PC Roger: Hi, this is PC Roger and this video is going to show you how you can prevent your machine from overheating, locking up, even damaging itself from operating when it's dirty and that the dirt and keeping the machine hot, hotter than its specs and this can cause Windows blue screen to death, it can cause the machine to actually just reboot of its own versions of the speaker or shutdown as a protective measure. Some people don't really realize what all needs to be cleaned.
Now the first thing I want to mention is that you want to backup your machine before you begin the process, make sure all your data is packed up. I've got a lot of help on how to do that in my website pcroger.com. You stop over there and take a look if you have any doubt, but the kind of air that we're going to blow it out with is the canned air that you see there in the back, it's moisture-free and it's designed for electrical components, electrical devices like computers.
You can pick it up now -- all places. What we're trying to do is get the dust and dirt in the vent off of the components, the silicon chips that you see on the board will actually kind of a track dirt, especially in manufacturing environments and then that dirt and dust in vent acts as an insulator, keeping those components warm, which is quite the opposite of what you want. The fans in the machine are meant to draw air over those components and cool them, so they have to be clean.
Now there are different types of video cards and other types of components in there, but this one the CNET's Dell Dimension computer actually is of a fan-less design, it's just a heat sink. Here we can see it too well, it's down in here, it's just the black heat sink itself, there is no actual fan on that device and that's pretty common in a lot of these machines. In fact, even if I build a PC, I try to get by with a fan-less design if I can. Here is another video card that I'll put in front of the camera here. As you can see, it's got a fan on it, that's only going to last so long, that's the first problem with it. But secondly, it is going to draw a lot of air in there, a lot of dirt and you want to make sure and get those cooling fans clean when you do clean your PC.
One of the things you'll not see on a Dell or certain your type of you know, big name computers is the standard CPU with a fan. If you build your own PC or something, you have a custom built PC, you will probably see something like this and the fan blades will collect a lot of dirt in vent, you want to get those cleaned off and these cooling fans, you want to make sure that there is not dirt packed in there, which is often times the case. I really need to know that some of these machines do have shrouds like the screen shroud and there are different ways of latching them, they usually hinge in someway, these fins here need to be clean and you can blow air in through those vents to, you know, I directed in through there to get the dirt out. There is also a fan in the back here then that is designed to pull air over those cooling fans and keep the CPU at the temperature that's designed to run at.
There are also vents in the power supply just above the CPU there. The vents in the power supply, you're going to want to blow air through, you want to get that all cleaned out. There are areas in the back of the PC and in the front really, on the back you can see the power supply with a fan in there, fan down here; those are areas you're going to want to keep clean. There are also many times different venting areas on the front of the machine also. Here is a newer Dell precision workstation T34100. You can see on the front of the box and down below just a lot of vented areas that are going to hopefully drive air through, those will need to be cleaned out and pretty easy to do, again that kind of compressed air will do a nice job. Here you can see the back in that same machine, again all those vented screen areas are going to need to be cleaned out, they are potential areas for dust or vent tucked in there and block the air flow.
Here is the inside of that T34100. This machine also has a fan-less design on the video card, which is under here. It's actually not facing the camera, the heat sink. It's just a black heat sink, there is no fan, but -- make sure those fans are clear and has a shroud and it's not only for kind of deep cleaning. There is a screw down here and down here and you -- get the floppy drive cable all the way if your machine has a floppy, most don't; that's why I do order them with it. In this shroud, then kind of tips back and you can get -- completely get into the fan, which is underneath here or the cooling fans for the processor here. Now, since these machines do not have a cooling fan directly on the fins of the heat sink, it is very critical that you get the air moving through here at the desired rate of flow in order to keep the machine cool and prevent the reboots and the blue screens to death, etcetera.
But again, if you're not comfortable, maybe you need to take it to a computer professional have this done. It's usually not too big of a job and you don't have to take anything apart part if it's not real dirty, but canned air like that and take it outside, pull it out. Here you are going to add life to your machine, you are going to save money, but not replace -- you are going to save yourself a lot of frustration by not having the reboots and the blue screen to death and that all those of the types of inconveniences that really nobody wants.
You just want to use your computer, get your work done or if you are playing on the computer, you don't want to play and you don't want the machine to malfunction on you. Keeping it clean is going to go a long way toward accomplishing that goal for you. That's really it for this video. Please stop by my website pcroger.com, I got a lot other information there, I am got videos and articles, a free E-letter you can sign up for. Please stop by, I do appreciate you watching this video.
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