Computers over heating?

Its about that time of year that checking inside your
pc for dust and blocked air ways.

The summer is around the courner and tempreatures will
surely get hotter and so will your pc.

Just checked mine this morning, and needed a hoover,
to get the crap off the fans and nooks and cranny's.

How ever i did notice my fan on my power pack wasnt running,
and swapped that over before it became a problem.

Just a heads up, as summer arrives (So they say).

My laptops cleaned every 4 months regardless to keep the heatpipe dust free and my media centre never gets affected by dust with minimal fans running. If you are confident enough to open up a PC, then it should be cleaned every few months if its heavily used regardless of whether its summer or winter. The actual main hazard of dust is not overheating, but actually causing problems with the circuit boards and short circuting etc...

To be honest, if someones PC has never been cleaned, they wont really see much of a difference due to the outside temperature. 99% of overheating problems are due to faulty components, over-voltaging/overclocking the CPU/GPU or a faulty or undervolted fan (bearings have a tendency to go randomly).

Anyone who overclocks the processor (CPU) or Graphics card (GPU) is probably smart enough to take their computer apart and give it a good clean anyway


They tend to overheat in enclosed spaces too (i.e. cabinets)

Symptoms could be:
- Computer crashing often
- Hard drive switching itself off (sound like a spaceship landing)
- Computer suddenly switches off and won't switch back on again. If you experience this, switch it off by the mains for 5 mins and then try and switch it on again.

If you are going to open up your computer, be careful.
Ensure it is switch off and un-plugged at the mains first.
Discharge any static electricity by touching anything metal i.e. radiator or the unpainted parts of the computer case.

I wouldn't recommend using a hoover or any type of mains vacuum devices as these can cause static electricity (especially belt driven hoovers) which if discharged on an electrical board, could cause damage.

I'd recommend buying a can of air available from most PC shops for a couple of quid.

If you're not confident enough, just make sure that there is a bit of room around the case and fans for hot air to dissipate, and if your computer doesn't need to be on, switch it off - saving electricity too!

or if you are rich, buy a new one.