Dust covers for computer ports

[Man-wai Chang]

Want to cover un-used USB, DVI, HDMI, ... various ports on my PCs.

How do you buy these cheap in US?

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[VanguardLH]

Want to cover un-used USB, DVI, HDMI, ... various ports on my PCs. How
do you buy these cheap in US?

Never seen them in use. Never looked for them before, either. Can't
figure out why you would care. Air doesn't get sucked through them to
have the airborne dust get deposited inside of them.

Maybe you have an extremely dusty environment (and decided not to get an
industrial-grade computer built for that environment). Guess I'd just
put some duct or metal tape over them. If you didn't want to see the
tape, just use Scotch tape. Fold over an 1/8" of the end to give you a
tang so you can easily peel it off if you need to use the port sometime
later. The tape would be a lot cheaper than specialty dust plugs if you
find them, especially after you add in the S&H fees.

http://www.google.com/search?q=+usb+port++dust+cover+plug
http://www.google.com/search?q=+dvi+port++dust+cover+plug
http://www.google.com/search?q=+hdmi+port++dust+cover+plug

http://www.google.com/search?q=+<addTypeHere>+port+%2Bdust+cover+plug
Replace <addTypeHere> with your "various ports".

 

[Paul]

"VanguardLH" replied:

Want to cover un-used USB, DVI, HDMI, ... various ports on my PCs. How
do you buy these cheap in US?

Never seen them in use. Never looked for them before, either. Can't
figure out why you would care. Air doesn't get sucked through them to
have the airborne dust get deposited inside of them.

[......]

Every tiny gap and crevice in my Dell desktop tower PC has dust and
lint sticking out of it, and that includes all the various jacks for insertables.
Dust even collects on the upwind side of anything protruding into the incoming
air stream and on the exhaust fan blades. It seems that my home is somehow
a dust bowl, and I have to periodically open up the case and blow the dust
loose and suck it up with a vacuum cleaner once it's airborne. Sadly, there
is NO WAY that there could be a manufactured plug available for every gap
that is not intended as an air intake, so I just have to clean the case periodically.
Electrical tape would probably work, but a LOT would be needed, and the
adhesive would probably come off with time to leave a gooey PC.

*TimDaniels*

This depends on whether the case implements "positive or negative" air pressure.
One of those choices, causes the buildup of dust around every point where
air can leak. And as it is a Dell, it's not like you can make a lot of
changes to how it is cooled. Sometimes the single large cooling
solution, cools both the CPU and the case at the same time. Which is
unlike how a home builder would set up their case cooling.

All of my home built computers, use separate coolers for the CPU and the case.
And by doing that, I can change the direction of the case cooling fans as I like,
and re-evaluate dust patterns, because the CPU uses its own cooler, and is
unaffected by my experiments.

*******

I think Man-wai Chang's issue is with external dust collection and
outward facing ports. And I haven't a clue where you'd find dust
caps for them. I've never had a problem with dust buildup in
external connectors. But I can see scenarios (ruggedized PC),
where you might want to prevent road dust from entering the
connectors. They seem to have some kind of caps on the
connectors here. But knowing this, doesn't solve where you
buy them.

"Toughbook Sealed port and connector covers"

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/images/LargerPhoto/CF-30_01.jpg

Paul

 

[VanguardLH]

VanguardLH replied:


Every tiny gap and crevice in my Dell desktop tower PC has dust and
lint sticking out of it, and that includes all the various jacks for
insertables. ...

You have dust collect inside your USB ports on your system case? You
sure the dust isn't collecting around the port (i.e., between the port's
assembly and the case)? None of my USB ports lets air through their
assembly. I get dust collected on every other air intake, like at the
flapper cover for the floppy drive, in between the external bay drives,
and elsewhere but nothing builds up *inside* my USB ports (or the DVI
and HDMI ports on my video card and on my monitor).

 

[Bug Dout]

This depends on whether the case implements "positive or negative" air pressure.

Exactly, and it seems your case has negative air pressure with respect
to the atmosphere: that is, a fan is moving more air out of the case,
than a fan--if any--is moving air in.

So the real solution is to have at least one fan for your case (maybe
more if you want or need it for cooling). This inlet fan, which moves air
from the room into your case, must have two attributes: (1) an air
filter just on the room side of the fan, that is, on the external side
of the case, and sealed around the fan so the fan can only take in air
through the filter. And (2), if you also have fan(s) moving air from
the inside of your case out to the room, the inlet fan must have
a greater flow volume than the other fan(s) moving air out from the case.
And you likely do have a fan on the power supply which sucks air from
inside to the outside.

That way you're ensured you have positive pressure inside the case, and
only filtered air can get inside.

 

[John Doe]

Exactly, and it seems your case has negative air pressure with
respect to the atmosphere: that is, a fan is moving more air out
of the case, than a fan--if any--is moving air in.

That way you're ensured you have positive pressure inside the
case, and only filtered air can get inside.

That means no strain on the power supply outlet fan. That is the
most convincing argument I have heard in the positive-negative air
pressure argument. Avoiding dust coming through your components is
another argument.

 

[VanguardLH]

... What the PC needs right now is a good blow-out with compressed air
and a good vacuuming, ...

Hopefully you are using a vacuum that has been certified for use with
computers (and not just some "computer" vacuum that's meant to cleanup
the keyboard). With typical vacuum cleaners, the air rushing into the
nozzle generates static electricity that will zap your electronics.

 

[Nobody > (Revisited)]

Hopefully you are using a vacuum that has been certified for use with
computers (and not just some "computer" vacuum that's meant to cleanup
the keyboard). With typical vacuum cleaners, the air rushing into the
nozzle generates static electricity that will zap your electronics.

I hate to start this old hogwash all over again, but how many failures
have you seen *personally* over this?

I'm not downplaying ESD. I've worked QA on both the "Assurance" and
"Analysis" sides, even as far as slicing and dicing components and
looking at the guts with microscopes (even the electron variety). I've
seen the craters. But I've also seen the fights where a vendor tried
using the "ESD Crutch" to try to weasel-out on truly bad components as
well.

But then again, this was back in the 70's and early 80's. Back then,
both components and boards never got the design idea of ESD. Chips
weren't including those tiny little clamping diodes (and sometimes just
very-high ohmage bleed resistors) on I/O pins, and boards weren't
designed that way either.

It's well-known that there's a "pink bag and toestraps" mafia out there.

--
"Shit this is it, all the pieces do fit.
We're like that crazy old man jumping
out of the alleyway with a baseball bat,
saying, "Remember me motherfucker?"
Jim “Dandy” Mangrum

 

[FatterDumber& Happier Moe]

"VanguardLH" offered:

In the past, I've blown the dust into the air with an electric air compressor,
and held the end of a vacuum cleaner hose about a foot away to suck up
the airborne dust - which can be seen glinting in the air under the fluorescent
desklamp. Nothing touches the electronic parts during this operation, and
nothing comes close enough to allow an electrostatic discharge. The operation
is noisy, though, with both electric appliances going. The fan, OTOH, is a
purely manual operation with a damp paper towel and Q-tips.

*TimDaniels*

I take mine outside and use the air compressor on it. Main thing is
to not let the air nozzle touch the fan blade if they start spinning.
I've accidentally broken a couple of fan blades like this. I've
wondered about the dust getting into the CD/DVD drives and causing
problems when blowing the dust around but so far they seem to work OK
afterwards. I usually open the CD/DVD drive if I remember and blow air
in there also. Amazing how dusty and clogged some computers can get and
still work.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In the past, I've blown the dust into the air with an electric air compressor,
and held the end of a vacuum cleaner hose about a foot away to suck up
the airborne dust - which can be seen glinting in the air under the fluorescent
desklamp. Nothing touches the electronic parts during this operation, and
nothing comes close enough to allow an electrostatic discharge. The operation
is noisy, though, with both electric appliances going. The fan, OTOH, is a
purely manual operation with a damp paper towel and Q-tips.

I like the idea--more effective than either by itself.

I've never had both available when I needed to blow out a computer,
though. I've usually just done it by taking it outside and grabbing
the air hose.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

in there also. Amazing how dusty and clogged some computers can get and
still work.

Yeah--I used to work for a woodworking factory. We had dozens of
computers on the shop floor itself. Most of the time when a computer
started acting up the cure was to grab an air hose--it wasn't unusual
to find half an inch of sawdust in them. I'm amazed we didn't fry a
bunch of them from overheating but it worked.