I’ll be straight with it. I’m a smoker, I smoke inside, I have a PC that is also inside. I want to clean my PC thoroughly to buy it a few more years. I know about the q tip method, and the compressed air, and general methods of cleaning out gunk and junk from PC parts. But this boy is way too gunked up for a regular cleaning. So, I reckon, the easiest way to clean it is to dunk the dirtiest parts in a bath of isopropyl alcohol. I was considering acetone at first, but it’s way too strong of a solvent, and alcohol should be better at dissolving organic residues. Is this a good idea?
I hereby submit this query to the council, and await judgement.
Iso wouldn’t be good for things like thermal pads or thermal paste. You could probably dunk most other things in it (though I wouldn’t put fan motors in it).
If you know how to disassemble the graphics card, you could probably do that, save the thermal pads/note where the thermal paste goes and then submerge it. Though the best option for everything is probably a squirtbottle and a tooth/nailbrush. Just give it a day or two before powering it on to make certain that all of it has evaporated.
So messing with thermal paste should be avoided. Noted. I could just re-apply it after. I’ll be replacing the graphics card, so I thought I’d give the rest of the parts a cleaning. So, submerging/soaking = no, squirt bottle in strategic places = yes.
Thank you for answering the question in a comprehensive way, it is surprisingly rare, and I appreciate it very much.
One other thing - you might want to try putting a little iso on a hidden spot on any plastic pieces you plan on cleaning - iso can sometimes degrade/discolour plastics.
Discoloration is the least of my problems. Why are people so obsessed with aesthetics? It’s all inside the case anyway.
I don’t think you’ll get the results you are hoping for. I’m not sure it would harm it but you’d need some sort of agitation or scrubbing to actually get it clean. I’d propose a soft toothbrush and iso. Or if you’re dedicated to dunking it, maybe try one of those ultrasonic tubs
I would, but evidence seems to suggest that is not a very good idea.
Isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush. Turn off power to the PC. Hold power button for a minute. Unplug and disassemble. Get one of those chemistry squirt bottles (google lab wash bottle) to put the alcohol in, squirt it on the place to clean, brush with the toothbrush. Repeat until at desired cleanliness. Then take canned air and spray out under all the parts. Allow to dry. It’s dry when you can spray under the big components and not get any alcohol out.
I used to assemble, test, repair, and clean PCBs of all shapes and sizes. That’s what we did when we had to spot clean a board after a repair.
The jankiest way I’ve cleaned a PCB was to run it through the dishwasher without detergent, then wash it down with RODI water to demineralize, then alcohol to displace the water. It works, but you gotta be damn sure that you’ve washed away any mineral deposits and given it plenty of time to dry.
Not to jump on the smoking hate train - I get it, smoking is very pleasurable and insanely addictive - but have you thought about just smoking outside?
I would never smoke in a room I spend any time in. It’s a funny mindset, as I used to smoke inside in my 20s, but when the ban in bars came along it just sort of became second nature.
These days I rarely smoke, but vape more than I should. The vaping is starting to give me a dry tongue that feels like a fading pizza burn. I plan to stop… Soon…
I haven’t been insulted like this in literal years. I did think of it. In fact, I would do it if it was possible.
You know what, I’ll just rant at you, because I can.
I live with two other smokers in an apratment that is around 28 square meters. I can’t convince them to smoke outside (I tried for years, actually decades). Me smoking outside would change nothing.
Just so you know, the two mentioned smokers are very upset to be mentioned here.
Smoke whatever you want wherever you want. Just don’t assume everyone’s situation is the same. I never asked for health advice, just tech advice. It is painful to read comments from all these self righeous pricks telling me how to live my life (no offense, your comment just happened to be the straw that broke the camel’s back). If I want to die from lung cancer, that is my choice. If I want to smoke inside an apartment that is already considered a “hotbox” by most standards (even without me smoking inside), then you can bet your pretty face I will.
Thank you for your imput. Hope it goes well with quiting vaping. Cheers.
I promise you, your mindset is going to change. Near the time I quit I was getting constant sinus infections. Wake up every morning coughing my lungs out. I knew if I continued not only would I most likely be gone in ten years but it wasn’t going to be a fun way to go suffocating. I’d miss watching my daughter grow up and walking her down the aisle. I could literally feel smoking starting to affect my health after 20 years. Vaping got me off and I feel great now.
Fair play, man. Like I say, I used to smoke indoors and it’s weird that, once society in my country changed, it started to feel really strange to smoke inside.
I wouldn’t be feeling insulted. Your life, your choice bud.
The insulting part was “but have you thought about…” Yes. In fact I did. I did entertain the possibility.
I’m not saying you were trying to insult me with that, but I did feel insulted. That may be a problem on my part though.
Wish you well.
Wasn’t meant to be insulting. It never occurred to me until the smoking ban in my country. As this is a global platform, I didn’t know if smoking was legal or not in yours. Smoking inside was normal for me growing up, but I’m nearly in my 50s.
You can even use water on most pc components and it will clean most residue- it’s called the universal solvent for a reason. The reason isopropyl alcohol is popular is that it is still a decent solvent but also will evaporate quickly, which makes it safer.
People have put PC stuff into a dishwasher (without detergent, on cold) but that feels kind of crazy to me still.
I’d be more concerned about soaking components in alcohol. Lubricants, adhesives, etc would all be at risk of being worn away. Definitely don’t do it to fans or anything else that moves. Pure hunks of metal (like a heatsink) or silicon are safer.
I see lots of “brush it, it’s fine” posts, but if you want to dunk your components, that’s a whole different story. Alcohol is certainly going to dissolve something like TIM or thermal pads; that might not be a problem.
But it might?
One thing very oldschool PC builders did is submerge their PCs in mineral oil for cooling. This liquid is more innocuous, AFAIK.
So you could get some in a plastic tray and dunk your components in it. I have no advice for getting the oil off though.
mineral oil […] innocuous
From an electrical standpoint, sure.
From the standpoint of making an enormous mess if it escapes, it’s very much not.
The parts… Once oiled, always oiled. That shit is impossible to clean off.
I think this might do it: https://youtube.com/watch?v=SVuI-Fn27-U
In the German version he apparently also mentions “no rinse aid”, but that’s apparently missed out in the English version.
Hmmm, you could just… leave them submerged in the oil? Would that protect them from the smoke? I don’t know. I’ll have to look into these “underwater” builds though because that does sound cool.
It’s very cool, but not cheap. If your goal is to save cash by extending the hardware’s life, TBH it’d make way more financial sense to just invest that cash instead.
Wow at this point id more seriously consider to quit smoking or at least stop doing it inside.
You know nothing about my situation. I can’t do that. If I could I would.
Wrong.
You can. You just wont.
You are speaking with an addictive mind that is left out of control.
That is how addictions work. That’s your ‘situation’. And yea, i do know. I know enough to know when im being bullshitted. I know the bullshit language we use to convince ourselves.
You are only bullshitting yourself here. Thats the situation. Im not the one who needs to be convinced for you to continue. Because im not the one making you smoke.
Youre already taken that job on yourself. Every moment of every day. Youre chosing it.
That is your situation.
Thank you for explaining how my life works and what my situation is. Clearly you are much wiser than I could ever be. You are right. I will not only stop smoking, but also stop all the other smokers in my household not to smoke inside. Have you ever thought of writing a book? You’d sell at least 8 billion copies guaranteed.
Just have it proofread before publishing.
I regularly use 100% Alcohol to clean boards and it’s the best. I get’s rid of everything and won’t leave any traces, since it evaporates so fast. So I reckon you’ll be fine
Disassemble. Use distilled water and a suitable sized ultrasonic cleaner, with one component at a time. Air dry with clean compressed air, canned not compressor. Leave it to dry for atleast a day after. Reassemble, fingers crossed.
ultrasonic cleaner
Wont that destroy every soder connection in there?
Apparently Kingpin uses an ultrasonic cleaner and hasn’t seen any problems as a result… However he acknowledges that some people say it’s bad for electronics:
I think alcohol may dissolve somethings that aren’t supposed to be dissolved, I wouldn’t risk it. If it’s working don’t fix it. But if you have to I would use contact spray instead, it’s made to be nonconductive and noncorrosive.
There is an easy solution: Do not smoke in the first place. Problem solved. Not only you do not have to clean your computer so often but you also take care of your body.
Now, it is easier said than done but it is doable.
This is the first time I am cleaning my computer in almost 10 years.
Now tell me again how I should live my life. Please, educate me o wise one.
Actually, I retract my previous statements. Cleaning my PC once a decade is too often. I really need to stop smoking, and stop everyone else in my 28 square meter apartment to also stop smoking. Thank you. Another life saved!
I feel like that’s good general advice, but doesn’t address the question.
I’m not gonna shame people for their choices, but I guess that’s just me.
As bad as your computer looks your lungs are worse.
My lungs have a self-cleaning feature, and my PC doesn’t.
Feel free to roast me for my lack of tech literacy and dumb ideas, but not my health. I have calculated everything. My body will be fine for as long as it needs to be.
Gotta get a lung flute. You’ll puke after you see what you cough out. Next smoke hits like a truck too
I don’t know what any of this means, but I can think of a much more effective solution for smokers.
I’d like to hear it. Does it work for other addictions?
Actually sure, if we’re going to be earnest I do recommend some tactics for beating addictive behavior.
The most important thing you will ever learn about yourself and reality itself is the sheer amount of delusion your brain puts you in, no matter who you are or how smart you think you are.
We think of our brains as logical, calculating machines inside our heads where all our will and thoughts and ideas come from, but this is an illusion, you are not your brain, you’re not even your language center. Your brain’s primary and only job is to assemble your feelings into a narrative story. That story doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to connect things so your feeling makes sense.
What this means for addictive behavior is that you can find the point where your brain starts reasoning things out that it wants, and cut it off because you know it’s not you, it’s another entity inside your head trying to get a thing it wants. Drugs fire off unnatural pleasure associations which your brain will make up a lot of excuses to keep getting, so learning to identify the stories your brain tells you to engage in behavior you don’t want is key to reducing that behavior.
A huge part of this is preparing ahead of time for when you get worn out trying to argue with yourself and setting specific boundaries for your future-self. Get rid of the stuff you want to quit taking, make sure there’s none in the house. Lock your money and credit card in a timed safe after a certain part of the day, because you will have a harder time resisting the “reasoning attack” as it gets later and later in the day, and resist the urge to think about tomorrow or how miserable you’re going to feel as the night, week and year go on. This is why they say “one day at a time” because your brain will wear you the fuck down with debate and “ideas” and bargaining, and if you anticipate that lasting on and on, you will break easier.
All of this requires being very honest with yourself and examining the habit you want to quit, such as looking up the actual risks, the actual data about dangers and the actual amount of money you’re spending on it, and all that stuff your brain really doesn’t like incorporating into it’s mental story-telling.
Understanding your brain isn’t you and it will actually be your worst enemy and will childishly sabotage your whole life to get what it wants, and that it talks to you in your own internal voice so it’s hard to resist, these ideas will be your best mental strategy for quitting because at least you have your actual enemy identified.
So it’s nothing new. I was hoping for something new.
I could just quit cold turkey. I have that type of mental fortitude. But smoking is literally one of the… I think three joys that I have in my life. So I’m a bit apprehensive about giving up one of the few things that makes me less miserable.
And before you ask, all of my “joys of life” can be classified as addictions.
Maybe that’s the problem… I literally have nothing that makes me happy and is healhy. I’ll look into that. Thanks for making me think about it.
That’s a very good and honest answer and that can also be worked with, you have an outline for effective change right there:
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Work on better mental health, starting with non-smoking activities, ideally getting out of the house and trying new things, preferably at first in spaces where you can’t even smoke if you wanted to. Consider talking to a therapist. Change your environment, don’t stop at your computer, clean your whole living space and change things around. Change your career (I know, I know, I gotta throw it out there.) If you are in a rut, change what you can and change how you feel about the things you can’t change. Find something of value you can start tackling in your life like raising a pet, a plant, a new routine like forcing walks.
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Understand that the addiction is also diminishing your happiness. I like to use porn addiction as the best example of this part, because people often misinterpret why pleasurable addictions are harmful even if they had no health effects - which is, as you engage with activities that boost your pleasure responsonses, your brain will reinforce those pleasure paths and all the other pathways in your brain diminish and wither so that it’s harder to feel happiness from other things. Think of the things you do and think about like roads and highways, the more you pave them and use them, the easier it is for your thought-stream to get on an onramp to flavortown and indulge in the vice, whereas the offramps to other things that used to make you happy start to erode and fade.
So whichever you tackle first, understand that this takes time.
(I never was a smoker, but I did beat a level of alcoholism that took the lives of most of my family, it took a long time and many attempts.)
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Ridiculous.
I completely agree.
You sound like my father, until he died from complications of COPD from smoking.
This answer makes me sad.
I believe you that you know more about the health impacts of smoking than non-smokers. I noticed you didn’t say it was healthy but only that your
body will be fine for as long as it needs to be.
My dad smoked from age 17 to 84. His body was fine for a long time.
However, he really suffered for the last decade between the emphysema and the cancer. The last 3 years in particular were awful.
The cancer wasn’t even that advanced when it was first diagnosed but no-one was willing to operate because of his lungs (general anaesthesia was basically a death sentence). Eventually it metastasised.
He suffered but it wasn’t killing him. I remember one particularly bad emphysema attack near the end, where he couldn’t get air, and he was literally begging to just die. Eventually he shot himself. He held out as long as he could for the sake of our family, especially his grandchildren, but he really didn’t want to die in the hospital.
I know exactly how addictive smoking is. My brothers watched my dad suffer and still they can’t quit. My dad couldn’t quit and he was the one suffering.
So, this comment is not intended as a lecture or advice or recrimination. It’s just a story about a wonderful man with a horrendous addiction. I tell it in the hope that it might be one more nudge to help you finally beat your addiction. Wishing you all the best.
70 years is more than enough for me. Not planning to spend more with my physical body.
But thanks for the story. I’ll make sure to try and remember it.
Just as a clarification. How much did he smoke a day? Was it more than up to five cigs a day? Because that is my limit and has been for years. So I could have more than 70 years in me.
Yeah, I’m reading this, and with what I’ve seen it checks out. I’m from NC and my family is as well, and the number of deaths that I attribute to smoking in my family is pretty high. Even if you don’t die, you often have issues either later in life or for the rest of your life.
It seems like we should be doing the opposite, you seem to understand tech just fine and are very ignorant about health.
I studied medicine. I have a diploma. I know nothing about the tech accept that it’s made of metal and crystals and plastic. And it has lightning in it.
Did you study it in kindergarten and nowhere else? Because whether or not your lungs are “self cleaning” or not has absolutely nothing to do with how dangerous smoking is.
Do you really want to have a discussion about that? Because I am more than happy to explain my reasoning.
The biological body has the capacity to regenerate and self clean. If you live in a place with lots of smog, that’s the equivalant of smoking cigarettes. It’s like with any harmful thing, moderation is the key. If I smoke up to 5 cigarettes a day and live in a place with little to no smog, I’m much less likely to suffer adverse effects to my lungs and throat than not smoking at all and living in a place with lots of smog.
In addition, I suspect I have some genetic immunity. My great grandfather smoked more than a pack a day for decades, and he lived to like 95 years old.
Now, about the lung self-cleaning thing. As cells divide, new cells take their place, and old cells are either metabolised by the body or shed off like skin. Inside your lungs, tissue that’s damaged by smoking can be healed, as long as it isn’t too severe. Aside from that, lungs secrete mucus when irritated, which is then expelled along with the irritant (in most cases. Things like asbestos and fiberglass just stay in there). Through this natural process, the lungs clean themselves from the inside. As long as the rate of intake of the irritant does not exceed tha capacity for the lungs to expell that irritant, the situation doesn’t get worse.
That is my reasoning. Feel free to give me your take.
Sewers are self cleaning. If you throw a pipe bomb in there it ain’t gonna matter how self cleaning it is.
I don’t really need to argue the case when there’s decades of science showing that smoking isn’t safe in any amount (including smog).
Good point. That’s why no one has ever died from smoking problems. You’ll be fine.
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My lungs have a self-cleaning feature, and my PC doesn’t.
😂
Ending addictive behavior starts with admitting to yourself where your brain is lying to you about your habits and how gullible you are to accept those stories it sends you. You are not your brain.
I’m not here to condone smoking, but OP isn’t here for unsolicited advice either.
because squirrel
You gotta be pretty dense or insane to think you can make a post on the open internet about smoking so much indoors that your computer needs to be submerged in solvent or something to get it clean, and not expect more than half the replies to be addressing the reason it got that way in the first place.
Not dense, just not very well adjusted. Thank you.
I dead ass though they were smoking ribs inside…
When I worked at an eltronics recycling center (we repaired and resold PCs and printers) we used isopropyl alcohol in spray bottles to clean pc parts. It worked really well. Don’t dunk anything! Just carefully disassemble, spray the part (let the run off fall onto a collection pad), and let it completely dry before reassembly. It may take a few rounds depending on how dirty the part is, resist any temptation to scrub off build up on electrical components. If contaminates absolutely will not come off use a circuit board cleaning “paint brush” with circuit board pcb cleaner to gently clear it or better yet, leave it be. The enemy of good is perfect.
WARNINGS: Wear gloves, eye protection, and a mask. Follow all ESD safety protocols to protect computer parts. If you disassemble the cpu add more thermal paste. DON’T SPRAY THE PSU, if necessary use alcohol on a wash cloth for the PSU exterior. You can speed up dry time by air blowing excess liquid off but be aware this may splatter dirty droplets around the space. Only clean your PC like this in a well ventilated space. Only attempt this if you are comfortable disassembling and reassembling your pc. However long YOU think your computer needs to be fully dry, double that time to be safe.
Also as a bonus. You can put non electric components in the dishwasher. No soap, no heat, as long as they fit and won’t get dinged up by moving dishwasher parts. SERIOUSLY DO NOT HEAT DRY OR WASH ON HIGH HEAT.
I also throw my mechanical keyboards in there but there’s always a chance they won’t work after - so far tho it’s been a success (obviously I make sure they are fully dry before I use them . If you attempt this - at your own risk.
I have an old mainboard from 1990 with emotional value and a leaked BIOS battery. And advice for cleaning that?
Wear gloves and eye protection. Remove that battery and dispose of it in accordance with your local laws.
Gently scrub off and any residual acid with white vinegar and a toothbrush. Brush away or blow off loosened residue until it’s gone, just be aware it’s acid and where you are are sending the particles.
Let it dry. If the rest of the board needs further cleaning you can use isopropyl alcohol to finish it off.
After it’s clean make sure to check for damage before you replace the battery. It’s likely fine, but if it’s been sitting in acid for a while it never hurts to give the board a look over for shorts, cracks, or solder points that lost contact. If it looks good replace the battery and see if she works.
If you decide to disassemble your board to make cleaning easier, I suggest taking a few pictures first. The old MBs don’t have helper notches to ensure parts are placed in the proper orientation and documentation may be hard to come by.
Thanks! The whole PC had a time (when its age was ~20 years) where it still booted, but with reset BIOS settings, followed by a time where it doesn’t boot up anymore. So I believe the most likely thing is that it leaked and caused damage. Retro computing community thinks that the most likely cause is battery damage.
Here is the exact model from someone else: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-3121-v3
Battery (top-left) already removed, but it shows that this one has leaked before as well. When you look closely, you see battery residue on the nearby 8-bit ISA (?), so it must have leaked a lot at some point and been cleaned up. Unfortunately, it came with a notorious Ni-Cd Battery; even for its time not the best.
You’re welcome! Wow I forgot about those batteries, they were the worst! That’s an awesome board. I hope you are able to repair it.
But in all reality, spraying the PSU with high concentration IPA is fine so long as you remove it from the power source and mobo, and discharge the caps.
That’s true. I usually don’t suggest it because when I worked on desktops I developed a philosophy with PSUs of leave them alone if they work and replace them if they don’t. In my experience PSUs are extremely tough, and even in the worst conditions rarely failed. It caused more harm then good to mess with them unnecessary.
That’s definitely fair. They do tend to be the most robust electrical component in a desktop.
Try getting one of those motorized air blasters. The can of air can get super cold and fuck up something delicate. Rechargeable ones don’t, and they can get stupid powerful, based on what I’ve read
and they can get stupid powerful,
If anyone reading this is shopping in physical stores and trying how hard it blows, just don’t blow it into your face. Unless you have a suffocation kink I suppose.
Yeah it’s compressed refrigerant, not air. It will displace oxygen
