Sign up or log in to customize your list. Here's how it works: Anybody can ask a question The best answers are voted up and rise to the top To get rid of dust that had gathered near the fan, I put a vacuum cleaner to the air intake (with the computer turned off). This removed the dust. It also caused the fan to rotate at a fairly high speed. Quite faster than normal speed, judging from the sound. Do I risk destroying stuff by doing this? You could damage the fan from spinning it that way. You could also damage many components in the PC using a vacuum cleaner - it generates a large amount of static electricity! You should NEVER use a vacuum on electronic equipment! The proper thing to do would be to open the machine out and blow the dust free with non-static compressed air. (It's best to hold fans still rather than letting them spin freely for the same reason having the vacuum spin them up is bad, but very few people bother to do this because with quick bursts of air the odds are very slight.)

I have been told that each motor of the PC's fans relies on bushings, that are built to tolerate a certain RPM. Exceeding that RPM, such as when large volumes flow, can reduce the life of the fans. In addition, off-center suction can place a tangential torque on the axle of the fan. So you do risk this kind of damage as well. I have done it to many many machines and have not reduced the useful life of expensive fans. You can definitely destroy a cheap fan very easily. For desktops, fans are easily replaced. For laptops...not so much. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google Sign up using Email and Password Post as a guest By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged laptop fan cleaning or ask your own question.I saw this on PC Advisor and thought you should see it too. Like PCs, laptops use fans to blow air on components that would otherwise overheat.

Typically a laptop will have one or two fans cooling the main processor and graphics chip or chipset. Many designs use a so-called heatpipe system to draw heat away from these components, with a single fan cooling a heatsink which is attached to the heat-pipes. The heatsink will have lots of 'fins' to dissipate the heat, and dust can also build up between these fins, reducing cooling power enormously. What you need to know is that the fans in a laptop are even more critical than in a PC. With everything packed in to make the laptop as slim as possible, there's very little room for airflow. And that means that even small amounts of dirt and dust can hamper a fan's effectiveness. The first signs of a clogged up fan are random Windows crashes as the system overheats. Or, if the vents are blocked with dust rather than the fan blades, you'll notice the fan running constantly or at a high speed than usual. You can try various techniques, with the easier methods having a lower success rate.

If you're not confident using a screwdriver to dismantle your laptop, grab a can of compressed air or try a camera lens air duster if you have one. Vacuum cleaners are not recommended: they're quite ineffective at removing dust and they can also cause a build-up of static electricity which you don't want around a laptop.dryer vent cleaning images Obviously make sure the latop is powered off before you start. consumer reports best wood furniture cleanerInsert the nozzle of the air duster into the vents (or as close as you can get it) and start blowing the dust out. best way to clean soiled leather car seatsTry and stop the fan blades turning using a long plastic object - you'll have a hard time removing dirt from a spinning fan.best vacuum cleaners lightweight

For those that are happy to wield a screwdriver, turn off the laptop, flip it over, and remove the battery. If there is one, remove the plastic or metal panel in the base and hopefully it will reveal the fan. good vacuum cleaner brands in malaysiaYour success here will depend entirely on your laptop model. best mop to clean wood floorsIf you don't see the fan at all, you'll have to go one step further and remove other parts. There are many YouTube videos that show how to take laptops apart: just search for your make and model. Now it's time to blow out the dust, something you might want to do outside. The best way to do this is with a can of compressed air. If using compressed air, press the button in short bursts from lots of different angles. Don't get too close with the nozzle and stop the blades moving as per method 1.

You'd do well to unscrew or otherwise remove the fan at this point and check for any other dirt clogging up the heatsink or air vents. After you've blown out all the dust, replace the panel and battery and you should find that the fan runs much quieter when you power the laptop on again. The plastic bearings in laptop fans don't last forever and if your fan is emitting a loud whine (which it didn't when you first got the laptop) it's probably time to replace it. Here, ebay is your friend. It helps if you have a popular make of laptop: we found a lot of Dell, HP, Acer and Asus fans but you'll be able to search for your exact laptop model. It helps if you have your laptop's fan for reference, and check with the seller if the photos are of the actual item if you're not sure.You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers. Today we take a look at why you should never vacuum your dusty PC, how covert books to read on the Kindle, and how to control multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse.

I’ve heard from more than one person that it’s a bad idea to vacuum out the inside of your PC… but why? I’d like to get to the bottom of things before I accidently destroy my computer. It’s bad to clean the inside of your computer with a vacuum cleaner because vacuuming creates a large static build up that could (and most likely will) discharge into the sensitive electronics inside your computer case. There are specialized vacuum cleaners designed for cleaning out computers and electronic equipment but given the limited amount of use a single user would get from such a purchase it’s not a very wise one—they start at $300+ and can easily break the $1000 price barrier. What we’d recommend doing is taking your computer case into a well ventilated area (outside on a sunny day or in your garage is a great place), grounding the case to protect against static discharge (although the risk here is very very low) and using compressed air to clean the dust off. If you’re using an air compressor (as opposed to just a can of compressed air from the computer store) make sure to start a good 24″ or so away from the case and work your way in closer.

You want to use just enough air pressure to blast the dust off the surfaces and out of the case without overdoing it and pushing dust into even more difficult to remove places. One important thing to consider: compressed air (from a compressor, not a can) contains minute amounts of water vapor. Although we’ve never actually heard of this happening to anyone it is (however remote the chance) possible to blow moisture into the connectors on your mother board and damage it if you were to boot it immediately afterwards. This is in the range of lightening-strike remote, however. None the less to be extra cautious we would recommend that you leave the computer off and in a warm dry location for a few hours after you give it a good air-compressor cleaning to allow any residual moisture (if it’s even there to begin with) to evaporate. This borders on paranoid caution, mind you, but better safe than sorry. I need to be able to convert ePub books into AZW books so that I can read them on my Kindle.

How can I do this? Also, is there an easy way to remove DRM from ePub and AZW documents? Formats, Conversions, and DRM, Oh my! There are applications out there that will convert documents into AZW format. They’re usually quite specialized (such as just converting one particular format like PDF to AZW) and often not particular effective. That’s not a problem though! Kindles read the MOBI format quite nicely and it’s very easy to convert to the MOBI format. We’d suggest downloading a copy of the excellent open source application Calibre and using that to manage all your non-Amazon purchases on your Kindle. From within Calibre you can convert from many formats into MOBI (including from ePub to MOBI). As for stripping DRM from ePub and AZW books, it’s a royal pain in the ass. ePub encryption schemes vary quite widely from publisher to publisher and AZW DRM stripping used to be just a moderate pain in the ass but is now a huge pain in the ass thanks to Amazon’s institution of per-book keys (instead of using universal keys).

Decrypting and stripping the DRM is pretty much a case-by-case basis and not worth the effort unless you’re trying to strip the DRM off a book to use on another device and you can’t find a copy of it from the “usual sources”, if you will. Sorry there isn’t an easy solution! DRM is an enormous pain. I have my desktop with Windows 7 and 2 monitors. I would like to setup another rig right next to it, and install Ubuntu on it. I would then like to use a KVM switch and/or software, and be able to hotswap operate either OS on both monitors, or Windows on one and Ubuntu on the other. How can I achieve this one keyboard, one mouse, dual machine nirvana? Attempting Omnicontrol in OmahaThis is one of those geek moments where a perfectly elegant, robust, and free solution exists. You need a copy of Synergy. Synergy is an awesome application that allows you to control multiple machines using a single keyboard and mouse input. One of your machines acts as the server and the rest of the machines act as clients.