Those little dust bunnies aren’t cute, they’re little killers. Consisting of dust and pet dander, they like to latch onto air vents, cooling fins, and anywhere there is moving air. Where you find one, you can bet you will find more. They like to congregate in warm places, especially around electronics cooling components. One thing that will adversely affect your computer’s performance and shorten its life is dust and animal dander. Your computer relies on proper airflow to stay healthy. If you’ve noticed your computer fan seems to be running louder or more frequently than it has in the past, it might be a sign that your computer is overdue for some basic maintenance.
Tools you’ll need
- Screw driver
- Vacuum cleaner
- Compressed air – from your local computer store
- Isopropyl alcohol
- Silver thermal compound
Where the dust bunnies live
- Power supply
- Processor fan
- Air intake vents
- Cooling fins
- Between case daughter boards
How to remove the dust bunnies
- Turn off computer
- Remove case sides
- Vacuum dust bunnies from their hiding places
- Power supply back, side & inside
- Processor fan & cooling fins
- Air intake fans & vents vacuum
- Scare the dust bunnies out of their hiding places with compressed air
- Between peripheral cards
- Dark corners
- Between memory cards
- Between aluminum cooling fins
- Around air intake vents
- In & around cooling fans
- Vacuum up the remaining dust bunnies
- Re-assemble case
- Turn power on
- Activate computer
An undesirable side effect
Even though you may have gotten most of the dust bunnies, you may still have a problem. This one happened to me recently. I cleaned up my computer and eliminated all the visible dust bunnies. When I turned my computer on, there was no familiar beep or processor fan. Within 30 seconds the computer turned itself off. So what happened? The symptom indicates that the processor is overheating and turns itself off to preserve itself. It turns out the dust bunnies found one last hiding place that was really hard for me to get to. They hid under and around the processor cooling system.
Final dust bunny extermination
- Turn power off
- Remove processor cooling unit
- Remove dust bunnies attached to silver thermal compound
- Clean with isopropyl alcohol
- Re-apply silver thermal compound
- Re-connect processor cooling unit
- Turn power on
- Activate computer
Notes
- The procedure varies a little between desktop systems & laptops
- Dust bunnies are pretty consistent in their hiding places – you’ll find them just about anywhere that air flows.
Hello Wes:
Great article, dust is a computer killer. I make it a point to vacuum the dust from our home computers at least once a month.
You are much more dilligent than I am. Preventive maintenance is a great policy to have. Dust bunnies seem to be invisible when computers are cleaned out frequently.
So for those of us that are not as diligent about cleaning out dust bunnies from our home computers, how often should we vacuum the dust? Is 2 – 3 times a year enough?
I would say yes. That’s more than most people. Most people don’t think about it until their computer is dead or dying. I would recommend at least 2 times a year. How about New Years & Memorial day? Those are about 6 months apart. Of course, I think the frequency would need to be increased proportionally to the number of live furry animals you have as pets in your home. Dust bunnies seam to thrive in environments where there are more pets.
That’s a good point! I didn’t take into consideration my furry little pet. Thanks Wes!