Computer cleaning

Slighly off topic but since were in the kitchen i have also cooked GPU's aswell as xbox motherboards in oven to reflow solder aswell . works a treat for borked GPU to get a few more months out of it

Sh!t man!You COOK components???
Wow...and I thought I am the crazy one xD

http://shine.yahoo.com/cleaning/10-things-clean-dishwasher-225400661.html

No where in that article does it say you can clean computer parts!!! :D

Then the person who wrote that article "forgot" to put one more thing ^.^
 
Ok im curious about the dishwasher and willing to try it on one of my streaming machines... What settings are you putting it on and i assume your not using a soap pack lol
 
Ok im curious about the dishwasher and willing to try it on one of my streaming machines... What settings are you putting it on and i assume your not using a soap pack lol

First of all YES.I DO use the soap pack lol.One tablet of course.
Here is how I do it (already for years):

-turn on the heating in the room (any room) and close it completely (doors,windows...etc)...
-also make sure that in that room you put clean towels on which you want to put your cleaned computer parts.How many towels to put depends on how many things you are going to wash...
-put all your computer hardware components in the dishwasher which you want to clean...
-put the dishwasher setting on the strongest one.I usually use the one which takes 2 hours on 60 - 70 degreese celzius...

NOTE: You cannot wash EVERYTHING of course lol.Below is a list of ALL hardware components which you CAN wash in a dishwasher without any permanent damage:

-computer cases
-computer case hatches
-power supplies/units (yes you can believe it or not)
-motherboards (it is recommended to maually remove the thermal paste first since it will have to be changed later anyway)
-processor chips (it is recommended to maually remove the thermal paste first since it will have to be changed later anyway)
-RAM chips
-graphic card chips
-wires
-switches
-leds
-all plastic parts
-all metal parts
-all type of chips
-coolers (it is recommended to maually remove the thermal paste first since it will have to be changed later anyway)
-fans/ventilators
-keyboards (do NOT wash the laptop keyboards)
-mouses (be sure to open them before)
-web cameras (be sure to open them before)
-extended power cables

Below is a list of ALL hardware components which you CANNOT wash in a dishwasher otherwise it will cause permanent damage:

-CD/DVD-ROM disk drives (you can however disengage it and wash all of it except the part where the lens is located.If you want to clean the lens,do it manually and gently with the proper fluid)
-hard disk drives
-floppy disk drives (you can however disengage it and wash all of it except the part where the lens is located.If you want to clean the lens,do it manually and gently with the proper fluid)

-Once you have put all of the things in the dishwasher which you want to clean completely,put the dishwasher soap tablet in the proper place,close the dishwasher door,put the washing setting to the strongest one (2 hours at least and 60 - 70 degreese celzius) and then turn on the dishwasher to start the cleaning process...:D

-After the cleaning process is finished,take out all of the hardware parts (one by one) and take it into your warmed room and put it on the towels in the right positions so all the water can squeeze properly...

-Once you have put all of the hardware parts in that warmed room on the towels in the right positions,make sure that the heating is on the maximum then close all the windows and doors of that room and do not open it for the next 72 hours minimum...

-After 72 hours or more,open the room and TADA!All the parts are clean like new and completely dried.You can now put them all back together and have a computer which will look like new and work a lot better since the temperatures will be lower and all the dust and dirt won't be there plus the airflow will be better since fans/ventilators are now clean and spin better :D
Of course if the operating system on the HDD is completely messed up and works like crap then you should reinstall that too.

-After you have finished the HARDWARE (washed and dried) and the SOFTWARE (fixed or reinstalled),your computer will work perfectly.

My computer is almost 15 years old and even today it still works so damn great and I would not change it for nothing.Wonder why?Read above! :D:D:D

So who says that very old computers are good only for the trash? =D
They are great if you know how to take them back to life =D



Cheers!
 
First of all YES.I DO use the soap pack lol.One tablet of course.
Here is how I do it (already for years):

-turn on the heating in the room (any room) and close it completely (doors,windows...etc)...
-also make sure that in that room you put clean towels on which you want to put your cleaned computer parts.How many towels to put depends on how many things you are going to wash...
-put all your computer hardware components in the dishwasher which you want to clean...
-put the dishwasher setting on the strongest one.I usually use the one which takes 2 hours on 60 - 70 degreese celzius...

NOTE: You cannot wash EVERYTHING of course lol.Below is a list of ALL hardware components which you CAN wash in a dishwasher without any permanent damage:

-computer cases
-computer case hatches
-power supplies/units (yes you can believe it or not)
-motherboards (it is recommended to maually remove the thermal paste first since it will have to be changed later anyway)
-processor chips (it is recommended to maually remove the thermal paste first since it will have to be changed later anyway)
-RAM chips
-graphic card chips
-wires
-switches
-leds
-all plastic parts
-all metal parts
-all type of chips
-coolers (it is recommended to maually remove the thermal paste first since it will have to be changed later anyway)
-fans/ventilators
-keyboards (do NOT wash the laptop keyboards)
-mouses (be sure to open them before)
-web cameras (be sure to open them before)
-extended power cables

Below is a list of ALL hardware components which you CANNOT wash in a dishwasher otherwise it will cause permanent damage:

-CD/DVD-ROM disk drives (you can however disengage it and wash all of it except the part where the lens is located.If you want to clean the lens,do it manually and gently with the proper fluid)
-hard disk drives
-floppy disk drives (you can however disengage it and wash all of it except the part where the lens is located.If you want to clean the lens,do it manually and gently with the proper fluid)

-Once you have put all of the things in the dishwasher which you want to clean completely,put the dishwasher soap tablet in the proper place,close the dishwasher door,put the washing setting to the strongest one (2 hours at least and 60 - 70 degreese celzius) and then turn on the dishwasher to start the cleaning process...:D

-After the cleaning process is finished,take out all of the hardware parts (one by one) and take it into your warmed room and put it on the towels in the right positions so all the water can squeeze properly...

-Once you have put all of the hardware parts in that warmed room on the towels in the right positions,make sure that the heating is on the maximum then close all the windows and doors of that room and do not open it for the next 72 hours minimum...

-After 72 hours or more,open the room and TADA!All the parts are clean like new and completely dried.You can now put them all back together and have a computer which will look like new and work a lot better since the temperatures will be lower and all the dust and dirt won't be there plus the airflow will be better since fans/ventilators are now clean and spin better :D
Of course if the operating system on the HDD is completely messed up and works like crap then you should reinstall that too.

-After you have finished the HARDWARE (washed and dried) and the SOFTWARE (fixed or reinstalled),your computer will work perfectly.

My computer is almost 15 years old and even today it still works so damn great and I would not change it for nothing.Wonder why?Read above! :D:D:D

So who says that very old computers are good only for the trash? =D
They are great if you know how to take them back to life =D



Cheers!

Might have to try this tomorrow... Do you use the heating setting to?
 
Might have to try this tomorrow... Do you use the heating setting to?

There is no need for the heating setting.You can put it if you want,just don't overreact otherwise you can destroy the plastic parts lol.
My dishwasher uses pretty hot water during the last 30 minutes of the washing process.
It's important that the temperature doesn't go above 60 degreese celzius.Maybe 65 to 70,but anything above that is too much.
For the processor it won't be too much since processor chips usually heat to that temperature,but for the plastic things like fans/ventilators it WILL be too much.Too high temperature will destroy all plastic parts so be sure to use 60 if you can.70 is the maximum limit,but I would rather stick to 60.
Here is the sample image:
17151818_9112932c33_z.jpg


If your dishwasher has similar settings like on the above picture,I would recommend you the following settings:

METAL PARTS: Use HEAVY WASH with HEATED DRY ON
PLASTIC PARTS: Use NORMAL WASH with HEATED DRY ON
CHIPS and WIRES: Use NORMAL WASH with HEATED DRY ON

Honestly I use the HEAVY WASH with HEATED DRY ON for all type of components I clean.Nothing bad won't happen as long as the temperature is not too high (above 60 to 65).
Also be sure that the washing process does not take too many hours.1 hour and 30 minutes or 2 hours and 0 minutes is more than enough.I honestly use 2 hours long process.Simply because I want my components to be shiny and ultra clean lol.But to tell you the truth even 60 minutes is okay if the washing process is good.But I always stick to 2 hours.

Also be sure that once the washing process is finished and when you open the dishwasher,do not touch the components immediately because they will be pretty hot.Leave the dishwasher open for at least 10 minutes so that the components can cool enough.Once they did,take them out one by one and put them on the towels in the hot room you prepared before.Once you placed all the washed components there,be sure that the room is closed completely for at least 72 hours so that all the water can drain out completely.

NOTE 1: NEVER EVER PLUG THE COMPONENTS IN THE POWER IF THEY ARE WET BECAUSE IF YOU DO,YOU WILL DESTROY THEM COMPLETELY.THEY MUST BE 100% DRY!THEY MUST BE DRYING IN A HOT CLOSED ROOM FOR 72 HOURS MINIMUM!

NOTE 2: When you are placing components in the dishwasher,pay a good attention at HOW and WHERE in the dishwasher you place them because the water pressure during the washing process is pretty strong and it can destroy/break certain components if they are placed improperly or on the wrong places.This especially applies for small chips like RAM,processor,small network chips and so on...




Cheers!
 
The only cleaning that pc components could use is removing dust. Either dust that is loose on the surface, which can be blown off, or dust that has adhered to the surface due to humidity in the air "cementing" the dust to the surface. In either case running the part under warm water will do the trick, and then allowing enough time for the water to completely dry. I've put many electrical parts under warm water and none have had any issues afterwords. I really dont see how water can affect en electrical board when no electricity is running through it. I certainly woudnt hesitate to use water to clean components that are electrical boards only like memory or video cards. With mechanical devices like hard drives and optical drives I wouldnt use water to clean them because optical drives are hard to get completely dry and well if water got inside a hard drive that can easily screw up the operation of the read/write head. Even if you have spilled something on a pc component, warm water isnt something to be afraid of.

Warm water works excellent for cleaning a keyboard. Screw the can of compressed air, that cant get the grime that has built up on and underneath the keys. Instead I take the keyboard apart and run all the parts under warm water, fully dry with a vacuum cleaner on reverse mode, and then put it all back together. I do this with fans too.
 
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Every video I've seen about cooking GPUs on YouTube always has the GeForce 8800 GTS in it? Why???

I can't believe all you people are going through the hassle of putting stuff in the dishwasher and worrying about what settings to use and then having to dry your components in a very hot room for 72 hours minimum when you could just take a can of compressed air to them. Much quicker and safer.
 
Every video I've seen about cooking GPUs on YouTube always has the GeForce 8800 GTS in it? Why???

I can't believe all you people are going through the hassle of putting stuff in the dishwasher and worrying about what settings to use and then having to dry your components in a very hot room for 72 hours minimum when you could just take a can of compressed air to them. Much quicker and safer.

Can of compressed air never removes all the dust and dirt and a lot of trash stay inside of a little components.Especially the dirt which is attached to the parts too damn tight.No compressed air will help you here lol.
Warm water is always the best if you ask me.

I tryed compressed air few times,but it's not even close as good as the warm water :D

Very...very hot...I mean warm!:D
 
Every video I've seen about cooking GPUs on YouTube always has the GeForce 8800 GTS in it? Why???

I can't believe all you people are going through the hassle of putting stuff in the dishwasher and worrying about what settings to use and then having to dry your components in a very hot room for 72 hours minimum when you could just take a can of compressed air to them. Much quicker and safer.

Probally because it was a card worth saving . and a fair price in its day ,

Like wise in a couple of years it will be videos of gt 550's being cooked

Maybe somthing to do with the solder at the time aswell i think so long as you keep the temp right and keep to the 7 minute rule , its all good , Im more surprised no ones even mensioned freezing hardrives ,
 
Im more surprised no ones even mensioned freezing hardrives ,

LoL I do that too.4 of 5 of my dead 2.5 hard disk drives started working again after they have been in the freezer for 24 hours.And now few months later they still work =D

However the same day I pull them out of the freezer,they didn't start to work immediately.I put them in a high temperature room for few days after pulling them out of the freezer and after those few days I decided to test them and VIOLA!All 4 of them started to work perfectly again.

Only one did not work.It does spin properly and there are no any clicking sounds and anything,but for some reason everything lags like hell when that HDD is connected to the computer and after approximately few minutes of waiting for the system to recognize it,it just reports NO HDD.
But something was wrong with that HDD from day one anyway.It worked for only 2 weeks lol.And this might surprise johnb35,but it is NOT the Western Digital HDD lol.It's the Samsung HDD.:D





Cheers!
 
OxfordPCRepairs said:
Im more surprised no ones even mensioned freezing hardrives
I froze a hard drive once, it was a 400GB WD HDD (yeah back in the day when you'd actually consider buying and using a 400GB HDD for a build, nowadays it's more like 500GB-1TB) and it didn't work. :(
 
I froze a hard drive once, it was a 400GB WD HDD (yeah back in the day when you'd actually consider buying and using a 400GB HDD for a build, nowadays it's more like 500GB-1TB) and it didn't work. :(

If the HDD fall on the floor pretty hard then the mechanical parts might got damaged so no freezer will help you here lol.
Same applies if you opened the HDD in a regular room.
Also same applies if the platterns are stratched or if the heads are stucked or if the motor doesn't work.

But if the mechanical parts are not damaged then the freezer usually does the trick.Unless if the logic/circuit board doesn't work.

In both cases wether it is a mechanical or logic/circuit board problem,it is easily to fix.I have done it few times.The only big problem was to create a clean environment,but I found a way :D

And if I ever want to get a new HDD,I do not buy it to get it:D
I always get them for 00,00 dollars:D
No matter how big they are:D

How do I manage that you ask:D?

Well let's just say I disable the functionality of the HDD then people think they are broken so they want to toss them in the trash and I tell them:"Hey if you wanna toss it in the trash,rather give it to me and I will use it for my old parts."
Then they give me the HDD,I go home then I re-enable the HDD's functionality and it works perfectly like new.:D
The last one I got that way was a Seagate Baraccuda 7200 RPM of 500 GB capacity. ^.^

And I got 3 more in the next 2 days that way and after that I decided to take a small pause lol. ^.^

And the best thing is it cannot be discovered how I did that.Once my friend took a HDD to the professionals who charge up to 2000 dollars and even they said that the HDD was a total mess and that it won't work anymore.
Then I told him to give it to me for "old parts" (yea right) and an hour later I re-enabled it's functionality and it worked pefectly again.I am using it right now lol.It's Seagate baraccuda of 7200 RPM with the capacity of 320 GB.:D
Why did I do that to him?Well let's just say that he never returned me the money I borrowed him ;)

And the best thing is I am never a suspect lol because I always turn out to be the most stupid person who doesn't know ANYTHING about computer hardware and software and therefore I am never ever suspicious.
AND THAT'S THE POINT...

Hehehe...

I would like to tell you how to do that,buy on your bad luck it's against the rules hehehe:D

By the way...you did not hear this from me.:D




Cheers everyone!
 
If the HDD fall on the floor pretty hard then the mechanical parts might got damaged so no freezer will help you here lol.
Same applies if you opened the HDD in a regular room.
Also same applies if the platterns are stratched or if the heads are stucked or if the motor doesn't work.

But if the mechanical parts are not damaged then the freezer usually does the trick.Unless if the logic/circuit board doesn't work.

In both cases wether it is a mechanical or logic/circuit board problem,it is easily to fix.I have done it few times.The only big problem was to create a clean environment,but I found a way :D

And if I ever want to get a new HDD,I do not buy it to get it:D
I always get them for 00,00 dollars:D
No matter how big they are:D

How do I manage that you ask:D?

Well let's just say I disable the functionality of the HDD then people think they are broken so they want to toss them in the trash and I tell them:"Hey if you wanna toss it in the trash,rather give it to me and I will use it for my old parts."
Then they give me the HDD,I go home then I re-enable the HDD's functionality and it works perfectly like new.:D
The last one I got that way was a Seagate Baraccuda 7200 RPM of 500 GB capacity. ^.^

And I got 3 more in the next 2 days that way and after that I decided to take a small pause lol. ^.^

And the best thing is it cannot be discovered how I did that.Once my friend took a HDD to the professionals who charge up to 2000 dollars and even they said that the HDD was a total mess and that it won't work anymore.
Then I told him to give it to me for "old parts" (yea right) and an hour later I re-enabled it's functionality and it worked pefectly again.I am using it right now lol.It's Seagate baraccuda of 7200 RPM with the capacity of 320 GB.:D
Why did I do that to him?Well let's just say that he never returned me the money I borrowed him ;)

And the best thing is I am never a suspect lol because I always turn out to be the most stupid person who doesn't know ANYTHING about computer hardware and software and therefore I am never ever suspicious.
AND THAT'S THE POINT...

Hehehe...

I would like to tell you how to do that,buy on your bad luck it's against the rules hehehe:D

By the way...you did not hear this from me.:D




Cheers everyone!

Wow... thats pretty messed up. Thats called stealing where Im from...
 
So after never returning your 500 dollars, you steal his used hard drive worth at a max $40. This situation has three unfortunate outcomes:

a) your a thief
b) your dumb
c) you have terrible friends and in return you too are a terrible friend
 
Not if they owe you 500 dollars which they never returned you.They owe you money and don't wanna return it to you.So I call that a REFUND.:D

...you said that was the last one, as in you had done it to other people before, and i doubt that many people owed you money, plus you dais he paid someone 2k to look at it...
 
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