Archive > Technical discussions
PC Randomly Shuts Down
EHM-1617 Iain:
OK I have aquired a non static brush and am looking for some tips on actually getting the thing cleaned out? Do I remove heatsinks etc? Compressed air? Or just the brush?? etc. thanks
EHM-1703 Philip:
Hi Iain,
If you have some new Heat Sink Compound, I would certainly take that fan of your CPU and give it a d**n good clean.
Compressed air is great, but remember, it just moves the dust somewhere else so you have to make sure you remove all the dust. (also make sure you keep the can upright, cos the propellant will come out in liquid form if you don't) The last time I cleaned my pc out (2 weeks ago) I removed all the components from the case, gave it a d**n good clean out, then replaced them one by one cleaning each peice before I replaced it. I did use compressed air, but well away from the case and just on the more fiddly components. (All the fans including the PSU and case fans)
As Bill said earlier in the thread, I may be barking up the wrong tree and you should consider your PSU, especially if it is a cheaper model or low rated. (3 to 400 watts) I have had to upgrade to a 480 watt model as I had 4 HDD and a PCI x16 GPU sucking my old one dry!
EHM-1539 Pierre:
Hohooo, had my PSU screwed 2 years ago... Random crashes, mostly RAM failure symptoms, sometimes swapfile or graphic card symptoms... This is evil because it gives you an "IRQL not less or equal" blue screen or equivalent but you can't figure out.
Pulled my hair of my head during several weeks, formatted, tested all my components before I brought a PSU from work, and it worked. Bought a new 430W one and no prob anymore (be careful for quite some time new models of graphic cards need much power). For me it was the GFX (AGP4x only!) and 4 IDE hard drives.
The nightmare is that I had my old PC to test the GFX and PSU, but that "dead" PSU was working fine on the old PC !
I recommend borrowing a PSU and trying it.
EHM-1617 Iain:
Fixed it... a quick trip to PC world. Bought an anti-ESD wrist strap, anti-ESD brush, compressed air bottle, some heat sink compund, TFT screen cleaning stuff. Have to say it worked a treat.
I ripped off the side panel (not literally) and brushed off all the components, sprayed the air everywhere I couldn't get at. (All the while making sure I wore my wrist strap). I then vacuumed the dust off the bottom of the case (not the comopnents).
I managed to clear all the fans. I also cleaned out all the peripherals.
I plugged it all back together and it worked, which was good. It was noticebly faster. I ran FS for 3 hours straight to test it, was fine.
I didn't manage to get the heatsink fully off though - which I wanted to do to clean it properly. But I have since watched the AMD video again, so I know how to do it next time. The thermal compound will be of use!
Thanks guys - you fixed my PC (well you told me how to do it)! Now I only have to find the motivation to do it every couple of months.
BTW the TFT screen cleaning solution is great! The blotches on the screen have been removed. It uses a microfiber applicator. It was called clearview compact and works well. The screen is very nice and only needed a little wipe with a specs cleaning cloth (silky microfiber) to remover some of the residue and it was perfect. Thanks again for your help!!! All fixed ;)
EHM-1703 Philip:
NP m8, is that why you missed the fly in today? Check out the screenshots page. Tim and I were playing Tag! He won :(
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