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+--- Thread: Dust in tower Mac (/showthread.php?tid=55269)
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Dust in tower Mac - roshi - 05-20-2008
My Mac G5 tower started making more noise a few days ago - the fans were working harder. I used iStat to look at the fan speeds and they were at 1500 rpm, for CPU A and B.
(It sits on the floor under the desk).
I opened it up and used DUST OFF to blow dust around. Also, I manually cleaned one of the fans on the front of the Mac, with a q-tip. Now iStat says the fans are mostly at 500 rpm.
But I don't know what I am doing. What is the real, recommended procedure here? I typed "dust G5 tower" into Google and did not find much useful information.
Re: Dust in tower Mac - Buzz - 05-20-2008
whenever cleaning dusty Macs, you have to be careful to keep the dust from getting into the fan bearings. whatever procedure works, is probably fine, but I like to vacuum as much out as possible before bringing the canned air on duty. then when using the canned air, always blow away from any direction where the dust might be forced into the fan's bearings. assuming you avoided getting dust in the bearings, hopefully, you may have done a good job cleaning up the air flow, and lower revs are all that is needed to maintain proper temps in the G5.
Re: Dust in tower Mac - MacArtist - 05-20-2008
And that's just the dust you see.
Try taking a peek at the inlets to you power supply. I am betting there's an ugly collection of dust in there.
There have been some truly hideous pictures of crap people have cleaned out of there.
Trouble is you have to disassemble a large part of the computer to get to it. I always wondered why Apple didn't have access to the power supply through the bottom of the case.
Re: Dust in tower Mac - roshi - 05-20-2008
I only opened up the Mac slightly - took off the side, then the clear plastic, and pulled the upper fan at the front out a bit to wipe it clean. I have a feeling there is a lot of dust around the power supply but don't feel comfortable dissembling the whole Mac.
Re: Dust in tower Mac - swampy - 05-20-2008
I bought some tulle at Wal-Mart (like wedding veil fabric) and sewed some elastic bands to the edges so that I could slip the bands over the back of the CPU at top and bottom. It acts as a dusk mask for the grill. My CPU is also on the floor and subject to dog hair and other stuff. My mask really has helped to keep the crud down.
The tulle is fine enough to let sufficient air in, but really traps the junk.
Re: Dust in tower Mac - BigGuynRusty - 05-20-2008
[quote Buzz]whenever cleaning dusty Macs, you have to be careful to keep the dust from getting into the fan bearings. The bearings are sealed, no chance of doing that unless you are using compressed air over ~ 500PSI, using that level of compressed air could possibly blow out the seals.
If they were prone to "Dust in the Bearings", the bearings would be full of dust already, just by where the fans are placed.
BGnR
Re: Dust in tower Mac - jdc - 05-20-2008
you should also take out the 2 lower fans above the ram
if you were to raise you mac off the floor, even just 1 inch, you would get far less dust
i put mine on a piece of wood, they kept pretty clean
so glad i have imacs now, nothing on the floor anymore =)
Re: Dust in tower Mac - MysteryGuest - 05-20-2008
Why don't Macs come with a filter? Seems like someone should tell the engineers that there is dust in the world... Oh, wait...
Re: Dust in tower Mac - Buzz - 05-20-2008
BGnR-
I was generalizing; the implication was to avoid getting dust, and lubricants, and other crud in/on the shaft side of the fan. It was supposed to be a euphemism for all of the fan's bearing surfaces, be they ball bearings, sleeve bearings, or any close tolerance surfaces relative to the fan's moving parts. IOW, to simply be careful about gunking up the works by blowing particulate matter into places where otherwise less, or unrestricted motion could be impeded by its presence. I've seen many squeaky fans (and I'm sure you have, too) that have been "fixed" w/ a drop of lubricant, fail quickly thereafter by virtue of the lubricant acting as a magnet for subsequent dust. I merely tried to embellish the message to "clean carefully and properly" as part of a regular maintenance regime.
Re: Dust in tower Mac - BigGuynRusty - 05-20-2008
[quote Buzz]BGnR-
I was generalizing; the implication was to avoid getting dust, and lubricants, and other crud in/on the shaft side of the fan. It was supposed to be a euphemism for all of the fan's bearing surfaces, be they ball bearings, sleeve bearings, or any close tolerance surfaces relative to the fan's moving parts. IOW, to simply be careful about gunking up the works by blowing particulate matter into places where otherwise less, or unrestricted motion could be impeded by its presence. I've seen many squeaky fans (and I'm sure you have, too) that have been "fixed" w/ a drop of lubricant, fail quickly thereafter by virtue of the lubricant acting as a magnet for subsequent dust. I merely tried to embellish the message to "clean carefully and properly" as part of a regular maintenance regime. WOW!!
If you can't dazzle them with diamonds, baffle them with bullsh!t!!
Embellish all you want, but sorry, all those parts are still sealed!!
BGnR