Is it possible for pc to restart because of dust/dirt?
 

I have been having these probs with my pc restarting and then beeping, could this have been the result of too much dust and dirt in my pc? At first I thought it would be the motherboard or memory...

I just unplugged it though and wiped off the dust inside and the dust on the fan, it was like black and really dirty, and now when I restarted my pc it stopped beeping during restart like it has been doing for the past few days.

Is it possible that the dust could have been overheating the pc and causing the beeps when booting up?

Also a stupid question, but am I also supposed to clean the cpu underneath the sink with a can of air spray or no?

if it was blocking and/or slowing the fan from cooling the system, could be

yea, it usually happens when theres a lot of dirt on the cpu and the cooling wont do any good anymore. The cpu temp goes high and it reboots for safety.

Thanks, what is the most effective way of cleaning the cpu out though besides cleaning out the fan. Should I remove the fan with screw drivers to clean the cpu or is cleaning the fan enough?

you need to remove the fan and clean the cpu. I bet theres a shitload of dirt between the cpu and the fan.

The inside of my comp has dust everywhere. I guess i should have put the side panel of the tower back on a few months back...

I wasn't able to remove the fan cause I can't find the correct screw driver but holy crap, I directed the light directly in there and it was huge dustballs, at first I thought it was a mouse trapped in there or just huge black cotton balls, it was so dusty. I was able to remove it with q tips though and when I check my temp with Speedfan it shows it as more normal now, before it was red and overheating. The dirt was so thick, it really looked like a black animal or some small black being in there.

i had that problem once.. is not the dust itself but what it does to the fan.

A good vacuum cleaner does wonders.

power supply prob possibly.

I try and take my boxes apart every few months and clean them out. dust is a real mofo around LA. I dream about rack mounted towers with air conditioning. -bmb

Absolutely it's possible. Last year my p.c rebooted everytime I ran any sort of scanning software (antivirus/adaware etc). I googled it and many reports of mysterious reboots put it down to dust.
I took the case apart and the dust was half an inch thick with the fans almost clogged. I spent a good hour with q-tips and a hair dryer ever so gently removing it and it worked like a dream afterwards.
Of course you may have other probs, but if the reboots have stopped, dust was the likely cause.

I had this problem with my notebook. I blew into the notebook like a harmonica and it dislodged a pile of dust.. it's been running fine ever since. I think it was over heating because the fan was running all the time and now it only occasionally comes on.

Short answer, Yes.
 

Same here.

i took my cpu in to be cleaned and a new fan replaced, back to brand new

Use compressed air to blow the dust out of the heatsink fins and fan of the cpu cooler. Also be sure to blow the dust out of the heatsink of the video card (if you have one), as well as the power supply. Then hit up any case fans.

Don't use a vacuum, especially a really good one. It might suck up something that you need. Then you'll be searching your dust bin for a tiny resistor that you'll have to solder back on to one of your boards.

Just curious, how much did the shop charge for a service like that?

dust and computers are a bad mix

Compressed air, in the hands of a sensible individual, works wonders.

You shouldn't need to remove the fan/heatsink since the CPU will usually be mated with a thermal paste. You might get a bit of dust at the edges but it's unlikely it will penetrate the goo.

Don't forget to blow out your power supply and chassis fans also (if you have any)

i used to have a same problem like this, what i did is to clean the cpu, fan. ITs just a dust causing this issue.

So is dog hair, mine sheds like a buffalo.

Forget the compressed air, use the yard blower. I'm surprised more people don't do this. It works way better than cans of air.

Also be sure to unscrew and clean fans with a damp paper towel. I wrap the towel my finger and rub each blade individually.

Occasionally I open the power supply box and blow trapped dust out of there also. Note that this can void a warranty.

:thumbsup:thumbsup

I run a compressed air hose over all my rigs with a small water trap normally used for airbrushing about once a month...

Just a tip, if you want to go through the ordeal a lot less frequently:

Get a metal grid (same diameter as the fan) and a thin/lowdensity filter, and then:
1. Take off the screws going through the fan into the heatsink.
2. Fit the grid over the fan's screw holes (yeah, we like screw holes, don't we? ;)
3. Fit the filter over the grid.
4. Force the screws through it all, and into the heatsink.

Just make sure the filter lets through enough air, you can test-run it by monitoring with Speedfan/similar - have the case's side panels mounted for accuracy.

:thumbsup

Hello, it could be a Short Circuit, created indeed by some kind of dust that generates static in the motherboard and thus restarting.

Try to place the Chasis Horizontal to the ground, instead of Vertical and see if it doesn't restart anymore. If you have time, you need to disamble, clean it up and build all again.

Good luck!

definitely a possibility - i had the same problem - but just shutting down my computer, not restarting. computer was 3 years old and fuzzy dirt was all over the CPU and fan - vacuum can't get gunk out - i'd take it it in and get them to give it a good cleaning.

are u a smoker?

Anytime I've had this problem, it almost always turned out be the power supply unit.

that a big NO-NO!!!!!

use compressed air! and btw I don't think you need to clean the CPU itself, I've celaned the fans of all my PCs at one point or another, there's never dust on the CPU but a lot on the fan and b/n those metal ribs