Canned Air dusting

[debiruman665]

So I know I haven't had my laptop for too long but in my home, I have three free-range cockatiels which is the equivalent to having three pidgeots living in my home with the same freedom you'd afford a cat. It's a pretty good analogy but instead of having a kitty litter tray on the ground you need to put down paper on top of all your bookcases.

The downside of this is that bird dander is a big problem and already my fan tray is completely covered in the white feather dust so I figure the inside is already pretty clogged. We have a fan filter which I need to vacuum the filter every weekend so I'm well aware the inside of my laptop is most likely sufficiently gunked up.

Due to how the heat sinks are aligned I doubt I would get sufficient cleaning by just blowing air in the general direction of the vents so am I right in assuming I'll need to take off the heatsink entirely? Does this mean I'll need to re-apply paste again?

 

[Shepard]

Hi there,

if you take the heatsink off, you will have to repaste it. There is no way around that. By my personal experience with house cats, I take my electronics apart to a step where I can easily blow the hairs away and do it outside, too. Your carpet will thank you if you do it outside

 

[debiruman665]

Anyone got any recommendations for pastes then?

9900k inside of an octane, tbh I'll consider delidding it when the price comes down and I can feasibly replace it without having to pay the full price again when I inevitably mess it up.

Is the risk of spillage from using a liquid metal paste worth the improved performance?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Anyone got any recommendations for pastes then?

9900k inside of an octane, tbh I'll consider delidding it when the price comes down and I can feasibly replace it without having to pay the full price again when I inevitably mess it up.

Is the risk of spillage from using a liquid metal paste worth the improved performance?

I’d always recommend thermal grizzly kryonaut which as a paste is up there with the best and not expensive.

But, if you’re going to be doing this so frequently, check out thermal grizzly carbonaut which is a graphite wafer thin pad which doesn’t deteriorate so you’d never have to change it.

 

[phitol]

I can heartily recommend an Electric Air Duster for this! (https://www.amazon.co.uk/IT-Dusters-EGP-COM-011-CompuCleaner-Electric/dp/B00S7CH6FK) - Incredibly powerful and far more useful then cans of compressed air. Just look at the reviews, I can only add to those!

For laptops, you can use these to blow air in to the egress points to backwash the heatsinks, and then in through the ingress points to clean the fans, a combination of both usually works for me without opening up the case.

Even in severe cases, if you just took the bottom cover off you could get in to more of the surrounding area, and use an ESD safe brush (e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/12-Detailing-Cleaning-Computer-Keyboard/dp/B07LF6JC2R) to help agitate the dust from the motherboard, with the air duster to really help shift it from inaccessible places.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I can heartily recommend an Electric Air Duster for this! (https://www.amazon.co.uk/IT-Dusters-EGP-COM-011-CompuCleaner-Electric/dp/B00S7CH6FK) - Incredibly powerful and far more useful then cans of compressed air. Just look at the reviews, I can only add to those!

For laptops, you can use these to blow air in to the egress points to backwash the heatsinks, and then in through the ingress points to clean the fans, a combination of both usually works for me without opening up the case.

Even in severe cases, if you just took the bottom cover off you could get in to more of the surrounding area, and use an ESD safe brush (e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/12-Detailing-Cleaning-Computer-Keyboard/dp/B07LF6JC2R) to help agitate the dust from the motherboard, with the air duster to really help shift it from inaccessible places.

I have the same one and absolutely swear by it, used to get through a can of spray each clean out invariably, but the electric one just goes on and on and on, had it a few years now and couldn’t live without it!

 

[debiruman665]

the electric one sounds great, I have exotic birds and they are mortally sensitive to chemicals in the air on the account of birds not having lungs.