least 5 years, and their thermal conductivity decreases very slowly).
advertisement
Next on the agenda is the video card. Here you have to disconnect the graphics gas pedal, and possibly remove the casing in order to get rid of dust as efficiently as possible. But first just take out the graphics card (be careful not to scratch the motherboard, and don’t forget the latch) and blow out the space between the heatsink ribs to get rid of the thickest buildup of contaminants. You don’t have to remove 90 percent of the dust to remove the overheated card under load, 60-80 percent may be enough.
However, if you are an experienced user (or if you have enough money to buy a new video card). you can arm yourself with a screwdriver and remove the plastic cover and blow out the radiator completely, even those parts that were inaccessible before. If the experience so far is not enough. better not take risks, although most models of graphics gas pedals remove the casing easily and intuitively understandable. The main thing is not to use force: if something does not give in, you probably unscrewed not all fasteners. For many cards you can find detailed videos on cleaning from dust and even replacing thermal paste on the same YouTube, and even if you will not find a video specifically about your model, at least you will understand the general principles.
Cleaning the cooling system of your computer or laptop
Almost everyone who has a desktop or laptop at home knows firsthand what overheating means, because probably everyone has faced this problem.
The reason for this is that the cooling system gets clogged with dust and the cooler cannot blow hot air out of the computer well enough. This article will be useful to all those who want to not spend a lot of money on cleaning in service centers, and do it yourself. Also we will tell you how to clean the fan in the computer and laptop.
Cleaning, lubrication and repair of the fan, the cooler, the engine.
Afternoon. Today I want to briefly share my personal bush experience of maintenance and repair (restoration) of coolers, low-current motors. In particular, elimination of rattling not new fans, which occurs due to uneven contamination of the blades and less often worn-out hub, which create the natural spontaneous imbalance of the fan blades, resulting in noise, hum and interfere with a quiet leisure. The review will consist of two parts:
First of all we clean the fan and blades from the dusty rags and dirt.
Remove the sticker, see the plug, take it out as well.
We see the clip that is to be removed without losing it! Which has a tendency to shoot out and fly in an unknown direction, forever. Be careful, because otherwise you will have to make such a clip by hand. And it’s not sure that the first homemade one will be successful, t.е. you will have to sweat.
Remove the clip with two thin sharp tools. In my case, with screwdrivers.
We prepare a rag for cleaning, making it from a scrap of pure cotton cloth, with sharp corners, so as to give it a convenient form for cleaning the sleeve from the inside (we twist it into a tube).
Pre-moistening the rag with alcohol, vodka, we shove it carefully into the hole, screwdriver in my case, or a similar tool without karate the bush inside, take out the screwdriver, twisting the rag on the axis and fidgeting it back and forth.
Let us admire the dirt removed and exhale with hope for the happy outcome of our undertaking.
Next we clean the rotor of dirt and old waste oil.
Now we proceed to the elimination of runout. Make a copy of the clip with a marker, on plastic from an ordinary plastic bottle, pre-cutting it.
We make a few of these. Such and similar small parts tend to disappear, fly away, accidentally swept by hand under the table, etc.д., causing a lot of inconvenience and distraction from the important concentrated process.
Work with the blade of a construction knife, carefully cutting out the needed inner circular hole along the marked line. Pre-wrapping it with duct tape, so as not to hurt my fingers. Use scissors to cut the washers around the perimeter.
I made a little reserve, as it is necessary to lay in the stator a few washers, in order to eliminate the run-out of the rotor due to wear and initially a little too free factory shaft travel vertically, in my case. And also as a reserve. Check each washer on the shaft so they run freely, this is important. Otherwise we use a round nail file, enlarging the washer hole to a moderate free play on the shaft.
Continue cleaning, lubrication. Use a relatively thick grease, in my case Lithol.
Do not use incomprehensible, cheap (inappropriate) highly liquid machine grease. It tends to heat up and evaporate when heated, leaving behind a caked on dirt, a metallic discharge similar to the formation in the bush. acting like sandpaper and then causing the shaft to vibrate. NEVER USE VEGETABLE OIL. It tends to get thick, turning into olive oil, similar to the rubber glue Moment. and causing the motor to seize and burn out! making you look like a failure in the eyes of others, like a loser, blushing in front of others and yourself.
Lubricate the inside of the hub at the neck.
Gently slide the rotor into the stator by turning. Lubricate the external bottom of the plug, if you wish, using a simple syringe filled with the same oil. Put on the first washer and put it on the bottom. Then grease again. Then again put on the next washer. Proceed in the same way with the next ones, if you need them. The essence of the method is to reduce the dangling (growling) of the rotor, creating a sandwich of new gaskets and oil, to the desired limit. Т.е. not to over-stretch, but to let the rotor run up and down the hub axis just a little bit. Thus eliminating the abnormal resonance run-out of the shaft, vertically and horizontally of the bushing axis.
Install the clip in its place, remembering that it can shoot far to the side! Apply a little oil on it, and more oil on the sides of it, blocking the oil in the corners of the hole, creating a funnel of oil, so that the oil expanding when heated would not be squeezed out from under the plug. For this purpose, the upper middle of the hole is left without oil, creating an air gap. Т.е. as it is shown on the photo. Try to spin the fan with fingers. It should spin freely and go up and down the axis slightly (not like before the repair).
Reinstalling the plug. Beforehand we clean from grease the surface at the rotor hole, at the glue hole to avoid the sticky nameplate sticker peeling off because of the oil under it when in use.
