I just use a small pure bristle paint brush, about a half inch size. Plus I do bit of blowing too as I dislodge the dust and grime. Depending on how bad it is I sometimes also remove the fan on top of the heatsink so I can get in there This is the critical spot. Removing the fan is only done if it is held in place with 4 screws. Stay out of the power supply.

If you use a can of air be sure to hold the fans with one finger to stop it spinning wildly.

I have on occasion use the regular house vacuum with the long flat attachment for cleaning off the bottom of the case. Be careful not to go near sensitive parts if you use that idea.

if you have one of the small vacuum's made for cleaning a pc those you can use because they have minimal sucking power so are not likely to pull some of the plugs or cables loose or worse suck off parts, I have a small hand held vacuum with a long hose and flat attachment that I use on the case but not on any parts interior, just on the case area.

I also use the canned air but be careful to hold it upright so you do not spray out the chemical in there and freeze something.

And always be sure you are grounded by either holding on to the metal frame of the pc or wear an anti static wrist strap clipped to the pc, you can buy these at any electronics store for a couple of bucks and are a great thing to have handy.

Most important, have power off, stay away from the delicate parts and as owbist said do not mess with the power supply.

The typical home vacuum can generate a tremendous amount of static electricity particularly an upright operated on a synthetic carpet. I personally would avoid at all costs.

However, if the use was absolutely necessary I would place the vacuum on a non-carpeted floor and extend the hose as much as possible with the crevice tool attached. You could use masking tape to reduce the size of the orifice of the tool. My thought here is about 50%. In the case of an upright I would also lay it on its back.

You can never go wrong with using an anti-static strap.

DA

{{gwi:1482364}} is a seriously dusty case I was given to work on LOL. The owner told me she had cleaned the case inside. She had but of course had no knowledge of how to get inside the front plastic cover.

You do not have to guess too hard to realise this case had been sitting on the floor.

OMG! Boy I better get to my old one under the desk at home. Six years and never opened it.

Great shot!

Jane

My hubby has a compressor and he blows my case out when I ask him to. I hold the case several inches away from the air hose and above the air nozzle. Then when he presses the trigger, the air has a chance to release any moisture before it gets into my case.

I hate to report, in general you are not removing all the moisture from the air stream. You are only removing the gross moisture and not the water vapor.

If it was absolutely necessary to use an industrial compressor I would suggest bringing it into the house the day before so the apparatus develops an ambient room temperature. Plus, I would shut the compressor off before the storage tank is full so as not full compressing the contents to the maximum psi.

DA

daylilydayzed air compressors are a good method especially the small ones that you can put on low power so they are not as powerful, I have a real small one that has a dial I can dial down very low, and if you take a coffee filter and wrap it over the nozzle that will keep any moisture away and also helps spread the air some. I just put the coffee filter on and hold it in place as I use the nozzle.

Those pumps you use to blow up pool air mattresses etc can be useful too, some are foot pump some are hand pump.

owbist that is scary stuff!
We some years have horrible cricket problems here in this area, the year we moved here was one of the worst in history, store fronts were literally black from crickets clinging to the walls, car engines were clogging up due to intakes filling up with crickets, you simply can not imagine the stink of millions upon millions of dead crickets, and they could get into any place no matter if you thought you had every crevice blocked you would have crickets. Day in and day out you had to sweep up crickets and chase down crickets, so you get the picture it was a cricket disaster zone! I had my pc on the floor of my office which has an exterior door and 3 windows in it, I never opened the windows but would open the door on occasion when someone rang the bell. I opened my pc case to clean it and I could not believe it, it was full I mean full of dead crickets!! no smell fortunately! How the heck all those crickets found their way into my pc is beyond me, I was busy cleaning crickets out of the house daily and had no idea how they got in. That day I put my pc up on a box and off the floor!

Thankfully the past few years we have not had another bad cricket infestation.

The petsmart store was unbelievable I guess they were after the pet food, The entire front of the brick building was solid black and moving with crickets, the sidewalks were the same way, inside they had teams that did nothing but cricket clean up.
The car dealerships were daily getting in vehicles that were not running due to cricket infestations.
I was not real sure I wanted to live here after that first year LOL

The compressor sits in the garage. The garage is not air conditioned or heated. The only thing that keeps the temperature level is we have a insulated garage door that we keep closed .

I'm sorry but I just can't support the use of a commercial compressor for this endeavor. I have a quality compressor system in my garage with an in-line filter for trapping water "vapor" and I depressurize the tank after every use through the bottom drain resulting in water discharge. I still get minimum water vapor involvement in my tools. This phenomena is one of the reasons that air tools require regular oiling.

Personally, I also do not think a coffee filter would be sufficient. If water vapor can penetrate a concrete foundation block a filter is not going to stop it. Plus, correct me if I am wrong when we brew coffee doesn't the brew water come through the filter?

I do like the idea of a foot or hand pump.

DA

yes mine is not one of those type mine is a little bitty small portable unit not a commercial type at all I agree I would not try a big one like that. Mine is what we use for inflating bike tires and air mattresses, the dial on it lets the air flow get pretty gentle and the coffee filter helps spread the air so it is not as direct a jet. Mine is about the size of a toaster, has a handle on it to carry it around. Sorta like this.
{{gwi:1482365}}

Would a hair dryer set on cool and low speed work?

I have used a large air compressor for the last 7 years and have blown out dozens of computers. I stick a screwdriver in the fans to keep them from spinning and basically use short bursts of air in each area where there is dust. I have never had a problem.

Good Luck
Smitty

Raven, I would have moved the next day!!

Ginny, what a good idea! Why wouldn't it work? I've got to get to it soon.

Jane

Thanks for all the suggestions here!
JEM

How do you get the case off?

the side panel of the case is what comes off, there are usually a couple of screws or something similar that hold that side panel on and once you remove the screws you can just slide the side panel off. Here is a pc with the side panel removed.
{{gwi:1482366}}
here is a youtube video of cleaning inside with canned air, if you just search youtube for topics related to cleaning the pc you will find many.
Removing Dustbunnies

If the side doesn't come off like the picture above you may have to check the manual that came with your computer. My Dell is completely different - the case doesn't come off, you lay it on it's side and open it up by pressing in a couple of places.

Thank you both. Will check to see or look for the manual as I have a Dell also.