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103734

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Original poster
Apr 10, 2007
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Ok, well I live in a very dusty, almost 100 year old house, I can't do anything about the dust and it is always around... Anyways twice a year I clear all the dust out of my PC's and other electronics with fans in them. What is the best way to go about this with my iMac? Don't want to burn something out because its full of dust.
 
Well, there isn't an easy way to clean iMac's innards. You could gently vacuum the couple of holes iMac has that are used for cooling but seriously, there isn't much you can do without taking off the screen and all that.
 
you can forget about it till you learn to take it apart. Its a flaw in design. JMHO
who runs these things in a Computer clean room?
It will happen to all of the all in one design ( smoke screen ) it's only a matter of time. mine is about six weeks old and screen is smokey already.
I to live in a very old house with lots of dust troubles.
the problem is dust between the back light and the lcd, seems they could do a better job of sealing it if you ask me.
I will be taking it in for repair today and with out a computer to do my work for at least a week. Nice job Apple.

then I will take it back in about six more weeks and do it all over again.

then I will take it back in about six more weeks and do it all over again.

then I will take it back in about six more weeks and do it all over again.

get the picture yet?
 
As mentioned above, there isn't too much you can do without completely disassembling the machine. The best option is what was described above - use a vacuum and gently clean out the grills on the bottom of the machine and on the back of it. That should be where most of the dust gets trapped.

Do NOT use cans of compressed air. All you will do is blow dust deeper into the machine, trapping it there and possibly causing more problems down the road.

Since you claim that your house is so dusty, have you tried to use a HEPA air filter and leave it running 24/7?
 
One thing that I have done is crank up the fans to 100% every once and a while. Should free up some of the built up dust. It did on my old mac pro at least. smcFanControl works great for this. Keep in mind that this suggestion is based on a 'maintenance' point of view. If the computer already has built up dust, it wont do much but clog it up even more.
 
the problem is lots dust sits in the fins of the cpu heatsink and gpu heatsink both you will never be able to clean by holding a vacuum cleaner just on the outside vents
and it is not a design flaw , if it would be a flaw it would have been unintentional , but it was apples intention to make the iMac as inaccessible for the average user as possible , so this average user has to go to the apple store to get it cleaned, upgraded , repaired or even order it already upgraded
they made a huge loss i guess with the first generation iMac G5 as it was designed so anybody even a child could open it up without causing any damage , clean it and upgrade it , so less people did order bigger harddrives from apple,near nobody came to get it upgraded after they bought the iMac instead customers themselves just upgraded as it was made so easy , near nobody came to get it cleaned ...so they had to redesign the case to make it more difficult..think about it the apple stores are not only there to sell you the iMac and do repairs under apple care
they do need to sell upgrades too and other services like cleaning
 
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the problem is lots dust sits in the fins of the cpu heatsink and gpu heatsink both you will never be able to clean by holding a vacuum cleaner just on the outside vents
and it is not a design flaw , if it would be a flaw it would have been unintentional , but it was apples intention to make the iMac as inaccessible for the average user as possible , so this average user has to go to the apple store to get it cleaned, upgraded , repaired or even order it already upgraded
they made a huge loss i guess with the first generation iMac G5 as it was designed so anybody even a child could open it up without causing any damage , clean it and upgrade it , so less people did order bigger harddrives from apple,near nobody came to get it upgraded after they bought the iMac instead customers themselves just upgraded as it was made so easy , near nobody came to get it cleaned ...so they had to redesign the case to make it more difficult..think about it the apple stores are not only there to sell you the iMac and do repairs under apple care
they do need to sell upgrades too and other services like cleaning

So the smokey screen that everyone is getting from the dust is intended? Good Plan Apple.
I have an appointment to get mine fixed, He will contact me when he gets the parts, If this is caused by the dust this will not fix it.
I told him I would like to be there when he opens it so I can see what he sees for myself. I am surprised this problem has gone on as long as it has with out any solution. In my eyes this gives Apple A Bad reputation even if I get A new iMac out of the deal the Problem is still there.
The OS may be the best, But the screen is what everyone can see.
 
no the smokey screen was unintentional and therefore is a flaw , but like it was mentioned it could have been avoided by making the lcd panel airtight ,as far as i know there was a invention called glue ,
but the rest of "making it inaccessible for the average user " was intentional , and quiet a few users did damage the panel and even more have killed their isight camera when they opened the iMac to clean or to upgrade , but at least the unibody design as good as it might look , it is totally unpractical if you have to remove the lcd panel to access the computer

from that point the iMac g5 first generation was a superior design in therm of user friendliness

here a video for people who never seen how a first gen iMac G5 was opened (ignore the ram upgrade part )just watch how easy it is to open and close again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgG-dK2YMnE
 
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no the smokey screen was unintentional and therefore is a flaw , but like it was mentioned it could have been avoided by making the lcd panel airtight ,as far as i know there was a invention called glue ,
but the rest of "making it inaccessible for the average user " was intentional , and quiet a few users did damage the panel and even more have killed their isight camera when they opened the iMac to clean or to upgrade , but at least the unibody design as good as it might look , it is totally unpractical if you have to remove the lcd panel to access the computer

from that point the iMac g5 first generation was a superior design in therm of user friendliness

here a video for people who never seen how a first gen iMac G5 was opened (ignore the ram upgrade part )just watch how easy it is to open and close again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgG-dK2YMnE

OK , I see your point!
 
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