Off Topic: Compressors and Computers

[Lee Michaels]

I had a computer go down last week. Turns out that the power supply was clogged with dust and needed to be replaced. It was probably under powered too, which added to its demise. Talking to some friends, this has happened to two more people in the last 3 months. All of them multi monitor machines running some big apps. Regular computers did not seem to suffer from the same type of problem.

The tech suggested regular cleaning of the interior of the case every two months. Again, this is probably overkill for most machines, but we have three examples here of where we probably could have prevented the problems we had. He suggested a small compressor for this purpose. He had one in his shop. I have no problem with getting a small compressor to make my computers happy. It is just that my beloved and other folks working in the offices would have extreme objections to a noisy, pancake compressor starting up.

I could probably get by with a can of compressed air. I have a small vacuum cleaner which will do an OK job cleaning. But I need some compressed air to get everything really clean. I need something small, quiet and not scary to tool phobic office workers (or wives). Any suggestions?

I was thinking of the baby compressors that run artist's air brushes. But did not think they were powerful enough. Maybe even a fireplace bellows may work. I looked at a small compressor from Harbor Freight and was assured that it was very noisy. So that won't work. Maybe I am asking too much, inexpensive, quiet and effective. Any input from you guys would be appreciated.

[Arthur Shapiro]

Do you own a leafblower? It works very well on badly-encrusted computers. Normally its easier than using an air compressor, as there's no waiting time for the tank to fill.

Art

[Nick]

Could you not use a small, noisy compressor after folks have departed for the day? Or give them a few quid to enjoy an extended lunch on a sunny afternoon and then do the job whilst they are not present? Hey, take your time guys. It's a beautiful day, go and enjoy yourselves, I'll look after the shop whilst your gone. Bit of kudos for you to boot.

When using compressed air it is worth jamming all fans (PSU/CPU/Case etc) as the high rotational speeds can knacker (sorry, an olde English term) these fans. I know this to my cost.

HTH

Nick. England.

[WW]

Snip

Any suggestions?

I hope you take the computer out side to do this, not in the office blowing all the stuff in the air to be drawn back into other computers. A tank vacuum works. Put hose on output of tank. Large volume of air but low enough pressure so as not to cause damage. WW

[Puckdropper]

"Lee Michaels" wrote in news:4f7b3f36$0$1440$c3e8da3$ [e-mail]:

*snip*

I have an air brush compressor, and while it doesn't put out much air it is quiet and would probably keep the computers clean enough if used on a regular basis.

If the systems collect that much dust, though, would some sort of filter be worthwhile? You'd probably have to add another fan or two, but changing the filter on a regular basis might be easier than lugging a compressor around.

One more idea... Put a regulator on a compressed air tank. Set it for something reasonable (20-30 psi?) and pressurize the tank to 90-100 psi. You can fill the tank in the shop and take it where needed.

Puckdropper

[Scott Lurndal]

Indeed. If your computer is in an environment where blowing it out more than every 6 months is necessary, move the computer or clean up the environment.

Compressor is way overkill.

A computer vacuum is nice, particularly for the keyboard.

scott

[Steve Turner]

Disagree. I've used canned air several times on computers with marginal results, then took a 40 PSI blow gun from a compressor to the very same computer and blew out all kinds of residual crap that the canned air couldn't touch.

[Bill]

I think the can of compressed air is the standard solution, but I'm allergic to it. I paid about $43 for a hand held 110v substitute which works very well, but it louder than a hair dryer. I'm quite delighted with the electric solution. I will find a link if anyone is interested in the product.

Bill

[Bill]

There's a point at which you'll start blowing components off the boards. I'm not sure where that point is and am not sure I'd want to find out the hard way.

[Swingman]

There's always a first time for everything, but like Steve, I've been using air from the shop air compressor to blow out computers since the late eighties with not one problem ... only I used a spare tank that held 120 psi to start with. ;)

[tiredofspam]

I use my compressor all the time. I clean my computers about every 6 mos.

BTW that has not prolonged my power supplies. They still go. Yours may well have been from heat and dust, but they tend to fail regularly.

My lapt> Steve Turner wrote:

[Leon]

Take the computer to the compressor.

[Bill]

Here's the item. It seems to have a lot of satisfied customers:

comes with the attachment set, so don't order it separately. It doesn't seem like office workers could complain too much about something so non-obtrusive looking that only took 30 seconds.

[clare]

Use an "air pig" or a bottle of nitrogen from your local liquid air/welding supply

[clare]

40 PSI isn't anywhere close. I like an "excellerator" blow gun - it has a venturi and a small amount of high velocity air moves a WHOLE LOT of not quite so high velocity air - doing an excellent job.

[-MIKE-]

That's how I found my keys. :-)

[Swingman]

+1

[Max]

"Lee Michaels" wrote

I have one of these for use in the shop.

find it handy to use for several blow...............uh.........purposes. For use on a computer I set the regulator at 35-40 PSI. And I use this blow gun:

[Scott Lurndal]

I've worked in the industry for 30 years, building everything from mainframes to supercomputers. The only time we ever used an air compressor was to power the loadable heads on a Burroughs 5N head-per-track disk drive built in the

1970's (and of course on the manufacturing floor to power various tools, such as torque wrenches, drills and various place-and-route machines in the wire-wrap era).

My last company had over 400 dual-socket 1U/2U servers, and about 100 workstation systems (high-end, dual-head) - canned compressed air was sufficient for those as well, albeit only required once every couple of years.

scott

[Dave]

On Tue, 3 Apr 2012 14:19:28 -0400, "Lee Michaels"

Since I live in an apartment, quietness was my top priority. Not wanting to spend an exorbitant amount of money on something exotic like a compressor that might be used by a dentist, I had a look at a Samona (Rok) 10925, a Rolair JC10, a Senco PC1010. I also looked at a Bostitch CAP1512 on a friend's recommendation, but it was too loud for my tastes.

They are all fairly quiet compressors in the order presented. I finally settled on the Senco PC1010 because it was the smallest and the lightest (20 lbs.) The rest were at least twice that weight. I wanted/needed a compressor for filling tires and for two nail guns that I have. The heaviest nail gun is a Porter Cable 15g gun. You would NOT use this compressor for a framing gun.

For your purposes, I'm guessing the Senco would work, but if I were you, I'd just use a can of compressed air. If you think that you'd be using too many cans of compressed air and it would be too costly, then you might consider buying one of the refillable tanks of compressed air such as the one in the link below.

like these can also be found at Paintball stores.