I’ve spent the last few days going over article ideas. Jotting a few down for later, but none of them just blowing me away. So this morning I went through my normal daily routine, get up and ready while the coffee brews, go hit the power button on my PC’s (yes plural, we’ll discuss that at a later time), pour that first cup of coffee and enjoy the first sips while looking out at the wonderful view my back porch affords me as the dog strolls in the yard, before finally settling down in front of the computer to start going over my emails and getting the day started. That’s when I realized exactly WHAT I should write about today as the monitor on my desktop PC blacked out before my eyes.
DUST.
I quickly realized it had gone dark because the computer itself had shut down. “That’s odd.”, I thought to myself as I reached down and pressed the power button to bring it back to life. As the room filled again with the familiar hum of fans whirring up again I turned my attention back to the laptop and my morning emails. Quiet. After going through the bootup start process my desktop had again shut down. Then it dawned on me why.
DUST.
To confirm my suspicions I again depressed the power button, and as the monitor again sprang to life, I quickly hit the DEL key on my keyboard to get into the system BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and waited for it to finish loading to that screen. I then flipped through the various screen options until I arrived at the one showing various specifications about my system hardware. This screen is in different sections in different manufacturers motherboards, but generally you want to look for something referring to H/W Monitor or other similar phrases.
This screen will generally show you your fan speeds, different temperatures across the motherboard (and CPU), as well as various other tidbits of knowledge you never realized you needed to know. My eyes immediately landed on the CPU Temperature of my particular system. 91° Celsius. I realize many of you won’t know what a “safe” CPU temperature is, and there is no hard and fast answer as it is different for each manufacturer (and each product line from each manufacturer for that matter), but rest assured that 91°C is WAY outside the realm of “safe”. My hand immediately shot down to the front of the case and cut power to the system as I hoped for the best that I hadn’t already done irreparable harm.
So that brings us full circle to the purpose of this article, dust (and the heat that it causes). Heat is the #1 killer of electrical components. When dust is allowed to build up on various circuit boards and inside fans it can cause various problems. One of the main ones is the decreased airflow that is created as dust begins to block vents, cooling fins, and builds up on the blades of the fans which creates a slowdown in the spinning capability of that fan. It can also cause more immediate danger as the different dust particles combine together and create a layer over the top of components. The origins of those dust particles are from such a vast array of places that the possibility they contain the ability to transfer electricity is pretty great. Get enough of them together, laid out across a critical element of your computer system, and it could be akin to putting a direct electrical short across the board which could cause a hardware malfunction.
Thankfully that doesn’t happen too often, and more than likely it is just a general dust buildup, causing the heat generated by electrical devices to not dissipate as originally intended. Another benefit of more modern day systems (basically anything built in the last 5-10 years) is that the manufacturers of the motherboards have designed fail safes into their hardware that causes it to immediately power down in the event an overly high temperature is encountered. These fail-safes can be disabled (though I HIGHLY recommend against that), and they can be set at temperatures that are outside what is considered the safe zone for temperature extremes. By and large however, I think most system builders leave them at their default settings, so most users should be properly protected.
So when your computer starts shutting down mysteriously consider heat as a culprit. How long have you been running the system? If you power it back on and it shuts right back down then the heat could already be outside the safe margins. Let the system sit for about an hour, then try to power it back up. If it runs for awhile then shuts down again it is almost definitely a dust/heat buildup issue. A simple matter of opening the case, using a bit of compressed air (preferably outside or in a well ventilated area as the dust that can might come off the system will be quite extreme) and cleaning out the insides of the system will most likely get you back working in short order. Be careful to not use brushes that aren’t recommended for electronics as they can contain static buildup that will cause other system failures.
In a future article I’ll discuss in more detail how best to clean out the insides of your computer, and how to determine how often you should perform these tasks. Remember that Tekamba Computers offers free tech support via our online form to help you troubleshoot/resolve any computer issues you may have. We also offer on-site service in and around Prescott Valley, whether you have a single computer needing some help, or are trying to get a network of systems properly communicating, we can help.
Greg Hicks
Tekamba Computers
Servicing: Prescott Valley, Dewey, Chino Valley, Paulden, Prescott (and surrounding areas)
(928) 458-5865