How do i clean my computer CPU ??

Hiew Zken

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Sep 14, 2014
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There is one time that my computer died because of dust in it.
How do i clean it ?? Do i need to get the parts out to clean it ??
 
Solution
You'll have to check if the heatsink on CPU is full of dust (if it's not cleaned at all for some time you'll have a dust carpet between cooler and heatsink most likely), and if your computer has worked for quite some time it probably needs thermal grease replacement since old thermal grease got old and got indurated. Most of the dust in PC housing can be cleaned with compressed air in can or careful use of vacuum cleaner, but cleaning CPU and reapplying thermal grease needs to be done carefully. You have some videos on YouTube etc. Of all these videos I've found this as a most convenient http://youtu.be/fRRWbQUqW1Y
I use regular thermal compound most of the times. People say the best is the one with silver component in it, but somehow I...

b-man

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Aug 20, 2005
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You'll have to check if the heatsink on CPU is full of dust (if it's not cleaned at all for some time you'll have a dust carpet between cooler and heatsink most likely), and if your computer has worked for quite some time it probably needs thermal grease replacement since old thermal grease got old and got indurated. Most of the dust in PC housing can be cleaned with compressed air in can or careful use of vacuum cleaner, but cleaning CPU and reapplying thermal grease needs to be done carefully. You have some videos on YouTube etc. Of all these videos I've found this as a most convenient http://youtu.be/fRRWbQUqW1Y
I use regular thermal compound most of the times. People say the best is the one with silver component in it, but somehow I don't like it because it gets too messy if you're not careful.
Just to mention that you turn off your PC completely out of the wall socket before doing anything, and if you're unsure about something try to find some help.
 
Solution

Hiew Zken

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Sep 14, 2014
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For motherboard we only need to clean that main thing there ? How to clean the other parts like hard disk or graphic card etc?
 

b-man

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Aug 20, 2005
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Yes, in most cases in last couple of years motherboards have only passive heatsinks on chipsets (without fan) so there's no need to clean them particullary.
HDD doesn't need to be cleaned tbh, you can brush the dust from upper side with a gentle brush, but don't touch lower side... and graphic card cleaning is different from model to model some of them have cases which can be filled with dust and need to be opened but I believe your GC is a classic one with open heatsink/fan. When I clean my GC I do it with a medium strong brush for a fan, and I try to be careful not to damage it (especially if it's some low-end GC they tend to put some cheaper fans there) and with compressed air, but try to gently keep the fan fixed while you blow it off or brush it.