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It is a good idea to clean up inside your case every now and then. Take a large soft bristled paintbrush and a hose vacuum. Brush off all dust that collects on the motherboard and expansions and use the vacuum to suck it up. I do this about once a month.

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I didn't do it!

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What, me? Accidentally spill a Coke on my old SoundBlaster Pro? Naw, I needed an upgrade, I just wouldn't admit it. Had a little help from the subconscious ghost of advertising. "Get an audigeeeeeee....get an aaaudddiggeeee" (splash).

New card works nicely, BTW http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

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Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! I just typed a message which for no obvious reason erased itself.

Anyway a friend of mine had random hangs and crashes he couldn't trace. Figured it was just windows doing its thing, however it was actually dust clogging the heat sink so the processor was overheating and cutting out. So the lesson is either check for dust occasionaly or get a motherboard that has temperature alarms and turn them on.

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Good thread, I've had my PC lock up on occasion which I assumed to be a memory related issue, but now I'll have to check for dust on the motherboard. I've never been into my PC's case once I put in the second CD shortly after purchase.

Anyhow, I've got a bad luck high-tech story, too. Both of my VCR's went on the blink on the same day, inexplicably. After fiddling with them for a while, I began to pull them out to check the cables and found my son's apple juice running out the cases. Seems he thought they needed a drink. Now the VCR (and DVD...thanks to the kiddo for an excuse to upgrade!) is located ON TOP of the tv.

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I could be wrong, but as I dunderstand it vacuum cleaners can generate a lot of static, and static is bad for chips.

ALso, my wife vacuumed my laptop a while back, and sucked the "G" key right off the keyboard!

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I laughed out loud at this.

I know it isn't funny though.

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many notes:

the air in cans actually has no coolant. its compressed. when it re-expands it gets cold. In fact, they would prefer it didnt because people have a habit of spraying directly into a hot computer which can cause more damage than a ballpeen hammer

you can actually wash a keyboard. Stick it in a shower and then blowdry it. Good as new.

Infrared mice and keyboards are bad. At least for me. There is nothing keeping them from hitting the wall when I get pissed

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Cool! I didn't know you could do that safely. The built-in keyboard on my laptop has been getting really grungy, I'll take it into the shower tonight. Ought to get the TFT screen nice and shiny too.

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NOoooooooooooooooooooo dogscoff! Noooo

Anyway
The reason you don't use vacum cleaners is that if you have them on too high or the wrong place you;ll get the fan to rotate too fast and/or the wrong direction which could break it. Or that's what I was told