Never overlook the simple things!

[Noughtboy]

Noticed my CPU temps have been high for the last couple of months...something like 50C at idle, 75C gaming going up.to 86C at times on my 2500K using the stock cooler.

Started researching good air coolers and looking into AIO things. As a temporary measure decided to reapply paste and reseat cooler.

Opened the case up and saw enough dust and fluff on the CPU cooler to think perhaps a cat had been ingested by my intake fans and squished into the cooler what with all the "fur" and dust stuck in it.

Vacuumed it all out along with a general dusting and suddenly the temps were back to normal mid 30's at "idle" at high 50's to low 60's during gaming.

Just goes to show...don't forget the simple things.

NB

 

[Hotwired]

Did something similar recently.

Was replacing a drive in a laptop and thought I might replace the paste. This is far more fiddly than it sounds but yes, the paste was cracked, dry and total garbage after being cooked for years... but...

A critical reason why the laptop was cooking itself was that the fan over the years had been blowing through the heatsink fins and building up a layer of dust which was getting trapped on the edge of the fins and turning into a layer of felt.

It was a solid rectangle about 4mm thick of felt when I pulled it out. Airflow through it was like blowing through jeans fabric.

After removing the felt layer (and replacing the ruined paste) it was working perfectly with vastly lower temps.

I imagine this is much the same for all laptops. They cant be cleaned without some effort and information and they choke to death on trapped dust which cannot ever be blown out.

The manufacturers don't mind I'm sure, laptop got slow? Oh it happens, it's old, buy a new one.

No, it was designed to fail by overheating due to difficulty cleaning it.

 

[Noughtboy]

Felt sounds about right. Looked like when I clear out the tumble drier filter. It was done about 11 months ago when I changed the cooler and applied new paste but will now do it every three months. Took all of 10 minutes for a massive result.

 

[mattyfez]

Old gpu I cleaned out years ago had the same issue, thick lump of dust and fluff blocking the radiator.. I imagine that's the same as what happened on your laptop.

That would explain the high temperature and fan at 100%all the time!

 

[VKleita]

ewww!
Just ... Ewwwww!

But yes seen this various times

The best bit I always look saying to customers is when they start going on about how clean their house is so they cant work out where the dust came from
"Its your dead skin floating in the air"
That usually gets a few green faces.

 

[Hotwired]

Also fibres broken loose from clothing and carpets

 

[Evian]

How long does it take for stuff to go like that though years? Every time I clean out my PC it's a layer of dust only.

 

[Noughtboy]

I last cleaned the rig 10-12 months ago when I got my RX480 approximately October 2016. Whilst not as bad as the Nvidia GPU above, it was nasty.

 

[VKleita]

Also fibres broken loose from clothing and carpets

True, but my answer is more fun

 

[VKleita]

How long does it take for stuff to go like that though years? Every time I clean out my PC it's a layer of dust only.

Depend on environment, if dust isnt getting disurbed, regular cleaning, laptop isnt actually getting put on the carpet etc can take years and years
then again I've taken a machine apart from a guy who had 5 cats and smoked in his office and to say the pc could not breathe after 12 months was an under statement.

 

[Joeyuk]

Reminds me of my 1st PC. I was maybe 17 and had inherited my sisters PC. Had no idea how it all worked and then it started to blue screen within minutes of turning on. Opened it up for the 1st time ever and the dust was unreal, the whole inside had a layer of dust and the fans were caked in it. After a good clean out it ran without a problem for a few more years.

 

[thefogo]

Old gpu I cleaned out years ago had the same issue, thick lump of dust and fluff blocking the radiator.. I imagine that's the same as what happened on your laptop.

That would explain the high temperature and fan at 100%all the time!

I had a GTX 480 a while back that had the exact same problem. I bought it from a well known auction site and after installing it noticed it was throttling within a minute. I opened it up to find this:

 

[at3k-]

Reminds me of when a mate cleaned his pc out a few years ago. It had not been done for a loooong time and much weed smoking had been done in his room, proper hotbox vibes...anyway when we opened his pc it was clogged with a tar/ganja infused fluff. Ugh it made me cringe.

 

[bledd]

This is why I elevate my case, far less dust.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Noticed my CPU temps have been high for the last couple of months...something like 50C at idle, 75C gaming going up.to 86C at times on my 2500K using the stock cooler.

Started researching good air coolers and looking into AIO things. As a temporary measure decided to reapply paste and reseat cooler.

Opened the case up and saw enough dust and fluff on the CPU cooler to think perhaps a cat had been ingested by my intake fans and squished into the cooler what with all the "fur" and dust stuck in it.

Vacuumed it all out along with a general dusting and suddenly the temps were back to normal mid 30's at "idle" at high 50's to low 60's during gaming.

Just goes to show...don't forget the simple things.

NB

I fully dust my machine monthly

 

[Sindenization]

I usually dust my PC every month or two, but I took the stock cooler off the other day to fully clean it. Can't say it's pretty.

 

[JasonM]

The ultimate way of cleaning is to totally strip the computer, and put the bare metal case in the shower!

 

[chongker]

Aye, don't forget to clean! Some canned air or one of those electric blowers are pretty important for a heavy use system.

 

[doyll]

All my systems (except notebooks) have filters on all intakes and get hoovered every time I hoover. Could get by with every other time or even every 4th time, but it's easy to forget it so do it every time. only take a minute. Inside of 4 year old system is still almost as clean as when I built it.

 

[facboy]

Aren't you worried about static from the vacuum cleaner?