The water cleaning is the ultimate de-dusting though…But not recommended for the inexperienced. If people are unsure I agree that they definitely should take it to a qualified tech. Even better if they do a water job for you..

So if ever you have to do any work inside a computer, leave it switched off but still plugged into the power (once again turned off) then before you touch anything in the computer first touch the metal casing with both hands.

Even though the power is switched off the power lead Earth wire to your computer is still connected to the Earth of your house power. This will ground out any static from your hands, thus less chance of any damage to the internal computer parts caused by the static from your body. Some technicians when working on the internal part of a computer wear a grounding wrist strap that clips onto the metal case of the computer.

Regards

Peter

Many older buildings contained fibro asbestos sheeting; asbestos roofing and some had insulation made from asbestos. Unfortunately in the early years people where unaware of the dangers of asbestos. All one can hope for is this material is no longer used. Still who knows what dust is in computers.

One of the major problems is many people buy a new computer and do not realize over the years the amount of dust that gathers inside. A yearly service by a technician would help to keep the computer free from heavy dust and consequent overheating. If you should use a vacuum computer to remove the dust, put it on blow (not suction) and do this operation outdoors.

I have opened up some computers to find dust completely blocking the CPU heat sink and fan. Also that much dust on the motherboard it resembled a carpet.
After I had given it a thorough clean out and switched it on it was like a living thing that could breathe again.

Regards

Peter

Do you think that all computers dust contains asbestos or just some? If so why?

The reason being computer fans act like a vacuum not only keeping the computer cool but sucking in dust and also blowing out dust which you breathe.

Several years ago I decided to set up a small computer company enabling me to work from home. After establishing my computer bussiness I received 6 older ex government computers from another company requesting an upgrade of memory, sound and graphics cards.

As I have always been curious about dust in computers decided to send samples away to get tested and analised. The result was the dust samples were loaded with asbestos dust. So I returned the computers untouched to the supplier with a warning letter. So one week after establishing my new company I phoned up the government office and cancelled my registration. Sort of health before income.

Removing dust from a computer can be a difficult task as there are a lot of hidden and unreachable areas such as under the mother board and inside the power pack and CPU fan.

So what I do in my own case is have two duplicate computers. One I use and the other on standby, stored away. Once every six month the computer I have been using is taken outside, covers removed and then taking the garden hose blast the inside of the computer out with a water jet ‘Yes water’ not really good for electrical equipment but it is the mosrt efficient way to completely remove dust.

Then this spotlessly clean computer is placed in my steel home garage. Left for six months with the daily heat of the sun on the garage dries out the water completely. So far this method has worked.

Regards

Peter

It got to the point that we only gave them cheap 5 dollar keyboards rather than spend time taking the keys off the clean them.

It is vital to check the inside of the computer, else one day it will go kaput because of the stupid amounts of dust inside it.