COMPRESSED AIR!
by Mez on Jul.03, 2008, under Geeky, Linux, Ubuntu
Yes, that toything. Hehe.
Ok, so after one of my Flatmates decided to tread on my wireless dongle (which I had trailing on a long USB cable down the stairs outside my room so I could actually pick up the signal!) and break it, I haven’t used my Desktop machine in a good few months. It was pretty much of a case of without internet access, it was pretty useless other than for watching DVDs on 
(which is when I’d boot it up) – so I used my eeePC instead.
Anyway, I went out and bought a nice new PCI Wireless card today – no chance of it being trodden on. And I got a nice one with 2 aerials, for connectivity purposes (and I can say – it’s boosted my signal from what was on average 15% on the wireless dongle to on average 65%!)
I’m happy and actually surprised that Ubuntu picked it up straight away, and even used the settings from my old Wireless dongle to connect straight away!
Anyway, after a while, I hardlocked…. 
I hate hardlocking… tis so annoying. So I rebooted into the Hardy Installer CD (This still has Gutsy on) and tried an install… Another hardlock…
Uh-Oh I thought …. and ran memtest86+ – no problems… Try again.. another hardlock.
Ok, reopen PC to see if wiggling the wires does something…. OW! I burnt my hand…
My PC was seriously overheating.. So – I had a look – MY PSU and CPU fans were clogged up with orange dust. :’( damnit.
So I took a walk down to Maplin and went and got myself some compressed air… Something I’d learnt from my IT Technician days was a godsend for cleaning CPU Fans.
Anyway, My PC is now sparkly and shiny inside, and on a plus, I’ve gotten rid of the annoying rattle it’s had for the past year… I thought it was the CD drive… as it would always stop when I whacked the CD drive (another trick I learnt as an IT Technician!)
So yeah – I’d suggest that any geek out there goes and invests in a can of compressed air (or ‘airduster‘ as it seems to be branded these days) – It is the magic computer fixing tool… if it can’t be fixed with compressed air, (and/or wiggling the cables) you might as well replace it – it’ll save you time and stop you banging your head against the wall
I just wish I’d thought and taken photos of how dusty it was (It was orange dust too – which was strange… I think the dust puppy’s are becoming Ubuntu themed)
10 Comments for this entry
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Miia Ranta » Yay for teenage hobbies
July 5th, 2008 on 11:55 am[...] hobbies come into the story – I had my trustworthy sobel brushes at hand. I don’t have compressed air, but I do have my watercolour brushes. To be honest, I don’t think compressed air would have [...]
July 3rd, 2008 on 8:49 pm
You forgot about the mallet, or for dire situations the sledgehammer. If it doesn’t behave that sorts it out usually into shape.
July 3rd, 2008 on 9:21 pm
The orange dust was probably rust. It surprises me that this only happened after you got the new card, though.
July 3rd, 2008 on 10:05 pm
“If it can’t be fixed with compressed air, you might as well replace it”
I think I just got me a new soundbyte
July 3rd, 2008 on 10:17 pm
Could you tell us which PCI wireless card you got? I’m on the lookout for one for my Desktop and want one that works in Linux.
July 3rd, 2008 on 10:22 pm
Martin, just a word of caution…
some compressed air is highly static-charged, which can be extremely dangerous as you know, to your pc innards. I recommend a fine paintbrush, as it removes more dust more effectively, without spreading it around so much. Best brushes are natural hair (horse/boar).
I have seen orange dust before where there was a problem with sawdust. So I suggest checking for borer beetle / termite/ someone cutting wood nearby.
July 3rd, 2008 on 11:14 pm
David,
I use some cards on different linux machines and can say that Atheros based cards work very good on Linux. One I bought recently is a Zyxel G170S.
July 4th, 2008 on 12:27 am
El Parry, but it has to be a rubber mallet so that when you whack a hard disk to break it and return it just before it’s warranty expires, it doesn’t leave marks
Auzon – I doubt it was rust
Anton – I’ll get that recorded for you – what you need it for?
David, it was a Belkin G+ Mimo Desktop Card (Part #: F5D9000ed
CombatWombat – I was more worried about the liquidised gas. However, I have worked with it before, and have done that before, this is a trusted brand by me. – Also, a fine brush would have taken forever, and also not been able to reach some places the compressed air could (and needed to)
Witold/David – I find that https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WirelessCardsSupported is a useful place to find info on what cards are supported
July 4th, 2008 on 2:11 am
I guess compressed air would do the job, but why not suck the dust out with the vaccuum cleaner? That would give you the advantage of not blowing dust all around your room.
July 4th, 2008 on 9:02 am
+1 for the danger of static discharge.
Another danger is that you can blow (possibly conductive) dirt below parts. I usually take a vaccuum cleaner to get rid of most of the dust (but _not_ on any PCBs!), and the use the already recommended paintbrush for the fine work.
As for the colour: Do you smoke?
July 4th, 2008 on 8:41 pm
Mez,
I know, I use that wiki a lot. However, I was speaking about cards I actually used by myself. I don’t want to speak about things I didn’t use.