14 April 2005

Dust and computers - enemies forever

No matter how much we try to avoid dust and minimise it's effect on the computers it still gets in. Recently my CD/CDRW stopped working for whatever reason. (These things just happen you know). The cheapest solution was to buy a new one at Walmart and replace the bad one. When I opened the case I was surprised at the dust. I regularly use compressed air to blow dust away, but the continuous use of the computer and the fan sucking in dust filled air does the deed.
I then had Lana hold the vacuum cleaner nozzle near the dusty areas whilst I used the compressed air to blow it away and a paint brush to brush the more resistant bits. It was finally clean.
Why is dust bad? It inhibits the air flow within the PC and can cause heat buildup. Heat causes expansion which means finely tuned opathways can expand into one another causing all sorts of weird and wonderful errors - even corruptions.

Unto dust you shall return ...

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