Me__2001
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right here's a quick run down on how i clean out my PC, i use and air duster that i got from Maplin but a hoover is just as good you just need to pay more attention to what you're doing
next thing you're more than likely gonna need is a posi screwdriver, just about everyone has one kicking about or if you're lucky you have thumbscrews like i do
so first up turn it of at the plug, disconnect everything, take note of where everything goes if you're not confident you can put it back right. Now put the system up on a table or if you want leave it on the floor but make sure you have room to get at the back.
look at the back of your system, you should now see the two screws that hold the side of the case on, you only want to take off the right hand side (looking from behind)
remove them and the side should come off, either by pulling it to the right and back or sliding it towards the back of the case
you should now be presented with something like this, granted you probably wont have as much in there and a mess of wiring but you get the idea right?
ok so lets have a closer look, starting at the top left we have the power supply
its a big box basically so smacking it with the hoover nozzle or your hand isn't going to bother it in the slightest, i spray the duster in from both ends to blast any dust out of it
next to that we find the optical drives and maybe below them a floppy drive ( i don't have one) they are held in place with 4 screws (2 on each side) again touching the back of them isn't something to worry about just be careful not to loosen the connections if you go for the hoover route.
there probably won't be much dust up their so don't worry about it too much, just give it a quick blast. The main bits you want to clean are the CPU fan, Graphics card and any other add in cards as well as the hard drive(s)
you should have your hard drive(s) on the right bellow the optical drive(s), you'll more than likely have just the one of 'em but i'm greedy lol
on the back of each drive you'll have 2 connections, one for power and one for data, i have SATA drives which is indicated by the small red wires, if you have older IDE drives you'll have a really wide ribbon cable, not a big deal you'll just have more cable in your way and for those of us with SATA drives we need to be careful moving the wires as the connections are a bit delicate (just ask flopps)
give them a blast from all angles to get any dust out, if you have a vent in the front of your case like mine blast some in through there, i found quite a lot had built up in there
now we move on to the motherboard and CPU cooler, you don't really want to be hitting that with a hoover nozzle but if you're careful it'll be fine
you're fan and cooler will look different but the aim is to get all of the dust off of the fins and fan blades, give it a good blast and if its really stuck you can get your finger between the blades to try and get it off them. Do the same for the motherboard, get all the dust you can see off of it
now its time for the graphics card and an extra ones you might have, again touching them with you're fingers is ok if you want to move some the larger deposits of dust but get as much of it as you can, pay extra attention to the fan/heat sink on the graphics card
once you've done all that get all the crud out of the bottom of the case, off the inside of the side panel and off the fan on the back of the case if you have one.
now put the side panel on, plug it all in and away you go
apologies for the poor pics but they're off my phone
i hold no responsibility for any damage caused to your system when doing this procedure, do it at your own risk
next thing you're more than likely gonna need is a posi screwdriver, just about everyone has one kicking about or if you're lucky you have thumbscrews like i do
so first up turn it of at the plug, disconnect everything, take note of where everything goes if you're not confident you can put it back right. Now put the system up on a table or if you want leave it on the floor but make sure you have room to get at the back.
look at the back of your system, you should now see the two screws that hold the side of the case on, you only want to take off the right hand side (looking from behind)
remove them and the side should come off, either by pulling it to the right and back or sliding it towards the back of the case
you should now be presented with something like this, granted you probably wont have as much in there and a mess of wiring but you get the idea right?
ok so lets have a closer look, starting at the top left we have the power supply
its a big box basically so smacking it with the hoover nozzle or your hand isn't going to bother it in the slightest, i spray the duster in from both ends to blast any dust out of it
next to that we find the optical drives and maybe below them a floppy drive ( i don't have one) they are held in place with 4 screws (2 on each side) again touching the back of them isn't something to worry about just be careful not to loosen the connections if you go for the hoover route.
there probably won't be much dust up their so don't worry about it too much, just give it a quick blast. The main bits you want to clean are the CPU fan, Graphics card and any other add in cards as well as the hard drive(s)
you should have your hard drive(s) on the right bellow the optical drive(s), you'll more than likely have just the one of 'em but i'm greedy lol
on the back of each drive you'll have 2 connections, one for power and one for data, i have SATA drives which is indicated by the small red wires, if you have older IDE drives you'll have a really wide ribbon cable, not a big deal you'll just have more cable in your way and for those of us with SATA drives we need to be careful moving the wires as the connections are a bit delicate (just ask flopps)
give them a blast from all angles to get any dust out, if you have a vent in the front of your case like mine blast some in through there, i found quite a lot had built up in there
now we move on to the motherboard and CPU cooler, you don't really want to be hitting that with a hoover nozzle but if you're careful it'll be fine
you're fan and cooler will look different but the aim is to get all of the dust off of the fins and fan blades, give it a good blast and if its really stuck you can get your finger between the blades to try and get it off them. Do the same for the motherboard, get all the dust you can see off of it
now its time for the graphics card and an extra ones you might have, again touching them with you're fingers is ok if you want to move some the larger deposits of dust but get as much of it as you can, pay extra attention to the fan/heat sink on the graphics card
once you've done all that get all the crud out of the bottom of the case, off the inside of the side panel and off the fan on the back of the case if you have one.
now put the side panel on, plug it all in and away you go
apologies for the poor pics but they're off my phone
i hold no responsibility for any damage caused to your system when doing this procedure, do it at your own risk
Last edited:
That's a lot of drives in that system 
