PC Clock Runs Fast

[Venusian Broon]

If you've never had the PC open before, vacuum out all the dust and clean the fan at the same time. It stops the PC overheating and you may see a vastly improved performance.

Removing the dust is always a good idea, but never vacuum inside the PC as you run the risk of building up a large static electricity charge that can damage the delicate parts of the PC inside. Yes, in years past I have used the house vacuum on occasion, but I have been lucky that I did not damage anything.

There are specfic vacuum cleaners that are designed for PC cleaning...although all I can find are blowers for PC on Amazon, so I don't know how expensive they will be.

See here for a safer methods (either use blowers/compressed air to push the dust out or use the vacuum a distance away from your PC as you use brushes - that also don't build up static, so check the materials):

Ask How-To Geek: Why You Should Never Vacuum Your PC, Converting Books for the Kindle, and Controlling Multiple Computers with One Keyboard

You’ve got questions and we’ve got answers. Today we take a look at why you should never vacuum your dusty PC, how covert books to read on the Kindle, and how to control multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse.

www.howtogeek.com

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How to vacuum the inside of your desktop pc [without blowing it up]

I wish you could have heard my desktop computer just an hour ago. It was making a nasty wheezing noise that did not bode well at all. Now…

medium.com

 

[Foxbat]

I have a small compressor and airbrush. I've always been tempted to use it but never have just in case I forget to empty and clean of paint first

 

[Dave]

Removing the dust is always a good idea, but never vacuum inside the PC as you run the risk of building up a large static electricity charge that can damage the delicate parts of the PC inside.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that.

I've done it before, but it was to the removed case, not to the boards themselves. It is the fan and the fan vent that really gets gunged up anyhow. Would an "Invertible Air Duster" in a can cause the same problem, or is that okay to use?

 

[-K2-]

I can confirm that you NEVER use a bucket of soapy water and a sponge--while it's still plugged in--to wash it out. *nods* Unplug it first
(naturally, also unplug it first if it catches fire before you urinate on it to put it out...1,200w power supplies are surprisingly exhilarating )

K2

 

[.matthew.]

New PC just arrived and busy setting it up. What an utterly infuriating experience setting up Windows 10 is. Still, I've got Firefox up and running now as my browser so everything is starting to feel a little familar again

Have you made sure you've set up your storage to local disk if that's what you're after? (I know someone who had it default to the cloud during setup and caused no end of issues down the road).

 

[Venusian Broon]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that.

I've done it before, but it was to the removed case, not to the boards themselves. It is the fan and the fan vent that really gets gunged up anyhow. Would an "Invertible Air Duster" in a can cause the same problem, or is that okay to use?

I think any system that 'blows insteads of sucks' would be preferrable. Just put your PC in an area that you can clean afterwards with a hoover easily, to finally get rid of the dust that you've blown out.

I've always contemplated getting some sort of liquid cooled system instead of using air cooling, as you say, it's the fan, vents and CPU cooling baffles that can get clogged up quickly and a nice liquid cooler would get rid of those chores - and be quieter.

(FYI I believe K2 made the suggestion a while back that you can get meshes to put over the CPU cooling to stop gunk getting deep in there, so there's that as a solution too.)

 

[Foxbat]

Have you made sure you've set up your storage to local disk if that's what you're after? (I know someone who had it default to the cloud during setup and caused no end of issues down the road).

Actually, this is what infuriated me about Windows 10. I couldn't progress the setup without going through the palaver of setting up an account for the cloud (which I have no intention of using and deactivated as soon as set up was complete). All my storage will be local. The new PC has a 250gig SSD and a 1 terra HDD so I've got plenty of space. I also backup important stuff on multiple external hard drives so no need for cloud (and I don't want my different devices synchronised either).

Now that it's up and running, Windows 10 seems fine and the updates are a bit quicker configuring than previous incarnations of Windows.

 

[Foxbat]

(FYI I believe K2 made the suggestion a while back that you can get meshes to put over the CPU cooling to stop gunk getting deep in there, so there's that as a solution too.)

My new machine came with a fine mesh that sits on the top grille. I presume it's to keep large particles out. This is the beast I bought.

 

[Foxbat]

Ha! Just figured out why I had so many problems setting up this PC. Couldn't get it to accept my email address for creating a cloud account. It said there was already an account with that address.

Now that I've sorted it out with a different address, I realise what happened. Back in february, I bought a laptop with Windows 10. The plan was to then buy an audio interface and hook it to the laptop to replace my aging recording desk. Because of the lockdown, I never got round to getting the interface ( I wanted to buy it locally and talk to the experts in the guitar shop I frequent). Obviously, they were closed and it all went on hold. The laptop is rarely used right now, but I remember setting up a cloud account with that address (which I never use) and that's what caused the problem.

 

[.matthew.]

Hah. Yea, I set mine up offline to avoid all that jazz, then spent the next few hours stripping out bloatware and setting my start menu up to be as minimalist as possible. I also shut down Cortana as best I could and removed that search from the taskbar

Yes, that is 3 different browsers (Firefox for me, Opera for work, ...Edge... because it was already there and I wanted one set of tabs for writing-related stuff).

 

[Foxbat]

I've shifted away from Microsoft Office because of the need to go cloud and installed Libre Office and set it to be the default application for Word documents (doc, docx). So far, it seems to be working just fine. I've got a short story to finish so it'll be interesting to see how it goes switching applications midway.

 

[Foxbat]

Now discovered a new problem.
My copy of Photoshop Elements 11 won't run in Windows 10. It actually seems to be a problem with Elements Organiser (which it seems impossible to omit when installing Elements). It just rolls back the installation every time. Compatability doesn't work. I have no intention of 'renting' the latest version of Photoshop and paying a monthly fee (I don't mind buying, object strongly to renting) so I've downloaded the latest version of Gimp as a replacement photo-editing package. Had a quick play about with it and things are a little different in layout but all the functions I need appear to be there. Looks a fairly decent bit of software. Best of all, it's free!

Looks like my Photoshop days are over

 

[Elckerlyc]

Yeah, that seems to be the trend with software these days. Not buying, but renting, which goes together with a mandatory account and working in a cloud. Gah!
I understand the logic of this, up to a point, but resent this development at the same time. One of the reasons why I moved over to Linux.
I had to make an exception with regard to gaming and purchased a PC with Windows 10 (Groan), solely for gaming purposes. No Windows account, all Private-settings set to maximum and running on a sub-network.

 

[.matthew.]

Ha yea, I use GIMP too. I'm not by any means good with it, mostly just using it to resize images, convert file formats, and play around with layers for title thumbs, but it does the job nicely enough.

The thing with photoshop is it's probably only a requirement if you also work with all the other Adobe software and need it to tie in together seamlessly (lol).

---

Don't get me started on renting software. I'm also infuriated that you don't own any digital media you actually pay for upfront either.

From what I understand, Linux gaming compatibility is coming along quite well recently. Still not perfect but getting there. I only use my Linux install for writing and media consumption though, so I can't speak from personal experience

 

[Foxbat]

Been spending some time playing about with Gimp and Libre Office. No real problems at all, just a lack of familiarity. I’m pretty pleased with both products

 

[Overread]

In my experience Open Office works fine on its own - you get issues when you start trying to use it and moving back and forth between OO and Word. I spent ages trying to get images that appeared in Open Office to appear in Word documents, even when it was saved in a word compatible format. They will talk to each other but its not always straight forward.

Note I believe you can still buy newer versions of Photoshop Elements, its the core program that you can't get on its own. Personally I'm content with the renting because it gives me photoshop and lightroom, both of which I use a lot for my photography and of the two I'd never have bought photoshop on its own (at £300 some and more for a single version if I ever had that much I generally put it onto new camera gear rather than software).
Of course my issue is I can't update Photoshop nor Lightroom now because I'm not on Win10 and for some reason 8.1 is the black sheep for software updates. Nividia are the same in supporting 7 and 10 but not 8 (so I have to use graphics drivers for 7). It would not surprise me if in the future it comes out that MS gave backhanders to some major software developers to make them overlook 8 and to push everyone they can into using Windows 10



On PC cleaning I've had my eye on one of these for a while https://www.itdusters.com/product/compucleaner/
When it comes to static that's a huge minefield of science and opinions. There are some who hold that any static is bad, whilst others are less sure. Things like static wrists are used like a religion by some and others never use them. Another oddity is perspex sides on cases, a highly static surface right next to your computer (easy to bump your hand onto it to pick up a charge when working inside the PC).
I think its a case that the equipment is both delicate and more resilient at the same time. I'd wager people do more damage with the hoover by bumping it into components or brushing over areas with rough force than simply holding the nozzle near to the components. That said without some brush/blower action to kick dust up a hoover can only achieve so much dust removal.

Oh and whilst we are at it, don't forget to clear the cookies properly

 

[Foxbat]

I have Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements 11. These were the last versions you could buy before renting. It's not these particular programs that is the problem, it is Elements Organiser that fails and automatically rolls back the installation You can't install either program on their own. You don't have an option to do so. If you try and install directly from either Photoshop or Premier, computer says no and directs you to install from the route directory application, which then tries to install Organiser. In other words, you have to install Organiser. That means unless I can find a fix, they're little more than coasters (albeit coasters that cost me £70).

I rarely use images in Word documents but when I do, it's almost always because I require a hard copy. I've never been happy working with images in Word because sometimes the file size gets so big that it slows the printer to a snail pace. The easiest and most efficient solution I've found is, once the Word document with images is ready, convert it to a PDF via Acrobat. The file size reduces enormously and printing is a dawdle.

I'm not expecting to work with images these days (most of it before was training material I used to create for work and now that I'm no longer working there's no real requirement).

 

[Dave]

I did have someone email me several times because they said a website was broken. The website had said it was a cookie problem but they wanted me to somehow fix it for them. I'm good, but I can't do magic yet. Obviously, they had never cleared their cookies ever before. I expect they don't ever put oil or water into their cars either. They even went all Dr. McCoy saying "I'm a __________ not a computer expert!"

Why do they pronounce it "case" in that video rather than "caché"? It's from the French, like an attaché case. It isn't difficult.

 

[HareBrain]

Why do they pronounce it "case" in that video rather than "caché"? It's from the French, like an attaché case. It isn't difficult.

No, there's no acute accent. It's pronounced "cash". (Did they really pronounce it "case"? That's just weird.)

 

[-K2-]

Why do they pronounce it "case" in that video rather than "caché"? It's from the French, like an attaché case. It isn't difficult.

Because, British folks don't speak English. Have you ever heard them? They don't talk gud like a Merican.

K2