CPU Cleaning · DIGIT-ARC

Well I has a shocker of a incident today. My system froze and wouldnot bootup :shock:

. no POST no nothing

, later there was some noise in HDD, I was woried that this could be a major HDD issue .As I have 3 HDD's I codnot tell which one was the culprit. later decided to clean my CPU and fix all the loose cables.

I have a prescott processor so the temperature was veryhigh all the time.So my CPU used to be open all the time to make large amount of cool air comeinto the cabinet.

A look at the cabinet and I saw all the wires/cables were haywire

*img144.imageshack.us/img144/7488/dirtycaboe1.th.jpg

A close inspection of the processor heatsink revieled that the fins were totally blocked by dust

.
*img144.imageshack.us/img144/9020/dirtycpufansh3.th.jpg

This was the major cause for the high processor temperature.

Now how the hell to get the dusy (dirt?) out!!
ANS: Good old "Cotton Swab"

First I thought of removing the heatsink and cleaning. but decided against it cause I didnt have any thermal paste on hand.

Just one swipe on the heatsink revieled the true color of the heatsink .. shocked again :shock:

*img144.imageshack.us/img144/2091/dirtycpufan2dx7.th.jpg

More swipe of the cotton swab and more dust came out. Finally I was p!ssed off looking at the dust accumulated on the heatsink

*img144.imageshack.us/img144/9003/dirtth0.th.jpg*img144.imageshack.us/img144/5607/cpudustkg3.th.jpg

the dust on my had was just half of it

Gave a good vaccume clean and dust was flying from all parts of the CPU.

Clean Heatsink
*img144.imageshack.us/img144/7506/cleancpu2po3.th.jpg*img144.imageshack.us/img144/3667/cleancpufangt9.th.jpg

Clean Cabinet
*img144.imageshack.us/img144/2978/cleancpurd1.th.jpg

Now for the test .. will my system boot ? Yes it did as if there was no problem at all

There was tremendous decrese in fan noise. Almost 80% reduction. Finally I can use my computer in quite environment

So my suggessition is that you clean your CPU atleast once in two months. High CPU temperature and noisy fan is the indication that your CPU needs cleaning

I hope others will not face these kind of situation.

To improve the airflow group the cables and tie them together.

^^ yea I have tied individual cables to reduce clutter, will group and tie other cables later. I even removed the "Floppy Drive" and its cable

.

Plus get the rounded cables for your optical drives, if possible. Tie up all unused molex power connectors and group the ones you use.

I have no unused molex connector

, yea will have to get a new rounded cable. will checkout in SP road when I go there. also is there any good heatlink available for Rs. 500?

Yeah you can get rounded cables at S.P.Road. Whats the problem with your current heatsink? I guess thats good enough.

If you are not going in for some high end heatsinks (which retail for more), I don't think its wise to invest in them if the stock HSF is working properly. What are the temps like?

The temperature as from SpeedFan is 65-70 C normal and when in high CPU use its 80C .. shot up to 83.

*img137.imageshack.us/img137/4963/tempqt2.th.jpg

My system froze again and the same problem came back. No POST , removed and inserted the 256MB RAM module, everything started working fine again.

BTW how can we check the memory? I think there is a software to do RAM test.

Memtest x86
*www.memtest86.com/

you did take care of the dust but forgot about the thermal paste that care of heat dissipation...
just get a new thermal paste and scratch of the old paste use the new paste and see the effect

Whoa!! thats hhhhhhhhot Charan. Yeah, change the thermal paste. It'll surely help. Also plug out all the cards and clean the contact points and the blow inside the slots to remove any dust. Do the same with the RAM.

One more thing you forgot to clean is the PSU. Unscrew it and remove it out. Now try to suck in the dust thru the vaccum cleaner. After this blow into it. If possible open it up and clean its fan too. Also clean your case fan. All these things will surely help.

Ok then a visit to SP road tmro. BTW I did clean the contacts of the memory, and other cards , neway I will do that again tmro. BTW whats the cost of Thermal Paste?

infra_red_dude said:
One more thing you forgot to clean is the PSU. Unscrew it and remove it out. Now try to suck in the dust thru the vaccum cleaner. After this blow into it. If possible open it up and clean its fan too. Also clean your case fan. All these things will surely help.

cleaning of a PSU ..aren't you applying your jet engine theory here

Charan said:
Ok then a visit to SP road tmro. BTW I did clean the contacts of the memory, and other cards , neway I will do that again tmro. BTW whats the cost of Thermal Paste?

Rs 10-20 only

I cant open the SMPS .. its a new one and still under warranty. dec 2007 is last month of my warranty for processor and motherboard

.

Not necessary to open SMPS. Simply blow into its fan holes/slotted cuts until dust stops flowing out. Would reduce a lot if not all

wow charan bro . . . i think you have not opened ur case for a decade

And bro. . . . i think you have done it whole night

^^^ Actually I have not closed the cabinet for more than year and a half, I have mentioned it

, and no tI didnot keep cleaning the cabinet all nite

, infact my system started to hang every 15 minutes

So my CPU used to be open all the time to make large amount of cool air comeinto the cabinet.

Well I cleaned out my pc about two weeks ago, there was enough dust in there to support life! lol
I cleaned out the CPU, Chassis and PSU fans and put them back safely, unfortunately since then i've had a few graphics problems and resetting problems and i've been told that there's a strong possibility I knocked something inside the PSU. What I want to know is, how do I group the cables together since I don't know what most of them do lol
Can anyone help?

@Shashank
Of corz, the jet engine theory!

@charan
Get the cooler master or arctic silver. Spend about 250-350 and haf peace of mind. Don't buy the 10-20 bucks thermal paste.

@Aquawolf
There are no rules for grouping. Just group and tie the ones which are together.